If you own a site with parking, you can earn from EV charging in several ways. The right model depends on how much you want to invest, how much risk you want to take and how involved you want to be.
1. Lease
You lease space at your site to a charging operator, who installs, owns and runs the chargers. You receive a fixed rent.
- Investment: none.
- Risk: lowest; income does not depend on usage.
- Effort: minimal.
- Return: predictable, but you do not share in growth if the site gets busy.
2. Revenue share
An operator installs and runs the chargers, and you receive an agreed share of charging revenue. Some agreements combine a smaller fixed fee with a revenue share.
- Investment: none or low, depending on the agreement.
- Risk: moderate; income rises and falls with usage.
- Effort: low.
- Return: grows as EV adoption grows at your location.
3. Own and operate
You buy the chargers and keep all the revenue. You either run the site yourself or hire a partner for operations through a managed service.
- Investment: highest; hardware, installation and grid connection.
- Risk: highest; you carry utilization and maintenance risk.
- Effort: high, unless you use managed services.
- Return: highest potential, with full control of pricing and branding.
How to choose
- Choose lease if you want steady income with no involvement.
- Choose revenue share if you want upside without the capital cost.
- Choose own and operate if you have capital, expect strong usage and want full control.
Questions to ask any partner
- Who pays for the electricity and grid upgrades?
- What uptime is guaranteed, and who handles repairs?
- How long is the agreement, and what happens at the end?
- How is revenue reported and paid?
EVee Buddy works with site owners on all three models. Tell us about your site and we will recommend the one that fits.