Eschew Obfuscation

Making Money From Public EV Charging Stations

Posted by Max Dunn Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:14:00 GMT

Electric vehicles (EVs) will soon be available in large numbers and will need to be charged daily. This is no problem for half of the US population that can charge at home, but the other half that park on the street or in apartment complexes will need public charging stations. Is it possible to make money from EV public charging stations?

There are several ways to do this. One is to add a percentage surcharge over the price of electricity used (although this maybe prohibited by some PUCs), another is to charge a fixed fee every time a charging station is used and a third is to charge a monthly fee.

Looking at the monthly fee approach, Coulomb Technologies provides several plans ranging from $30 per month to $70 per month. At the highest potential, every EV owner would buy the high end plan and there would be 3 public chargers per EV which would net $23 per month average per charging station. A more realistic estimate would be that half of EV owners choose the $30 per month plan and with 3 charging stations per EV, that would net $5 per month per charging station.

Another analysis can be done assuming electricity is sold at a premium. Assuming that electricity costs $0.11 per kWh and is sold at twice the price or $0.22 per kWh, that the average EV gets 4 miles per kWh from the plug and tops off at work which is 15 miles from home, this would produce revenue of $0.41 per day or about $9 per month. Assuming 3 charging stations per EV, this would produce an average revenue of $3 per month per charging station.

Lifetime and Maintenance Costs

Another significant factor in this plan is the lifetime of the charging station and the maintenance costs. Given that many of these charging stations will be exposed to the weather and be in public places where they could be vandalized or damaged by electric surges, charging shorts or being run into by cars, it is probably best to assume a 10-year lifetime. In addition, because the connector and cord can easily be damaged (either intentionally by vandals or unintentionally by running over it) including yearly cord and connector replacements in the maintenance costs is prudent.

Another factor limiting the lifetime of these stations is obsolescence. Battery life is improving all the time and as the range goes up, the need for public charging goes down. In addition in future years, fast charging stations (Level 3) will become more available and desirable. Because of these factors, it would be wise to assume that many of these stations will become obsolete in 5 years.

Exclusive Charging Stations

Instead of installing public charging stations first and then trying to find EV owners to pay for them afterwards, another strategy would be to install exclusive charging stations. These could be done in apartment garages where a special space could be reserved for the EV owners who would sign a multi-year contract for charging their EV. Assuming the contract is for $70 per month and the electricity costs $35 per month, this leaves a $35 per month revenue for each charging station.

Conclusion

EVs are coming and will need charging infrastructure to support them. While at first most EV owners will charge mainly at home and the large grants given to Ecotality and Coulomb will provide funds to install most of the public charging needed, in subsequent years there will be a large opportunity for installing public charging stations. However, some estimates of the revenue that could be expected from public charging stations range from $3 to $5 per month. Also, the lifetime of the charging stations due to wear and obsolescence is likely to be 5 to 10 years. These factors will make it difficult to profitably install public charging stations. A more profitable alternative may be to install exclusive charging stations in apartment garages for EV owners with a long-term contract.