EV Charger Investment Calculator

Estimate the levelized cost of EV charging, annual cash flow, and payback period for a public Level 2 or DC fast charger. Inputs default to industry-typical numbers — adjust them to your situation.

State (auto-fills utility rate)

13.0¢/kWh · US-average commercial — EIA API key not configured

Utility rate ($/kWh)

What you pay the utility per kWh. Override if you have a special EV-charging tariff.

Capital costs

Hardware cost ($)

Typical 150kW DCFC: $40k-$80k

Install cost ($)

Trenching + service upgrade: $50k-$150k+

Incentives ($)

Federal 30C + state/utility rebates

Operating assumptions

Annual kWh delivered

DCFC moderate util: 50k-150k kWh/yr per port

Retail rate to drivers ($/kWh)

Public DCFC: $0.35-$0.55/kWh

Demand charge ($/kW/month)

Typical commercial: $10-$25/kW-month

Peak kW (utility billing)

Charger rated kW (or your demand-window peak)

Annual O&M (% of capital)

Industry default ~4%

Amortization (years)Discount rate (%)

Cost of capital (typical 5-10%)

Results

Levelized cost

$0.655/kWh

Margin per kWh

$-0.205/kWh

Simple payback

—

Net capital (after incentives)$105,000

Annualized capital$14,266

Annual revenue$40,500

Annual energy cost$11,700

Annual demand charges$27,000

Annual O&M$6,000

Annual cash flow-$4,200

Capital amortized over 10 yrs at 6.0% discount rate (CRF = 0.1359).
Annual operating cost exceeds revenue. Either utilization is too low, retail price is too low, or demand charges + utility energy cost dominate. Try raising annual kWh, raising retail rate, or moving to a charger-friendly tariff.

Methodology

Single-charger, single-tariff model. Capital is amortized over the charger's useful life using a capital-recovery factor at your discount rate. Annual operating cost is the sum of three lines: energy purchased from the utility, demand charges (peak kW × 12 months × $/kW-month), and a fixed % of capital for O&M and warranty. Revenue is annual kWh delivered times the retail rate you charge drivers. Levelized cost is annualized capital plus annual operating cost, divided by annual kWh delivered.

For more rigorous analysis — including time-of-use tariff modeling, multi-year utilization scaling, ownership-model comparisons (P3, third-party operator, host-owned), and sensitivity analysis — use Argonne's CHECT (Charging Hub Economic and Costing Tool). CHECT is a free Excel workbook from Argonne National Lab; this calculator implements the simplified single-charger case from the same methodology.

For levelized cost-of-ownership calculations on the vehicle side (including total cost of ownership for fleets), see Argonne's AFLEET tool.

Inspired by methodology from Argonne National Laboratory's CHECT tool. Numbers shown are estimates based on your inputs — for capital procurement decisions, use a full pro-forma model. Federal 30C credit rules subject to annual change; verify eligibility with a tax advisor.