Dwell time: the number that decides your charger spend
How long a vehicle sits parked matters more than its battery size. Long dwell means slower, cheaper chargers — and fewer of them.
Last updated 15 August 2026
If you track one number when planning charging, make it dwell time — the hours a vehicle sits parked and available. It quietly decides how much you spend on chargers and grid.
Why dwell time rules
A charger only has to refill a vehicle within the time it’s parked. A vehicle back at 5pm and out at 6am has thirteen hours — so a modest, cheap charger is plenty. The same vehicle on a two-hour turnaround needs something far faster and pricier. The battery size barely matters; the window does.
Long dwell is a gift
Most depot vehicles rest overnight, and that long dwell is worth money. It lets you specify slower AC chargers, and it lets several vehicles share fewer chargers by taking turns under smart charging. Both cut your hardware bill and your grid demand.
Short dwell is where cost climbs
When the parked window is genuinely short, you have to pay for speed — faster chargers, more power, bigger peaks. The skill is identifying exactly which vehicles have short dwell and specifying speed only for them, rather than over-buying across the whole fleet. Usually the short-dwell cases are a minority.
Mapping dwell time across the fleet is the fastest way to a right-sized, affordable design. Pair each vehicle’s energy need with its dwell window, and both the charger power and the charger count fall out — no guesswork, no over-spec.