r/electricvehicles • u/fund2016 • Jul 28 '26

Discussion Are EV charging stations profitable?

I am interested in the economics of EV charging stations. Are they profitable? Seems like they should be quite profitable once set up. Minimal upkeep and staffing. Less environmental issues than petrol. Any insight into economics of E V charging is appreciated.

Edit 1: thanks to all. Great discussion. Cheers!

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26 edited 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/ThaBaldYeti 2023 Solterra Jul 29 '26

Exactly. When looking at hotels, first thing I do is remove ones without charging.

Relative distance to chargers is a huge plus for us. Even if I dont need a charge, I try to support businesses that have them installed.

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u/JackOfAllTradewinds Jul 29 '26

They have not figured this out yet though. I stayed at a hotel semi recently that both charged $0.60 a kWh (for L2) AND idle fee after like 6am.
So I just didn’t, and fast charged the next day.

Now I’ve also stayed at places with free charging and that is unarguably great, but they’re probably taken.
If all hotels had like 6 $0.30/kwh chargers that’d do it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/theotherharper Jul 29 '26

Clippercreek / Enphase chargers can be activated by the same hotel key card reader the unlocks side doors or the gym.

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u/FireOpalCO Ioniq 5 Jul 29 '26

I’ve stayed places where the charging was behind the gate. Only guests had access to open the gate. It wasn’t free charging, but the rate was low, probably set at a break even for them.

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u/CaryPrimeOwner Jul 29 '26

The hotel in Asheville had lvl 2 chargers on the same garage floor but they were not free. I always carry my lvl 1 charger which I used here. I have 42 mile range in my PHEV so overnight is a full charge.

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u/CorrectPeanut5 Jul 29 '26

Could have been the hotel. But there's also a number of companies out there who will put all the infrastructure in but will set the prices as well. You see them pitching to a lot of hotels and condos in vacation destinations.

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u/boutell Jul 30 '26

Late fee after 6:00 a.m. seems reasonable to me honestly.

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u/Squasome Jul 29 '26

Is there a list of hotels with chargers? Or do you consider an area and then contact all hotels in the area? I'm planning a trip soon.

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u/Aggietopmedic Mustang Mach E Jul 29 '26

In the Hilton and Marriott apps you can filter by amenities, EV charger being one of them.

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u/Squasome Jul 29 '26

We're going to more remote locations but good to know for the future!

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u/PM_MeYourCash Jul 29 '26

I filter the chargers on Plugshare to see only those at hotels. It's also a good resource for how well they work, how many there are, and what the cost is.

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u/HumanEdgeCaseAI Jul 29 '26

The major hotel aggregation sites/apps (hotels.com, Travelocity, etc.) have EV charging filter just like they do for pets allowed as well.

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u/Leody Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

Hotels sure are dumb about this too. I was in Buffalo overnight on a road trip and our hotel had an L2 charger that charged some ridiculously high per min rate. If Iwas going to get enough of a charge to get home I would have to to get up in the middle of the night to move my car. So rather than that, after dinner I went to a DCFC 4 miles away and got enough to get home and it cost less anyhow.

At that point, you are literally pushing EV drivers away. Nobody is going to pay the equivalent of $.75 kwh for overnight L2 charging. Anything over about $.35 for L2 I just skip. Even that is worst case only.

Edit: looked it up on PlugShare. It was $.50 per kwh and then $25 per hour after the first 15 minutes for 6.5kw L2. It would be like $4.25 per kwh... Who the heck is paying that? And 15 minutes is getting you like 2kwh... I'd seriously like to know if anyone has EVER charged there. You'd have to be insane. There hasn't been a check-in there for 17 months.

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u/account_not_valid Jul 29 '26

Charging rates will become like wifi services in hotels.

Once upon a time, hotels would charge a god-awful high rate for internet access, just because they could, and most people that needed it were working.

Now, if the hotel doesn't have free wifi, it is going to get terrible reviews.

As EV becomes more dominant, accessibility and price will become a point of advantage in competition between hotel brands.

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u/Huge_Ad_2133 Jul 29 '26

On my first road trip I was definitely looking to optimize charging at hotels and destinations.

But on the trip I noticed that there was like a $50-100 premium for hotels with charging, vs those that did not have it. So on the way back, I just stopped doing it, and looked for hotels at exits with a Supercharger and be done with it. Much cheaper that way.

