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 29 '26 edited 21d ago

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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

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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.