Is a charging station worth it? What to look at before investing

Those thinking of opening a charging station usually start with the equipment: which charger, how many kW, which brand. The questions that decide the business come before that. Where the point is, whether the energy reaches the space and who will take care of it once it's switched on. This text gathers the six questions we ask before recommending a point, and the signs that the answer is no.

The market grows, and so does the competition

In August 2026 Brazil had 29,866 public and semi-public charging points, 76.9% more than a year earlier, according to the ABVE study with the Tupi platform. Fast charging in direct current (DC) already accounts for 38.2% of the network. Paraná appears with 2,513 points, and Curitiba with 796.

The fleet grows along with it. The same study counts 639,133 plug-in cars (fully electric and plug-in hybrids) registered from 2022 to August 2026, or 21.4 vehicles per charging point. And electrified vehicles, combining electric and hybrid, reached 21.8% of sales in the Brazilian auto market in August 2026, according to ABVE.

The two numbers tell the same story from different sides. There are more drivers looking for charging, and there are more points competing for each of them. Whoever opens a charging station today enters a booming market with neighbors who are also opening, which is why the location and the operation matter more than the charger.

Anyone can sell charging

Under ANEEL, any interested party can charge electric vehicles, including for commercial exploitation at freely negotiated prices. The rules are in Chapter V of Normative Resolution No. 1,000/2021, which replaced the first rule on the subject, from 2018 (ANEEL's page on electric vehicles).

You set your price. The neighbor sets theirs, and the driver compares the two before leaving home.

The six questions before investing

1. Does the driver already pass by or already stop here?

Charging takes time, and the driver sits parked while the car charges. The point earns where that time fits into something they'd do anyway: fuel up, have lunch, shop, wait for the end of a shift. A hidden place, hard to reach or off the route, depends on the driver detouring just to charge, and that happens rarely when there's another point a few minutes away.

2. Does the energy reach the space?

A fast charger demands a power level that not every property has to spare. It may be necessary to increase the contracted load, change the energy service or request construction work from the utility, and each of these has a cost and a timeline. For ABVE, the sector's bottleneck today lies precisely in the timeline and the conditions for connecting new loads to the grid. In the same study, the association notes that ANEEL opened, on September 10, 2026, Public Consultation 033/2026 to revise those connection rules.

Request the assessment of the electrical installation before choosing the charger. The size of the equipment comes from the available energy.

3. How much will the kWh you buy cost?

Every kWh the charger delivers was bought beforehand, and the difference between the selling price and that cost is the margin of each session. Paying the utility's full tariff squeezes that margin. One way to lower the cost is energy credits from distributed generation, provided for in Law 14,300/2022, which created the Electric Energy Compensation System. At our points we use energy credits from solar generation, with a cost per kWh lower than the utility's tariff.

4. What power and which connector?

Power follows the stop time. Where the stop is short, like at a gas station or convenience store, DC fast charging makes sense. Where the car sits for hours, like at a hotel or company yard, an AC charger may be enough and costs less. The DC chargers in our network are 60 and 80 kW, with a CCS2 connector. The difference between the two types of charging is in fast or slow charging.

5. Who is already around?

Look at the charging stations a few minutes from the location: how many there are, what power, what hours they keep and how occupied they are. A neighbor with its DC free most of the day indicates little demand in the region. A neighbor with a queue indicates demand that hasn't yet been met. Bring this question into the conversation before investing.

6. Who will operate the point?

Once switched on, the charging station requires work every day. Someone needs to know when it stops, help the driver who can't start the charge, adjust price and hours and check the payout from the payment method. A stopped charger generates no session, and often the owner only discovers the stoppage when the driver complains (see what to check when the charging station stops). Decide who does this work before buying, because it counts as much as the energy.

The math, before the charger

The month's result comes from five numbers: sessions per day, kWh per session, the price per kWh, the cost of energy and the share of whoever operates the platform. The formula is in how much a charging station earns. To know how long it takes for the investment to return, add up alongside it what you spend once:

• the charger;
• the electrical work and, if needed, the adaptation of the energy service;
• the design and inspection of the site (since February 2026 a national Fire Department guideline for charging points has been in effect, according to ABVE);
• the signage and the preparation of the space.

If the investment only pays off with a number of sessions per day that no neighboring point reaches, the math is giving a warning. To see what's left at the end of the month after energy, tax, rent and maintenance, the Velquia blog brings the math of an illustrative example: a charging station is profitable, the math of what's left at the end of the month.

When the answer is no

Sometimes the study recommends not investing, or investing in another way. The most common signs:

• the driver has no reason to stop at the location, and the neighbor is closer to the route;
• the energy only reaches the space with construction work that the expected traffic doesn't pay for;
• the point depends on a low price to attract people, and the purchased energy leaves no margin;
• no one is going to track the charger day to day.

Those who have the space and prefer not to invest can give up the space to a company that installs and operates the point. It's the model of Elektro Charge's partnerships.

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 want to set up their own point, we do feasibility consulting: we analyze the location, the available power, the cost and the return before you invest. The other questions in this text, like the neighbors and the cost of energy, come into the conversation. If the point doesn't make sense, we say so.