Unlocking Value - When does EV charging make sense?

As electric vehicle adoption accelerates, businesses across sectors are evaluating installing EV charging stations. From retail stores to restaurants, providing chargers can attract modern customers and future-proof operations. With EV sales outpacing public charging infrastructure deployment, there are more reasons than ever to consider deploying public chargers at your retailer locations as EV sales continue to climb.

However, while in medium and high adoption states government grants can make EV fast charging stations extremely attractive investments and a low cost way to modernize your retailer car refill offerings, the decision typically requires careful analysis to ensure investments translate into tangible returns and maximum returns and utilization.

Let's dig in and explore how this works!

Site Selection: The Cornerstone of Success

The viability of EV charging hinges critically on site characteristics and local market dynamics. Factors like geographic location, customer demographics, traffic patterns, parking layouts and nearby amenities can make or break utilization levels. While proximity to high-traffic corridors and urban population centers is generally favorable, businesses must dig deeper into specifics like commuter flows, nearby attractions and competitors already offering charging.

Customer demographics and visit patterns should also be evaluated. Is the location a short dwell-time venue like a grocery store or QSR? Or does it offer extended parking durations amenable to charging sessions, such as shopping malls, workplaces or residential properties? Aligning with the right customer segments maximizes utilization. Parking layout and available space are also critical considerations. Charging stations should integrate seamlessly into traffic flows without obstructing access to the primary business. Ideal deployments dedicate parking specifically for EV charging while still maintaining ample general parking inventory.

With so many variables at play, investment decisions require sophisticated data modeling and analysis rather than rules of thumb.

Operational Factors Impacting Utilization

Beyond site-specific characteristics, several operational elements can significantly influence utilization levels for installed charging stations:

• Charging Speed: The availability of high-speed DC fast charging is becoming a prerequisite, as EV drivers expect the convenience of rapidly replenishing their batteries during a typical dwell time. Stations offering only Level 2 charging will see lower utilization.
  
  
• Fuel Pricing and Idle Fees: As every car refill retailer knows, pricing impacts customer behavior. Idle fees for example discourage excessive dwell times once fully charged, increasing volume and profits.
  
  
• Software and Network Integration: The visibility and discoverability of your charging locations on major apps and networks is vital to attracting EV drivers. Electric Era provides integrations with companies like Apple, Plugshare, Google Maps and automotive OEM software to increase your utilization.
  
  
• On-Site Amenities: Bundling charging with on-site amenities like food, beverages, retail stores, clear restrooms enhances the overall customer experience and incentivizes utilization
  
  
• Reliability and Maintenance: Uptime and reliability are paramount, as a track record of faulty or inaccessible stations will quickly discourage return visits on the discoverability apps and social media. Electric Era provides robust maintenance and monitoring capabilities to ensure a consistently positive experience and 99.5% uptime to build high usage and favorable reviews online.
  
  
• High Sessions per Day: As EV adoption grows, deployments must be able to serve many customers per day. Certain solutions have limited capacity to serve drivers: be sure to ask your providers how many sessions their solution can serve.

Retail locations like pacific northwest based Plaid Pantry have excellent locations to install EV fast charging with ample traffic, amenities, and competitive pricing strategies.

"By partnering with Electric Era, we were able to get our fast chargers installed and operational in record time. This allowed us to start serving EV customers months before our competitors, giving us a real leg up in the market."

Jonathan Polonsky
Chairman and CE of Plaid Pantry

Unlocking Optimal Returns with Electric Era

With strategic planning and a data-driven approach, retailers can cut through the hype to rigorously evaluate if, when and how EV charging investments make financial sense. By partnering with providers like Electric Era that offer advanced site selection tools, robust charging technology and ongoing expertise, retailers can maximize utilization and returns while future-proofing their operations. This is where Electric Era's expertise shines through its comprehensive data-driven approach.

At the core is Electric Era's powerful proprietary software tool that meticulously analyzes and scores potential charging locations on a granular level. By ingesting vast credible data sets spanning EV registrations, population density, traffic patterns, competitor landscapes, incentive eligibility, local utility rates and more, the tool builds an intricate viability profile. Combining these inputs with proprietary algorithms, our models forecast expected utilization with remarkable accuracy as compared to other local charging stations.

Financial projections then map this utilization into key metrics including payback periods, Internal Rates of Return (IRR), and lifetime net income potential. In this way, Electric Era helps retailers create understandable forecasts enabling retailers to confidently evaluate if a project meets their financial criteria for investment.

The output is a personalized comprehensive scorecard ranking high-potential sites by clear financial metrics like internal rate of return (IRR), payback periods, lifetime net income projections and more. A sample scenario might reveal a two-charger (four-port) installation in a prime location yielding a 47% IRR with a three-year payback timeframe and $1.6 million in net income over a decade.

Critically, Electric Era's capabilities extend well beyond the planning phase. The company's robust PowerNode charging platform features innovations like on-site battery storage enabling ultrafast charging that minimize expensive grid upgrades or utility infrastructure investments. This, coupled with continuous software optimization and integrations enhancing station discoverability, ensures delivering an unparalleled charging experience and reliability translating to higher utilization.

From strategic site evaluation through seamless installation, reliable operations and ongoing performance analysis, Electric Era becomes an indispensable long-term catalyst for economically electrifying your business.

Rather than guesswork or checking boxes, with Electric Era, companies can thoroughly analyze if, where and how EV charging investment creates sustainable value and competitive advantage. Data-driven confidence enables businesses to accelerate electrification strategies delivering immediate wins and long-term payoffs.

Ready to Deploy?

Electric Era can deploy stations in less than 24 weeks and looks forward to supporting you on your EV car refill journey from consideration, to completion, to charging. Reach out today if you are ready to see if now is the right time to start your EV journey.

Schedule your free Consultation Today