Reviews
Part of Getting started with multifamily EV charging across the U.S.
Questions to ask before buying multifamily EV charging
Send every bidder the same written questions about capacity, equipment, data and cost, then compare the answers side by side before you sign.
What to take away
- Send identical written questions to every bidder. Verbal answers cannot be compared and do not survive a staff change.
- Ask what the system does when it fails, not what it does when it works. Failure behavior is where proposals separate.
- Four answers should end a conversation outright. They are listed below.
- Anything a bidder will not put in writing is not a commitment, whatever was said on the call.
- Session data ownership and OCPP scope are settled at purchase. They are expensive to reopen later.
A sales conversation is built to surface capability. Your job is to surface assumptions, because assumptions become change orders.
Write the questions down. Send the same set to everybody. Require answers for the exact hardware, software and site design being proposed, not for the product line in general.
About your building
- What electrical capacity does this proposal assume is available, and who verified it?
- Which circuit routes were assumed, and were they walked or estimated from a plan?
- Does the price include trenching, concrete and pavement restoration?
- What happens to the price if the panel cannot take the load?
- Which parking spaces does this serve, and were they measured?
- What changes to accessible spaces or routes does this require?
- Who applies for the permit, and whose price includes the fee?
- What utility work is assumed, and has the utility confirmed it?
Capacity, trenching and panel limits are the three answers that move a budget most, and they belong to your electrician and your utility, not to the vendor's estimate. Questions 1 through 4 exist to find out whether the bidder walked the site or priced it from a plan.
Site questions before bidding
- Electrical capacity verified by whom
- Circuit routes walked or estimated
- Trenching and pavement restoration included
- Price if panel cannot take load
- Parking spaces measured
- Accessible space changes required
- Permit applicant and fee owner
- Utility work confirmed
About the equipment
- What is the maximum continuous output per port, not the peak?
- With every port occupied, what is the guaranteed minimum per car?
- Is load management local or cloud based, and what happens when the connection drops?
- What is the cable length, and can it be replaced on site?
- What is the enclosure rating, and what is the operating temperature range?
- How are firmware updates delivered, and can they be deferred?
- What does the unit do if the card reader or screen fails?
- How long will spare parts be available after this model is discontinued?
Question 10 is the one that decides whether residents are happy in year three. A site with twelve ports and a shared service will not deliver nameplate output to all twelve at once, and the bidder knows the real number.
About the software and the data
- Who owns the session data?
- Can we export it, in what format, and at what cost?
- What does the charger do during an internet outagekeep charging, or stop?
- Which OCPP version is implemented, which functions specifically, and who tested it?
- Can this hardware be moved to another network operator? What is involved?
- What happens to the equipment and the data if you stop trading?
Read the federal guidance on procuring and installing charging infrastructure before writing this section. It frames the buy as a system procurement, not a hardware order, which is the framing a vendor proposal tends to avoid.
Software and data questions
- Who owns session data
- Export format and cost
- Charging during internet outage
- OCPP version and functions tested
- Moving hardware to another operator
- Equipment and data if vendor stops trading
Question 17 is the one boards underrate. Session records show when people come and go, and what a charging system quietly knows about residents is settled at purchase, not afterwards.
About money over time
- Give a five-year cost schedule with the assumptions written out.
- Which fees are flat, and which scale with ports, users or transactions?
- Who can change resident pricing, and with what notice?
- If collected fees do not cover the electricity and service costs, who absorbs the gap?
- What is the payment processing rate, and who receives the funds?
Ask for the five-year schedule in named variables: number of ports, assumed sessions per port per month, your utility's rate per kWh, and the network fee per port. Then you can test the bidder's assumptions against your own.
Money questions over five years
- Five-year cost schedule with assumptions
- Flat fees versus per-port or per-transaction
- Who can change resident pricing
- Who absorbs shortfall if fees do not cover costs
- Payment processing rate and fund recipient
About rules and responsibility
- Which party is responsible for design, permits, utility coordination, commissioning, resident support, maintenance and security updates? Give it as a table.
- What is the response time for a fault, and does it change at night and on weekends?
- What are the termination terms, and what do we own afterward?
Condominium boards should add a question of their own before any of this, and it is not for the vendor. Several states restrict what an association may refuse at an owner's assigned space. The federal summary of charger policies for multifamily housing is a reasonable starting point for finding out whether yours is one of them.
Your own governing documents and a lawyer settle the rest. The order a board should work through them in matters, because a vote taken after a contract is signed is worth very little.
Four answers that should end the conversation
- "Don't worry about the panel, we'll figure it out during install." Scope that has not been priced is scope you will pay for twice.
- "It's OCPP compatible." Compatible how, which version, which functions, tested by whom? Vagueness here usually means lock-in later.
- "The incentive will cover most of it." Eligibility is your risk, not theirs, and programs close.
- "We can't give you that in writing." Then it is not a commitment. Everything above belongs in the proposal.
Turn the answers into something comparable
Put bidders in columns and questions in rows. Fill it in from their written answers rather than from your impression of the meeting. Mark every unanswered question as unknown, and let unknowns count against the bidder rather than disappearing.
Then read the table twice: once for price, once for who carries the risk. Which risks you can hold at all depends on how the project is being funded in the first place. Those two readings often produce different winners, and the second is usually the one you should follow.
When the shortlist is set, walking through the installation sequence shows which promises are load-bearing. And if the access model is still open, that decision comes first.
Common questions
How many bidders should we ask?
Three is usually enough to expose the assumptions. More than that and the comparison work outgrows the value.
Should we send our electrical survey to bidders?
Yes. Withholding it produces cheap quotes built on optimistic guesses, which is the opposite of useful.
What if every bidder gives the same answer to a question?
Then it is probably a real constraint of the technology rather than a difference between vendors. Drop it from the comparison and keep it in the brief.
Is the cheapest proposal ever the right one?
Sometimes. Just make sure it is cheapest across five years and after the responsibility table is filled in, not cheapest on the equipment line.
