Business and workplace EV charging
Networked Level 2 for a workplace or retail site typically runs $4,500 to $9,500 per port installed; DC fast starts around $50,000 per port and is dominated by service capacity, not by the charger. The timeline is usually set by your utility, not by your electrician, and utility make-ready programs are where most of the recoverable money now sits.
Make-ready is the line item that matters
Make-ready means everything between the utility transformer and the charger pedestal: the service, the switchgear, the trenching and the conduit. On a commercial site it routinely costs more than the chargers do. Many utilities run make-ready programs that pay for part or all of the utility-side work, sometimes on the customer side too, and those programs are the reason a per-port figure without a named utility is meaningless.
Networked or not is a business decision, not an electrical one
Networked chargers let you set access rules, bill users, meter energy per session and report utilisation. They also carry an ongoing subscription per port. If the site is staff-only and free, that subscription buys you very little. If you intend to charge for energy, or you need utilisation data for an incentive application, it is not optional.
Plan the ports you will need, install the ones you need now
The economical pattern is to size the service and the conduit for the eventual port count and populate a fraction of it today. Trenching a lot twice costs far more than trenching it once with spare conduit. Any proposal that does not ask how many ports you expect in five years is pricing the wrong job.
Accessibility and code are real scope
Commercial charger installations carry accessibility requirements for the route, the space and the reach range of the connector, and the applicable rules vary by jurisdiction and by the code cycle your jurisdiction has adopted. This is scope, not paperwork: an accessible space with a compliant route can change where the pedestal goes and how far the conduit runs.
There is no federal tax credit for an EV charger installed today — for a home or for a business. Public Law 119-21 moved the termination of the Section 30C Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit to June 30, 2026, and both halves of it ended on that date: the 30% residential credit capped at $1,000 per port, and the business credit of 6% (30% with prevailing wage and apprenticeship) capped at $100,000 per item. The separate Section 30D and 25E clean-vehicle credits ended for deliveries after September 30, 2025.
Get your own range for this address
Where will the charger go?
Location decides the length of the wiring run and whether anyone has to dig.
How long does commercial EV charging installation take?
The electrical work is usually weeks. The utility interconnection is usually months, and on a DC fast project that requires a new transformer or service it can run past a year. Start the utility conversation before you select hardware, because the answer they give changes what hardware makes sense.
Can a business still claim the federal charger credit?
Not for property placed in service after June 30, 2026. Section 30C terminated on that date under Public Law 119-21, and its commercial provision went with it. Treat a federal credit line in any proposal dated after that as an error to be corrected before you sign.
See your range, and what is actually left of the incentives
Eight questions. A line-item range. Every rebate we can verify for your ZIP, with the date we checked it.