Before installing EV chargers, you should think about what EV charging policies you will implement at your site. Will the EV chargers be open to the public or restricted to a certain user group? Are the chargers going to be monetized or free for EV drivers to use? Will the same policy apply to every charger at your site, or will you mix and match permissions and pricing?
Whatever policy you choose, ensure that the signage posted at your site and notices circulated to employees/residents mirror the policies you set in your site host dashboard.
Public charging
Public charging includes a diverse set of use cases: convenience stores, petrol stations, malls, storefronts, restaurants, community centres, schools, university campuses, and highway rest stops.
Discoverability is key for most public charging sites: you want your chargers to be found and used as often as possible. If your chargers are set to public, your chargers can be found on third-party apps like PlugShare, ChargeHub, and Google Maps.
Consider your objectives for your public chargers; this will inform your pricing strategy. Are you trying to attract more foot traffic to your store, restaurant, or community centre? Consider offering low-cost or free charging. An EV driver will only use a few dollars of electricity at a Level 2 charger, while they may spend hundreds at your store or restaurant.
At the same time, paid public charging has become the overwhelming norm in recent years. Tesla’s Supercharger network famously offered free charging when it launched in 2012, but moved to a paid model in 2017. Since then, every Tesla Supercharger has billed a premium rate for the energy it dispenses.
The vast majority of public DC fast chargers bill usage fees, and increasingly the same applies to Level 2 chargers. DC fast chargers bill significantly higher usage fees. This is obvious in regions where charging is billed hourly, since a DC fast charger can dispense much more energy in an hour than a Level 2 charger. However even when billed by kWh, DC fast chargers tend to be more expensive for the convenience of filling up faster (and to recoup the much higher infrastructure costs).
Depending on your region, Level 2 chargers most often bill between $0.15 and $0.35 per kWh. DC fast chargers most often bill between $0.25 and $0.60 per kWh, with chargers that offer charging speeds >150 kW billing the highest rates.
To see what comparable public charging sites in your area bill, we recommend searching PlugShare, ChargeHub, and Google Maps. All of these apps list the charging speeds and usage fees of public chargers.
On your site host dashboard, you can easily set and change pricing policies. Don’t be afraid to start with a certain pricing policy and adjust it over time as you seek to increase or decrease the demand for your chargers. Through the site host dashboard, you can set per kWh pricing, hourly pricing, and detailed time-of-use or tiered schedules that change prices based on the time of day. Just be cautious of changing pricing policies too frequently. Whenever possible, communicate new pricing policies on signage near your EV chargers