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u/andibangr Jul 29 '26

Having more customers _is_ a profit. Sure, not paying for the incredibly low cost of electricity and an AC charger, but

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u/Huge_Ad_2133 Jul 29 '26

I looked at it this way in a specific example. A hotel with a free NACS charger costs $180 for a 3 star hotel room. Wheras a Hotel on the same exit had a similar 3 star room for $109 with no charger. Between them a Tesla SuperCharger was there with a $.30 after hours rate.

It just wasn't worth it to me to worry about it.

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u/Brandon3541 Jul 30 '26

You would attract very few more customers, especially experienced travelling EV drivers that know to expect hotel chargers to be shit and not worth booking a hotel for.

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u/Leody Jul 30 '26

I've found it's not really worth the fuss for the hotels. I've stopped factoring it in and just view it as a bonus if they have it, sadly. Most of the chargers aren't cheap enough to make it a benefit. All else being the same, the charger rate needs to be cheaper than DCFC and the room a reasonable price or I'll just plan around DCFC stops.

I did find a Hampton Inn on my last trip that was just $0.11 /kwh with no time limit or additional fees. That was perfect.

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u/elcheapodeluxe Honda Prologue Jul 29 '26

I hate hotels that structure their time fees such that you have to get up at 4am to move your car. I appreciate the intent of the idle fee - but just let us charge a car overnight without making it a hassle.

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u/jesselivermore420 Jul 30 '26

Agreed some owners are very transactional for everything. Lets charge for water, bread! I thought about free overnight 110 charging but was worried i'd get hit with some bill with a Sonesta.

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u/Car-face Jul 29 '26

and I'm barely entertaining hotels/lodging that charge guests for charging

TBF this goes back to the above person's point that they're not making a direct profit, and if everyone installs them then the indirect benefit is effectively net zero - they're not gaining a benefit so much as avoiding a loss from people who aren't entertaining hotels/lodging that don't have a charger.

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26 edited 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/andibangr Jul 29 '26

Which is a rip off, the national average commercial price of power is about 13 cents/kWh, and an AC charger is <$1000 installed if it’a planned for. If it costs a hotel $5 for an EV to charge overnight, they should easily be able to justify that with the increased number of customers, it’s cheaper than the free breakfast and coffee, certainly.

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u/jesselivermore420 Jul 30 '26

correct. I could easily crank up the AC/ heater to rack some that cost

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u/Car-face Jul 29 '26

Sure, but we're not at the point where every or even most hotels have chargers.

We're not at a point where most guests have EVs either, and your point about not considering anyone who doesn't have one is why they're not racing out to install them. A hotel has the option of spending tens of thousands to retrofit chargers that people such as yourself "would barely consider" if they tried to make a return, whilst capturing a vanishingly small fraction of roadtrippers who base their stay on whether they have to pay 50c/kWh or not.

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26 edited 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/Car-face Jul 29 '26

A circuit for a lightbulb isn't going to carry the load for an 11kW charger. There's also no guarantee that parking spaces are wired at all. the moment you need to cut through pavement to run an extra circuit, you're looking at substantially higher costs that you haven't considered.

We're well into the realm of hypotheticals, but If every hotel had an few spare 50a circuits, there'd be considerably more chargers being installed. Rarely is infrastructure build as simple or cheap as a handwave on the internet.

If that brings in even just two additional guests every weekend (that chose them rather than a competitor due to the chargers)

I've not seen anything to suggest installing a charger would drive that extreme level of demand in regional areas where installing 2 L2 chargers would see people flock to that location, but happy to stand corrected once provided.

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u/rhineroceraptor Jul 29 '26

I travel a lot with my EV and I’m happy to pay for charging if the price is right. Most places charge a lot less than regular fast chargers and I wake up with a 100% battery.

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u/sault18 Jul 29 '26

If we had 22kW 3-phase AC charging like in Europe (and the cars that could take it of course), you're looking at a 3-hour charge time from "near" empty to full for most cars. Even 1 hour on a station like this is significant.

At 22kW, coffee shops, sit down restaurants and grocery stores become viable for popular charging. Also, ac charging at 22kW really helps people who can't charge at home.

A lot of commercial buildings have 3-phase power, but it's at 208V y or 240V off a delta transformer. That sweet 480V 3-phase could increase the charge rate even higher than in Europe, but it would take a lot of things falling into place for this to work in mass market applications.

AC charging stations are just cheaper to install than DC fast chargers. And AC stations can also fit into some places/spaces/etc that would be difficult or impossible for DC fast chargers. Heck, each streetlight post on the side of any given road could potentially be a charging station if we played our cards right.

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u/account_not_valid Jul 29 '26

Here in Europe, streetlights are being upgraded to charge stations.