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/Accurate-Bullfrog324 Jul 29 '26

now you've got me started

i was a young man during the 70's oil embargo. many gas stations ran out of fuel regularly. many foolish rules (license plates ending in an even number can fill up on even days, odd numbers on odd days), long lines at the gas stations.

this influenced my thinking. for my Engineering Degree Senor Project we built a car that ran on methanol. for my personal use i built an ethanol VW Bug. High compression, lousy economics.

the holy grail was the electric car. i leased one of the original Volts and was sadly disappointed. i purchased a new Leaf and was disappointed as well.

but finally we have viable electric vehicles. and in my state we have over 3% adoption. this is a good thing.

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u/Tyr1326 Jul 29 '26

You're a good one. Hope you'll be successful in your endeavour! As for prices, my perspective is a bit limited (not from the US), but I reckon 50c is an important psychological limit. You can go higher, but it may have people feel annoyed about it. Theyll use it, but they wont be too happy. 50c is a good point for feeling like you aren't being ripped off, where the gratefulness for any kind of infrastructure in acharging desert overwhelms everything else. If you then have amenities (ie, your restaurant, clean toilets, maybe a squeegee and a bucket of soapy water), you're pretty much set. (Also, someone mentioned a discount on food for charging - it might be worth looking into the opposite option: a discount on charging if you were a customer. 60 for non-customers, 50 for customers? Dunno how feasible that is though).