The adoption of electric vehicles guarantees an increase in demand for electric vehicle charging stations. Naturally, businesses want to know how to get the highest return on that investment.
In order to maximize your ROI on commercial EV charging stations, you must take into account the upfront hard costs and the ongoing service and maintenance costs. But it is also important to recognize the short-term and long-term benefits that EV charging stations can provide, as well as ways in which you can reduce your total cost of ownership (TOC).
What factors determine the price of commercial electric vehicle charging stations?
When considering the price of an electric car charging station, you should factor in:
Cost of Installation
This may include technical labor, landscaping labor, hardware costs, additional components such as wire and conduit, panel upgrades, working with the utility company, and all taxes and fees related to the necessary permits.
Total Number of Stations
This will depend in part on your needs and your location, but ultimately this number depends on the extensiveness of your EV charging program. From an installation standpoint, there may be scaling advantages to installing multiple stations at once. You may also benefit from multiple stations based on your charging station management software and network provider.
Electricity Consumption
Part of the operational costs to consider is the cost of electricity. When installing your stations, a host must coordinate with the electric utility to review rate structures, time-of-use (TOU) rates, and/or EV charging station rates. The total consumption will vary based on many factors, including how frequently vehicles use your station, total power output – even climate.
Ongoing Maintenance & Support
Your maintenance costs will depend on the type of EV charging station you’re investing in (e.g., Level 1, Level 2, etc.). Newer EV charging stations are built with a more modular design. That means that damaged or malfunctioning components can be replaced easier.
The network you choose to manage your EV charging will also affect your costs; software management, technical assistance, and troubleshooting fees could all be part of your costs depending on your network.
How To Ensure a Positive ROI from Commercial Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
Given the costs inherent to establishing a commercial EV charging station program, it is important to understand the myriad opportunities to generate a positive return on that investment. These benefits create both short-term and long-term incentives for your government facility or place of business, and as electric vehicles continue to occupy a larger share of consumer vehicles, they are only expected to increase over time.
The following benefits can contribute to a positive ROI for your organization:
- Positive image as a sustainable, forward-thinking “good corporate citizen”
- Strong differentiator between your organization and your competitor
- Improved employee retention
- Increase in customer satisfaction rates
- Enterprise system integrations offer additional value
How to Reduce the Price of Electric Car Charging Station
In addition to the ways in which the electric car charging stations price will ultimately produce a positive ROI for your business, there are ways you can responsibly lower your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to make commercial EV charging stations an even more worthy investment.
To help reduce your TCO over both the short-term and the long-term, you should:
- Choose an EV management partner capable of full service and support
- Purchase stations with an open network capability to prevent becoming trapped in long-term contracts
- Purchasing and installing the appropriate number of charging stations for your location
- Take advantage of tax incentives for EV charging station owners available in your location
- Explore financing options and rebate opportunities offered by your federal, state, or local government
The Benefits of an Open Network Solution
If you are stuck with one EV charging station manufacturer, then you have no choice but to accept any price to upgrade your electric car charging station. That’s why interoperability between electric vehicle charging stations is so important. When your EV charging stations are on a true open network, you have greater flexibility to negotiate a more favorable price for commercial electric vehicle charging stations.
EV Connect’s comprehensive services include utility coordination, energy management, and site selection. That means that, in addition to offering an open network solution, we provide the support required to monitor your charge stations and driver network. This gives you the freedom to focus on improving your organization without worrying about operating your EV charging stations.
Moving Forward, Into the Future
As consumers continue to move towards electric vehicles, there will be a considerable advantage to the private and public organizations who chose to become early adopters of EV charging stations. Such organizations will be seen as more forward-thinking; they will appeal to a wider share of customers and citizens, prospects and employees; they will be the first to reap the rewards of enterprise integrations yet to come.
But in order to get the highest ROI on your EV charging station, it is critical that you choose an established network partner, one with the experience and support capabilities needed to navigate this exciting, evolving space.
To get a quote for connecting your commercial EV charging stations with our open network solution, contact our team today by calling (866) 790-3155 or filling out this contact form.
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