For public EV fast charging to scale sustainably, charging needs to be economical. For retailers who own and operate EV charging stations, their customers expect the same value and affordability at the charger as they do across the entire shopping experience. Delivering value in EV charging, however, requires controlling the single biggest driver of operating cost: how a site interacts with the electric grid.

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This paper addresses how retailers can maintain the value promise while scaling a national EV fast charging program under diverse and often unforgiving utility tariffs. It examines:

• The three dominant cost drivers in detail and shows how integrated battery storage and load management can reshape each of these dynamics.
• How this approach unlocks otherwise inaccessible tariffs, enables high-power stations at power-limited sites, and avoids the pitfalls of “bolt-on” battery solutions
• Taken together, a path to deliver affordable, predictable charging prices at scale while keeping grid exposure under tight control