Own the chargers or let someone else own them?
Own them if you need control of pricing, of the data and of the stalls. Take a host agreement if you will not spend the capital and you are willing to trade site control for the term to get someone else to spend it. The capital comparison is the easy part, and it is the part every vendor deck leads with. The term that decides whether the deal was good is the exclusivity: how many years it runs, which stalls it covers, and whether it reaches the rest of the property or only the spaces the provider installed.
Updated 2026-08-20
The three models
Almost every arrangement on offer is one of three, or a hybrid of two of them. The names vendors use vary; the structure does not.
The capital question is the easy one
Networked commercial Level 2 runs roughly $4,500 to $9,500 per port installed before incentives, and DC fast starts around $50,000 per port and is dominated by service capacity rather than by the charger.
Site control is the real trade
A host agreement is not a discount. It is a lease of part of your property, priced in years, and the clauses that set its value are the ones about what the provider gets rather than the ones about what they pay.
Hold period is the input owners forget
Match the term of any agreement to how long you expect to own the property, because a long exclusive on a property you sell in three years becomes the buyer's problem and therefore your price problem.
Data is the quiet clause
Whoever runs the network account sees the utilisation data, and utilisation data is what every subsequent decision depends on.
Incentives interact with ownership, and not the way decks suggest
Who applies for a utility program is usually tied to who is the customer of record on the meter, which is a question your ownership model answers before you get to the application.
What each model is actually good at
Pick from the property's purpose rather than from the balance sheet. The financing follows the decision; it should not make it.
The hybrid most owners end up at
Own the hardware, buy the operations. It keeps the asset, the pricing and the data on your side while putting the phone calls, the truck rolls and the network administration with somebody whose job that is.
Is a free EV charger installation actually free?
The capital is genuinely provided, and it is paid for with site control. The provider recovers the equipment and installation cost out of energy margin over a term of years, during which they usually set pricing, keep most or all of the revenue and hold exclusive rights over the stalls. That can be the right trade. Read the term, the exclusivity scope and the end-of-term obligations before deciding it is.
What does it cost to own the chargers instead?
Networked commercial Level 2 runs roughly $4,500 to $9,500 per port installed before incentives, with trenching and conduit driving most of the spread on a lot installation. DC fast starts around $50,000 per port and is dominated by service capacity rather than by the charger itself. Knowing that number is what lets you judge whether the exclusivity a provider wants is fairly priced.
How long are host agreement terms?
Long enough for the provider to recover their capital out of energy margin, which is why they are measured in years rather than months. There is no standard number, and the number in your draft is negotiable — it is usually the most negotiable term in the document, and it is the one most owners skip past to look at the revenue split.
Who gets the utility rebate under a host agreement?
Often the provider, because eligibility commonly follows the customer of record on the meter. Ask explicitly who applies, who receives the money and how it is reflected in the economics. Also check the operating obligations attached to the program, because those usually attach to the site rather than to the provider and can outlast the agreement.
Can we switch models later?
From owner-operated, yes, easily — you can hire an operator or sell the equipment. From a host agreement, only on the agreement's own terms, which usually means waiting out the term or buying out the provider's unrecovered investment. That asymmetry is the strongest practical argument for reading the exit clause before the revenue split.
Does the federal tax credit change the comparison?
Not any more. Section 30C terminated for property placed in service after June 30, 2026 and there is no federal replacement, so the federal contribution to the ownership column is zero. Comparison models built before mid-2026 frequently net a thirty percent credit against owner-operated capital. If the deck you were shown does that, the ownership case in it is overstated.
- IRS — Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (§30C status)
- US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center — Law 10513, alternative fuel infrastructure tax credit
- US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center — utility and private incentives search
- EV Connect — commercial charging station cost overview (per-port baseline)
Know what you are being offered before you accept it
The free option is only readable next to the cost of doing it yourself. Tell us the port count, the service size and the run distance, and the estimate returns a modelled installed range with the civil work separated out.