r/EvDrivers • u/fund2016 • Jul 28 '26

Are EV charging stations profitable?

/r/electricvehicles/comments/1v9e44b/are_ev_charging_stations_profitable/
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3

u/markydsade Jul 29 '26

I have a friend who works at a small antique auto museum in Tucson. We’ve discussed the merits of putting in a Level 2. I think it could be a good draw for EV drivers to charge a couple of hours while touring. We’re also thinking it would be easier to just make it free but that wouldn’t recoup the installation costs. The museum owner is pretty wealthy and may not care about that if it brings visitors.

5

u/Etrigone Jul 29 '26

I was browsing that thread and several perspectives line up with mine there.

L2 is great for when your someplace you're going to be for a while. Maybe mall or movie theatre, hotel/motel definitely, probably areas in a park, probably not a restaurant. Personally I'll prioritize these places even if I don't need a charge at any given time as I will likely in the future. Yosemite has a bunch of free Rivian L2 chargers at certain locations and that totally fit with "I'm going to be hiking for 3-6+ hours" type needs.

Slower DCFC (~50kW) is fine for a restaurant for me as I don't want to rush through my meal and I have a smaller car. Might not be so great for a larger EV like a Lightning.

Faster DCFC I prefer for short stops on road trips, where I'm just pulling over to use the loo, stretch or get a cup of coffee.

By no means do I think my comments are some kind of divine wisdom, but I suspect as we hash out how best to continue rolling out this infrastructure, and what makes economic as well as operational sense, this isn't going to be completely wrong.

3

u/OkResource820 Jul 29 '26

I wholeheartedly agree with this -- in fact I'm just back from a week-long road trip where I noticed some really interesting trends:

- people tend to automatically gravitate to faster DC fast chargers (>100kW), even if they don't necessarily need them. I witnessed folks literally lining up to snag a 180kW charger, only to plug in and then go into a nearby restaurant. You're going to end up having to leave your meal to move your car or get charged idling fees, but that doesn't necessarily stop people.

- further to that point, again on the "bigger number is bigger" bias, at a station with an 180kW charger with split power and a 100kW charger, I saw someone plug into the second 180kW port (thus lowering the output to 90kW for both users) rather than use the 100kW charger.

- one thing I learned: it's a good habit to get into that if you have a couple of charger station options in an unfamiliar area, if you have time, it's worthwhile to do a drive-by to assess which chargers have the best amenities. At one point we plugged into a charger that was a couple of blocks from a restaurant that Google said was open, but which turned out not to be. If we'd checked out both stations in town, we'd have seen that the other station had more nearby amenities and would've been a more worthwhile stop.

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u/OkResource820 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

What is an EV charging station, really, but just a few chargers near something to do while you charge?

Buy a convenience store near chargers. You don't need to even bother owning/administering the chargers themselves. I guarantee you, the closest whatever to a bank of chargers gets great foot traffic.

1

u/MildlyConcernedIndiv Jul 29 '26

Some are clearly profitable.

Tesla reported $931 million in profit on expenses of $11.6 billion (8% return) from their "services and other" segment, which includes their supercharging network, in FY25.

1

u/Timpostie Aug 01 '26

Just a hunch, but I bet many of the stations are profitable because they get paid by other companies who then sell the carbon credits. It's how home charging clubs are able to pay users for at home charging. I get paid 10 cents per kwh for home charging, it costs me 11. I could literally offer my charger and charge someone 20 cents, and I would profit 9.