How to Integrate EV Charging Into Your Parking Management Strategy

The problem? Reactive decisions rarely align with the property’s needs — today or tomorrow. You may meet a request in the moment, but how does that choice impact the business overall? What about future tenant demand, the building’s electrical capacity, or your ability to price charging in a market-driven and customer-friendly way?

A future-proof EV charging strategy needs more than equipment — it needs alignment with your parking operations, energy infrastructure, and long-term business model.

EV Charging and Parking Belong Together

To future-proof your parking business, you must think proactively and create a combined strategy for parking and EV charging. The logic is simple:‍

The best charging experience is one that’s integrated directly into the parking journey.

Most EV drivers who charge at your property are already using your parking facilities — and no recurring parker wants to move their vehicle mid-day because the battery reached 100%.

By adding EV charging to your parking offering, you can also attract entirely new customer segments who previously didn’t consider your facility. The result?‍

Higher occupancy, increased revenue, and stronger customer loyalty.

Key Questions — and Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Before defining your EV charging strategy, ask yourself these critical questions to avoid costly mistakes:

1. Building needs & electrical capacity

• What electrical capacity do you have today?
• How will future EV demand and other building loads affect that capacity?
• How does your chosen platform integrate with the building’s full energy ecosystem?

2. Technical operations & hardware lifecycle

• What charger types exist, and what lifespan can you expect?
• How will installation, monitoring, and maintenance be handled?
• How will load balancing work?

3. Pricing & packaging

• How will you sell charging in a way that customers understand — today and long term?
• What margin do you need to maintain profitability?
• How do you avoid the classic mistake: setting prices too low for too high an effect output?

Three Steps to Build a Unified Parking & EV Charging Strategy

You’ve decided to offer EV charging — great. Now here’s how to do it in practice:

1. Understand your parking customers’ needs

If you haven’t already inventoried your parking assets and customer behaviours, now is the time. Your entire strategy must be built around how your tenants and parkers actually use your parking facilities.

Key questions to explore:

• Do you rent corporate parking where charging is mainly needed during office hours?
• Do residential tenants need charging primarily evenings, nights, and weekends?
• Are there individuals who need guaranteed charging at fixed hours?
• Do visitors or employees need occasional access to charging?

A relevant charging product always starts with real user behaviour.

2. Create flexible charging packages

Design your EV charging offering the same way you design your parking offering — based on need, availability, and perceived value.

Here’s an example setup:

- Unreserved Charging Zone

A shared charging area with a monthly subscription. Drivers may charge when a space is available.
Can be split into:

• Daytime access
• Evening/Night/Weekend access

- VIP Reserved Charging Space

Dedicated, guaranteed charging spots — a premium product, priced accordingly.

- Temporary Charging (Add-on to Parking Permit)

Short-term or visitor-friendly charging with pay-as-you-go usage.

A flexible model ensures a natural distribution of demand, maximising asset utilisation.

3. Set a market-driven and sustainable price

Your EV charging price consists of two parts:

1. Subscription fee (right to access charging)

This should cover:

• Hardware installation
• Operating costs
• Maintenance
• Your margin requirement

2. Variable energy consumption fee

This reflects actual charging use.
It may depend on power level — for example, fast charging costs more than standard charging.

A well-structured pricing model ensures both profitability and customer clarity.

Take Full Control of Your EV Charging Business

Only once you have:

✓ a clear strategy
✓ an understanding of your electrical and operational constraints
✓ a defined pricing and packaging structure

…should you decide how to procure and manage your EV charging solution.

Buying chargers directly from a hardware vendor may seem convenient but often results in vendor lock-in — fixed hardware, limited pricing flexibility, and restricted control over your own charging business.

Using a digital Parking & Charging Management System instead allows you to:

• Stay hardware-agnostic
• Retain full control over pricing and access
• Scale your charging offering over time
• Adjust based on customer needs and utilisation data

This creates flexibility for both you and your customers, and ensures the solution can grow with your property.

Digital Management Creates New Opportunities

A modern system should be fully hardware-agnostic, meaning you can choose any chargers you want — and mix or replace them over time. This lets you:

• Test different suppliers
• Keep competitive pricing
• Avoid lock-in
• Maintain control over distribution, access, and pricing

If you don’t want to manage technical operations yourself, you can still use a charging operator — as long as the operator is integrated with your digital platform. That way, you keep the strategic control while outsourcing the daily technical work.

The Time for Proactive Decisions Is Now

It’s no longer enough to “install a few chargers.”
To build a profitable, resilient, and customer-friendly charging offering, EV charging must be treated as an integrated part of your parking strategy.

When you combine digital parking management with a proactive charging strategy, you unlock:

• Higher revenue
• Better utilisation
• Stronger customer loyalty
• A future-proof mobility ecosystem

The transition to EV is accelerating — and the winners will be the property owners who act strategically, not reactively.

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