Shared vs. Dedicated EV Charging: What Works Best for Your Property?

Sharing EV charging stations between multiple drivers can be an effective alternative to installing a charger in every parking stall, making EV charging more accessible while helping to generate revenue and reduce costs for property owners.

This model is increasingly common in residential buildings, where designated shared charging stalls can provide access to many residents without requiring every parking space to be electrified.

They also play an important role in expanding public charging infrastructure and supporting more sustainable communities.

In this post, we examine the best use cases for shared EV charging models and how we can help you design, install, and manage solutions that maximize your property’s potential.

Shared EV charging benefits a wide range of properties and user groups. With a smart charging plan that may include a mix of shared, dedicated, public, and private chargers, along with custom charging fees, shared sites can provide broad access without shortchanging priority users.

Residential Buildings

Apartment and condo buildings can offer charging for specific residents, shared chargers for multiple residents, or combine resident and public access for visitors and community members.

For buildings without an existing EV Ready Plan, designated shared charging stalls can provide a practical and cost-effective way to serve a growing number of residents without adding a charger to every parking space.

Where EV Ready infrastructure is already in place, dedicated charging at residents’ individual stalls may make more sense.

Retailers

Retail spaces with ample parking can serve a diverse range of EV drivers, from customers and employees to commercial vehicles, rideshare drivers, and other fleets.

Designated EV charging stalls can be shared by different users throughout the day, helping properties make greater use of each charging station.

Mixed-Use Developments

Mixed-use developments are well suited to shared charging when they balance the needs of residents, retailers, and office employees alongside other drivers in the surrounding community.

A combination of dedicated and shared charging stalls can allow different groups to access charging based on how and when the property is used.

Parking Lots and Rest Stops

Parking lots and rest stops near major destinations and high-traffic areas – including hotels, hospitals, transit stations, and highways – can become valuable charging hubs, with a variety of drivers served throughout the day.

Sole, direct ownership of charging stations isn’t the only path to a mixed-use charging site. Joint ownership can be particularly beneficial for fleets looking to reduce fuel costs by transitioning to EVs while spreading the cost of installation, operation, and maintenance among co-owners. 

Hypercharge also offers Charging-as-a-Service as a low-risk option for select properties. We install, operate, and maintain the chargers, retaining ownership of them, and property owners earn a share of charging fees.

Hypercharge can work with you to determine the ownership model that best fits your property, goals, and needs.

Great site design is essential to making shared charging models work effectively, ensuring reliable network connectivity, adequate power, high visibility, and convenient locations. It may incorporate reserved chargers for specific users – either on a schedule or at all times – with clear signage for ease of use.

For shared charging, this also means determining how many designated EV stalls are needed, where they should be located, and how drivers will move through them as demand grows. 

Hypercharge’s EV Ready Plan delivers an in-depth site assessment, electrical planning report, hardware and software guidance, and a reliable project budget. We partner with experienced electrical contractors to build dependable, future-ready charging sites.

With customized charging solutions and load-sharing technology, we help properties make the most of their existing electrical capacity. We can also help determine whether shared or dedicated charging is the right fit for the site.

A successful shared charging model depends on the ability to tailor charger access, fees, and payment options to meet the needs of different users.

This is particularly important when the same charging stations are used by multiple residents, tenants, employees, visitors, or members of the public.

Quantev™ Operations Suite, Hypercharge’s cloud-based site control and analytics platform, makes it easy to organize users into groups and assign specific charger access and fees to each group.

With Quantev’s dynamic pricing capabilities, property owners can adjust charging rates to reflect the variable cost of energy throughout the day and encourage charging during off-peak hours.

Through Quantev, property owners can choose from a variety of per-use fees:

• Free Charging: Complimentary charging with optional usage limits.
• Time Charging: Fees calculated by the minute or hour.
• Energy Consumed: Fees based on energy consumption, charged per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
• Flat Fees: Fixed fee per session

 Additional options include combined parking and charging fees, applying per-minute idle fees to vehicles that are parked in an EV space without charging, and offering monthly or annual subscriptions for dedicated chargers that can reduce the cost per charging session. 

Quantev also provides valuable insights into charging behaviour, including time of use, charging frequency, and session duration.

These insights can help property owners manage electricity costs, understand user habits, and plan for additional chargers. These insights can also help determine when utilization of shared stalls supports adding more charging capacity.

For drivers, the Hypercharge Driver Mobile App provides a simple way to activate chargers and pay as they go. Credit card readers round out payment options with tap-to-pay, making charging available to users who prefer not to use a mobile app.