There is a mix of new and old technology entering the electric vehicle (EV) charging market landscape, and while the EV manufacturing gold rush may be settling down, the infrastructure rush is still very real. The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated that the country will need 28 million EV charging ports to keep up with demand, creating aggressive timelines, increased risk, and rushed jobs.

Additionally, while charging hardware is becoming more consistent, installation practices can still vary widely from contractor to contractor. Charger manufacturers don’t always use a common standard when it comes to wiring the charger, and wiring infrastructure still varies depending on the installer.

This is why we’ve dubbed this article the “Wild West of Construction.”
Here are five common issues that occur when construction wiring projects are not standardized and ways the industry can start creating common correct standards from the beginning:

Issue No. 1: Everybody wants a crystal ball

Manufacturers and customers know this technology will change, so we’re seeing a trend of various requests for conduit sizes based on the cables they are installing. This leads to manufacturing oversized conduits due to the likelihood that, in the future, the cables will need to be changed to a larger size. It’s like purchasing a Hummer vehicle to bring groceries home – either huge overkill or a risk of not having enough conduit space to expand. Where’s the crystal ball when we need one?

We’re noticing that standardization is becoming a popular topic. We’re also starting to see a shift from copper to aluminum cable requests. Aluminum is cheaper, but it requires a larger conduit size.

Issue No. 2: Wearing too many hats on the job site

Customers are purchasing the chargers and letting electricians and/or contractors take on multiple responsibilities, even if it may be outside of their scope. This is the equivalent of asking your auto mechanic to do your heart surgery. This can possibly lead to miscommunication, potential code violations, or the customer simply not favoring the finished product, leaving everyone frustrated in the end.

We’ve seen partnerships or engineering procurement contractor firms created between the contractor, manufacturer, and engineer to solve customer issues. The contractor can bring in these groups as non-competitive advisors to minimize margin stacking and make EV technology more affordable. Additionally, many manufacturers in the industry employ professional engineers to help navigate Code issues for the contractor. This is a great source when dealing with specific problems that may involve Code issues.

We are also seeing the industry beginning to offer products or product modifications that can be installed in many different environments. One such product is cable in conduit (CIC). The industry has developed a way to parallel this product on a single reel and place it in the ground in three different ways. Paralleling two conduits together allows a contractor to use the cable on a bore hole to install multiple conduits at one time. This allows an empty data conduit to be installed simultaneously with a power cable, increasing safety and reducing the number of reels on site.

Issue No. 3: Products are getting smaller, but the cable still has to fit

Manufacturers are concerned about how to make chargers cheaper and smaller; however, they don’t consider:

• Space to bend the cable to the lugs inside is tight.
• Stress from the cable can break termination points on circuit boards.
• Larger Level 3 chargers that require feeder-sized wire or, essentially, the manufacturer does not allow enough space to meet the bending requirements of feeder cable.

Manufacturers are creating new products to solve this problem, such as a flexible cable that’s similar to diesel locomotive cable (DLO) but rated as THHN or XHHW cable. This cable’s flexibility takes stress off connection points and makes it much easier to work with. 

Issue No. 4: Cable waste is costing everyone

Cable waste is another major issue that’s surfacing in the industry. Cable packaging is usually created with large jobs in mind. Typical wire reel lengths for most jobs are 1,000- or 2,500-ft reels, whereas EV charging stations normally use very short runs of cable (about 100 ft to 200 ft of cable). This means that the leftover reels of cable must be stored. If you have a contractor who is traveling a great distance for an installation, he or she must transport a lot of leftover materials. Normally, the cost of the leftover cable is charged to a job by a contractor, which drives up the cost of installation for customers.

Many manufacturers and distribution channels now offer this customizing service commonly called “speed reels.” The concept of speed reels has moved into the product category CIC, allowing contractors to cut down on wasted product, which is a green solution for the industry.

Now, each wire pull for a contractor can combine all the colors needed, reel all those colors onto a single reel, and cut to length for the contractor. These wire pulls can be stacked on a single reel, which cuts down on the disposable waste on the job. The industry is moving prefab from the contractor to the manufacturers and distributor channels to make contractors more efficient and environmentally conscious.

Issue No. 5: If nobody knows what is in the ground, then maintenance becomes a nightmare

Many EV charging manufacturers tend to rely on various charging installation contractors for convenience, standardization, and cost savings. But this can be risky due to the unknowns of inconsistent installation practices.

With no set standardization, the contractor can take liberties to install the chargers as they see fit. This means that the customer may not be aware of important details necessary for future maintenance, such as the location of the cables or the manufacturer of the cables. Without this knowledge, it will be more difficult to perform basic maintenance in the future or even determine the true cause of an issue.

For instance, if the cable jacket is nicked during installation or not up to industry thickness, the jacket may be subpar. Once water is introduced into the conduit naturally, it could cause failures from shorting to ground or to cross voltage detection by the charger. At the end of the day, inconsistency leads to an unreliable infrastructure, making standardization the only definitive solution. We see standardization taking place on the equipment side of an install, but wiring infrastructure is still being left up to contractors.

The gold standard for EV standardization is to assess the entire infrastructure and how it should be operated. Managing the entire job ensures that every product and installation method works together to maximize the charger’s lifespan. The step-by-step for this gold standard could flow like this:

• Analyzes what they need (e.g., cable types, support structure for cable, charger, breaker panel, mounting hardware, etc.).
• Hires an installation contractor who understands and practices standardization.
• Clearly explains the project and parameters to the contractor, what products they want the contractor to use, and how they want the overall installation to look.
• Keeps the process and products consistent across all sites.

Standardization is the path forward to turning the “wild west” of the EV landscape into a stable, durable, and reliable process. With fewer unknowns and more certainties, manufacturers can reduce installation times, make fewer mistakes, and get us one step closer to meeting the demand for EV charging infrastructure.