A charging station in the parking lot: three ways to have one

A parking lot already has what a charging station needs to start: spaces and a place where people stop. What changes from one case to another is who buys the charger and who takes care of it afterward. This text compares the three ways to have a charging point at your space, points to the type of charger for each parking lot and lists what to check before choosing.

Why a parking lot pairs with charging

Charging is not instant: the driver sits parked while the car charges. In a parking lot, that time already exists. They shop, have lunch, work or wait for someone, and the car charges in that same interval. Those who drive electric plan where they will charge, and between two similar places they pick the one that solves charging.

The ABVE numbers point in the same direction. In August 2026 the country had 29,866 public and semi-public charging points, and the slow-charging (AC) base grew 41.8% in 12 months. The association describes AC as the everyday infrastructure for condos, offices, long-stay parking lots and fleets (ABVE study with the Tupi platform).

The three ways

1. Give up the space

A charging company installs the charger at your space, operates it and takes care of the point. You bring the space, and the equipment and installation stay with the company. It is the form that asks the least of your cash and your team. In exchange, the decisions on equipment, price and operation stay with whoever operates, and what belongs to each side goes into a written agreement.

At Elektro Charge, this is the model of the partnerships: you give up the space, and we install, operate and maintain the point, with engineering partners.

2. Invest and operate on your own

You buy the charger, pay for the work and keep the point. The work also stays with you: tracking whether the charger is working, helping the driver who can't start the charge, setting price and hours and checking the payout from the payment method. It works when someone on your team has time for it. The numbers that decide whether the math works out are in how much a charging station earns, and the questions before buying, in is a charging station worth it?. To compare this path with a franchise and with setting up by hiring management, the Velquia blog brings six criteria: a charging station franchise or going it alone, which to choose.

3. Invest and hand over management

You buy the charger and hand the operation to a specialized company. The equipment is yours. The monitoring, driver support, price adjustment and payout checking stay with the management company. It serves those who want to own the equipment without building a team for it, and also those who already have a charger that earns little.

It is what we do in charging station management: the point enters the same platform on which we operate our network.

Topic	Give up the space	Operate on your own	Hand over management
Who buys the charger	The charging company	You	You
Who tracks the point	The charging company	You	The management company
Who serves the driver	The charging company	You or your team	The management company
Price and hours	Set by whoever operates	Set by you	Agreed in the deal
Your team's work	Give up and keep the space free	The point's day to day	Track the report

Which charger for each parking lot

Power follows the stop time.

• Short stop (gas station, convenience store, highway stop): DC fast charging, so the car leaves with useful charge in the time of a pause.
• Medium stop (shopping center, wholesale store, restaurant): DC or AC, depending on how long the customer tends to stay.
• Long stop (hotel, office, company yard, long-stay parking lot): AC may be enough, because the car sits for hours.

In our network there are examples of the first two cases. The Boqueirão unit, in Curitiba, is inside Auto Posto Ilha Bela, and the Araquari one, in the Multi Space parking lot. Both have DC fast charging with a CCS2 connector. The difference between the two types of charging is in fast or slow charging, and all the units are in charging points.

Company yard and fleet

For the company with electric cars, the yard is a long-stay parking lot: the car charges while it sits between one shift and another. What changes is the billing. Instead of selling charging to the public, the company wants to know how much each vehicle consumed, and that calls for consumption measured in each session. For the fleet that drives all day, the yard can be combined with fast charging at a public charging station along the way. The effect on cost per kilometer is in electric car for a fleet and company.

Before deciding, check

• Energy: how much power is left in the panel and at the energy service, and whether the utility needs to do construction work. That is what defines the possible charger.
• Space: easy access for those arriving by car, signage and a position that doesn't get in the way of the parking lot's circulation.
• Safety and inspection: since February 2026 a national Fire Department guideline for charging points has been in effect, with design and inspection parameters, according to ABVE.
• Use of the point: open to the public, only for customers or only for the fleet. That changes the hours, the billing and the service.
• Agreement: term, conditions, whose the session data is and what happens if one party wants to leave. Everything in writing, before the work.

Where Elektro Charge comes in

In our network there have already been more than 4,300 charges and more than 100,000 kWh delivered. For those who have the space and prefer not to invest, there are partnerships. For those who already have the charger, there is charging station management: site study, cheaper energy, AI monitoring, 24-hour driver support and a payout checked every month. And for those who are still going to invest, the study analyzes the location, the available power, the cost and the return before buying.