How Cooperative Purchasing Makes EV Infrastructure Easier and Saves You Money

Many procurement officers, sustainability directors, facilities managers, and organizational transportation leads in various state, local and educational agencies are making the switch to electric vehicles (EVs). Many fleets are switching to EVs as a commitment to demonstrating climate leadership through action in their communities, while others are doing it to save money and for various other reasons.. However, going electric isn’t as simple as just purchasing new vehicles. When you switch your organization’s fleet to electric, you are now responsible for the in-house fueling of those vehicles, which means you will require electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well. 

And this is where much of the problem lies. EV fleets come with an entirely new playbook in the form of infrastructure that is often unfamiliar to procurement officers. Not only do they have to create requests for proposals (RFPs) about equipment they may not know much about, they also have to make judgement calls about which companies are reliable and will be around for the long haul in this new and rapidly developing industry. They also need to make sure they choose an EV charging partner that fits within their budget, and also make sure the electrification equipment they choose adheres to all compliance guidelines.

But, what if you could skip the RFP and still get competitive pricing on EV chargers, installation, and service?

You can. 

The answer is cooperative purchasing. 

What Is Cooperative Purchasing?

Most people who have purchasing power for a state, municipal, or educational agency probably already know what cooperative purchasing means, but we will quickly go over it here. 

Essentially, cooperative purchasing is when a vendor has a single contract or agreement with several purchasers. The advantage of cooperative purchase agreements is that the purchasing parties can use economies of scale to lower prices by combining their purchasing power and buying in bulk. 

And, thanks to “piggybacking,” new organizations dealing with a vendor can take advantage of already-established purchasing contracts by piggybacking on the terms that are already in place. 

With cooperative purchasing, on the other hand, the school district could use an already established agreement on a service like AEPA or Sourcewell to get locked-in pricing on equipment that the school district knows will be reliable and compliant. Cooperative purchasing services only work with reliable vendors and many of the purchasers will have the same compliance needs as our example school district. 

So, the school district can find the Blink AEPA contract, for example, and get the EV charging infrastructure it needs, at pricing that has already been set at a lower, bulk rate. And, because it’s working with a cooperative purchasing service like AEPA, the school district knows that Blink is a reliable electrification partner and the infrastructure will comply with all regulations.

Why Cooperative Purchasing Matters for EV Infrastructure Projects

Many state, local, and educational public sector fleets are following suit and going electric. But, while EV infrastructure benefits are numerous – including savings on fuel and a better environmental footprint – getting started with the purchase and installation can be confusing, unnecessarily expensive, and time consuming for those who are not familiar with it and who purchase their infrastructure on individual contracts. 

Cooperative purchasing solves all these issues by making equipment procurement more streamlined, stretching budgets further with bulk pricing, speeding up implementation by allowing purchasers to piggyback on existing contracts, and guaranteeing compliance because most purchasers are going to need to meet the same guidelines. 

All of these points put together also allow for easier scalability for organizations that want to start small and grow as their demand grows. This is important because fleets generally will not electrify all at once. They will often electrify their fleet by waiting for their ICE vehicles to reach the end of their service lives and replace them with EVs, meaning they will require only a few EV charging stations to begin with and add more as their fleet continues to transition to electric. 

While benefits like lower prices and faster procurement are obvious for purchasing organizations, the additional benefit is that cooperative purchasing means taxpayer money that funds state, municipal, and educational agencies is being used as efficiently as possible.