Organisations are increasingly being told they will recoup the cost of purchasing and installing electric charging stations within a few years. This advice is often based on guesswork. At what time the investment will pay off depends on many factors.
Let us start at the beginning. To make a simple calculation, you must first define the goal.
- Why do you want charging stations?
- What do you want to achieve?
- How many charge points do you need?
- Where will they be placed?
- How do you see the future of e-mobility?
Once you have answered these questions, you will naturally move on to the practical matters involving money.
The calculation we are about to do is complex and consists of several steps. This is because there are many variables.
The purchase of charging stations
Charging stations and pillars come in many shapes and sizes. In addition, the quality varies. In the world of charging stations, it is safe to say that the more expensive ones are of better quality and, therefore, less prone to failure.
A reasonable charge point with a double connection (for two chargers to be used simultaneously) will cost you at least € 3,500. If you want ten, you can quickly get to 35,000 euros. These are chargers with a maximum capacity of 22 kilowatts. The price of fast chargers is higher.
The installation of charging stations
Now it gets exciting. The installation can be a black box. Much depends on the expertise of the installer and the way they approach things. If the car park is a hundred metres from the meter box, it will be expensive anyway. Cables are costly, as are excavation work, the fixing of cable ducts (in parking garages), and the meter box connection. Repaving is also a cost to consider.
It pays to ask for quotes from different parties and compare them with each other. It is impossible to calculate the cost of installing and constructing charging stations in your car park. There is no fixed formula.
We usually calculate between 50,000 and 70,000 euros for ten charge points.
Maintenance of charging stations
A charging station is a relatively new product. The long-term behavior of the units is hardly known. Manufacturers often give a 3-year warranty. We will have to wait and see what happens after that.
Please note that not all faults are covered by the guarantee. Problems with payment software and the card reader, for example, are your responsibility. Hiring a service engineer can easily cost 500 euros. If a charge point or column breaks down after five years, replacing the device incurs an additional cost. Problems with underground cabling can often be even more costly.
The yield of charging stations
Against all the costs, there are, of course, revenues. You may charge a surcharge per kilowatt-hour (kWh) that you can determine yourself. You discount the purchase and installation costs in the surcharge plus the profit you want to make, for example.
There is a catch… How intensively will your charge points be used? Will cars be refuelling all day long, or will the charge points only be used for a few hours a day? The fewer kilowatt-hours charged, the longer it will take for you to recover your investment.
The result
It is not easy to do the maths. There are too many variables. The most significant gain is that you offer charging stations, giving visitors another reason to park their electric vehicle (EV) or hybrid at your location. Only the future will tell if and when you will earn back your investment.
