Can charging electric cars be a business?

Gas stations are businesses. They sell gasoline to drivers and make a profit, just like merchandisers. However, this is not the case with electric vehicle charging: there are an estimated 48,000 electric vehicle charging stations with more than 150,000 plugs and many more residential charging points, but they are generally not businesses, with some exceptions.

Buyers of electric cars tend to be homeowners. So they set up charging points in their homes. There they buy electricity at consumer prices, usually rates and time and ;dieselgate Chargepoint doesn't usually sell electricity; Chargepoint only sells stations to people who want to sell or provide electricity, and most of them don't try to run businesses. Chargepoint realized early on that selling electricity was not the business it wanted.

Not everyone agrees - EVGO is a charging station that sells power for both slow and fast charging stations. Even they acknowledge that the average consumer may not care about that. In the city, most people face the problem of having their homes fueled by the gallon a night. Instead, their plan is for businesses to charge electric cars. Many fleets may charge at the base for operating and installing chargers, but that may not be much cheaper than contracts with suppliers like EVGO.

Learn about the expenses involved in EV infrastructure by exploring how much a commercial EV charging station costs.

The problem with that is that it's not a business

Charging is not a business, and this negatively affects the operation of charging stations. Government subsidies have solved this problem for many stations. They are often located in strange places where no one wants to get to, and in most cases remain unmanned. Even worse, they are often in poor condition because the money to build them came from other sources, from money (or lack of money) to operate them.

Find specialized help with our list of electric charging station installation contractors.

The Tesla network is not designed to make a profit, but because Tesla owners are very active and buy cars to be able to make these road trips, Tesla maintains a network designed for cars, and it is doing well. Other networks often receive complaints about malfunctions, and drivers sometimes stick with them, but Smart Driver monitors the reporting and plans for possible malfunctions. Tesla typically produces large charging stations at a distance where device damage is not an issue, while other networks typically build stations with two to four chargers, but with locations close together so that drivers can reach them when they plan to. Other equipment damage.

They are not homeowners.

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Many drivers can't charge at home or at work. They buy fewer electric cars today, but they want to buy them. have to charge at public charging stations. This is not a very attractive proposition - prices at these stations are higher than gasoline for hybrid cars, and the stations themselves and charging can be time-consuming. Those who own such cars regularly hear promises of fast charging that lasts 10 minutes or 5 minutes and starts the plug-in, but charging at that rate is just the kind of thing that involves huge energy consumption. There may be companies selling energy to these drivers at a higher price, but these drivers always want to find another way to get energy at a better price.

This demand is leading more and more apartment buildings to install chargers in some of their parking lots. They're doing it because of the convenience needed to attract tenants, or because they can be installed in rental apartments or, in other cases, to sell energy. The installation costs are lower because parking lot charging doesn't have to be a fast charger, and charging while sleeping is more profitable than selling because charging doesn't require travel or time compared to fast chargers. They charge such customers. On the other hand, overnight current can cost 1/3 of the current needed during the day at a fast charging station. This is another major advantage to installing charging in these areas.

Profit fuel?

It should be noted that while charging stations sell profitable fuel, many are trying to make more profit at the expense of stores, carbs, and other services. Indeed, in-store electric vehicle charging stations can also follow this approach. Today, however, it is not as productive to charge at Level 2 for a 30-minute stop at a convenience store because it is more expensive, and the charging station does not generate as much profit as it would if the car were charged at Level 1.

On the other hand, quick recharging on long trips is often combined with eating out. Since recharging today lasts 30-60 minutes, it is usually practical to eat while eating. Everyone on a long trip should eat, the only question is where and when. Obviously, eating only in a limited number of places is not ideal, but the situation is improving over time. Today, restaurants near fast food outlets don'tcombine offer, but that can change if the food and price are somehow combined, or even something like that delivered to the car or ready to go. Speed up the process. A quick 50 kWh charge costs about $15 at Tesla's Dead Point prices, so this is an area of business, though it should be a luxury restaurant where everything is free. Those who stop to charge definitely want to use their time productively. That's true until the mythical five-minute charge is developed, even then a five-minute charge may be more expensive than the slowest charge because of the cost of huge chargers.

The Great Solar Coup.

Today, the cheapest energy is at night. The most expensive energy is between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. However, things change as more and more solar energy is transferred to the grid: from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. energy is still expensive, but eventually there is a surplus of solar energy from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The best place to place this extra energy is in a car. Unlike almost all other loads on the electric grid, cars are very flexible in their choice of energy source. 95% of the time, the average demand needs energy added every few days. On special days of long trips, they are more demanding. So you will be very happy that electric values have less flexibility. This means that once plugged in, they will charge as much as possible when there is excess energy, including solar and wind. (Wind turbines are even more willing to provide someone with unplanned energy.

For this to work, the car must be plugged into an outlet during those hours. Cars that don't drive to work and are at home can do so, but otherwise it means installing the charger where employees park. That includes in parking lots and along roads.

In the world of renewable energy, the need for surplus energy to sell it is so great that suppliers expect energy companies to pay for the installation of charging stations in these remote locations. These stations are open at night for people who want to park on the street and have an electric car.

Of course, soon cars will be able to navigate the charging stations themselves and even connect to them without human assistance. This actually requires much of the infrastructure described above. Car Informed: There is currently a surplus of solar energy. If you need electricity, and for free, you will now go to a charging station to get a very good price and it will do so. (With a good forecast, excess energy can also be predicted in advance).

Many people imagine that these cars will give the energy accumulated during this reservation period back to the grid during peak demand and even at night. This idea is called the grid. It also requires special inverters or other means of allowing the car battery to return energy. Ideally, non-standard waveforms are used to compensate for any unusual power factors in the grid demand. Expensive, but the reality is that simply selecting cars for charging time based on network messages about price reductions (or compliance with traditional contracts) provides great value without having to provide value.