Charging poles - a profitable business
You have probably noticed that electric cars are becoming increasingly popular. Over the past three years, the proportion of rechargeable cars has risen from 25 to 40 to 55 per cent of new registrations. This makes many people who own or manage parking today ask themselves how they can meet the growing demand for electric car charging, and take advantage of this growing market in a profitable way. In this blog post, we go over five factors for a profitable charging business.
1: Bet on low-power parking charging
Growing demand for electric car charging means a growing source of revenue. But how do you make sure that electricity is available to everyone? In order to offer electric car charging to many (already today or in the long term), it is necessary to offer AC charging with low power. In this way, power peaks can be avoided.
However, this is not a problem! Since the car is parked about 95% of the time (often 9-12 hours straight), a lower power (1.4-3.7 kW) is quite enough to meet the daily requirement.
Here's how we count:
- The average trip is 2.5 miles
- In 9 hours of charging with 1.4 kW you reach 6.3 miles
You can read more about fast vs. normal charging here.
2: Make it easy to charge!
The easiest way to charge your electric car is to do it while it's parked — at home or at work. So the best way to offer charging is to do it as part of the parking experience. Your customers will be more satisfied because it will be easy to manage parking and charging in the same place. And by adding electric car charging to your existing parking business, you open up new revenue streams.
3: Package the charge according to demand
To increase profitability even more, charging and parking can also be dynamically packaged and priced to meet demand and maximize your occupancy. For example, it may be about offering:
- a larger number of charging points during the daytime and evening/public holidays on an unreserved surface
- a few reserved premium charging points for monthly rent
- fast charging and/or guest charging as needed
With a digital system, it becomes easy to screw on the offer to increase occupancy and profitability. Here you can read about how to set a unified strategy for parking and electric car charging.
4: Set a competitive price
An important part of the packaging is, of course, the price tag. Different conditions and modes of use have different perceived value, and pricing must be attractive to your customers. In addition, you need to price the charge in a way that covers your investment costs. Here, property owners have an advantage. Since you already have the parking spaces that an external operator would need to build or lease to offer electric car charging, it gives you a better opportunity to set a competitive price. Here you can read more about how to choose the right payment model for electric car charging.
5: Take advantage of state investment aid
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is currently offering investment aid for the installation of charging poles. Partly for audience charging (Climatic life) and partly for charging to be used mainly by residents or employees of the property (Charge the car). The investment aid means that you can receive a grant for up to 50% of your investment cost (maximum SEK 15,000 per charging post). This support won't last forever, so if you want to create a profitable charging business, it's time to get started!
Learn more in our webinar!
Do you want to make electric car charging a profitable part of your parking business?
With the right technology, packaging and pricing model, you create new revenue — and happier customers. We'll help you get started.
.webp)
.webp)