The advice follows a study, commissioned by the Finnish company, which surveyed operators with a combined 1,000 units spread across Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the UK, finding that as little as 20% of a charging point’s whole-life costs are the price of the unit itself.

Life-cycle costs can be as much as €9,000 (£7,117) higher per unit, for simpler, cheaper charging points, owing to the need to carry out initial setup, ongoing maintenance and hardware and software updates on-site, the results showed.

By comparison, the more sophisticated, data-connected units enable remote diagnostics and upgrades, and cloud-based load management, the latter meaning groups of chargers don’t have to be wired for their maximum output, in turn reducing installation costs for sites with multiple points.

James O’Neill, UK sales manager at Ensto Chago, said: “With the growth of EV picking up pace the market is becoming full of product choice in which to boggle even the most astute fleet operators. Fleets need to take in all factors of EV charging point ownership, key to this is whole-life costs. Many will go cheap as they dip there toe in, the reality however is that by ignoring operational cost they will likely get their hands burnt in the process as many have before them.

“Fleets need to be sustainable not just environmentally but from an operation & maintenance standpoint. By taking a more rounded view they will be able to provide a cost effective solution to current logistic considerations.”