What does it take to build a charging hub?
A site host, a grid connection, an energy supply contract, a building permit and backend and roaming partners. The grid connection is usually the slowest step.
Explained in
Which permits and contracts does a site need?Lease, grid connection, energy supply, building permit, backend and roaming: the agreements behind one charging hub, and who signs them.Most steps depend on each other. Without a lease, no grid operator reserves capacity; without capacity, no permit makes sense; without a permit, nothing is built. Developers therefore start the slowest steps first, usually the grid connection, and secure the land early.
Terms
- RoamingCharging in another company's network with your own card or app.
- Site hostThe owner of the location, who provides the parking spaces for the chargers.
- LeaseThe contract that lets an operator use a site's parking bays and space for its chargers for a fixed term, often ten years or more, in return for rent or a revenue share.
Related questions
- How far apart are fast chargers on EU motorways?Along the TEN-T core network, AFIR requires a charging pool at least every 60 km in each direction: 400 kW by the end of 2025, 600 kW by the end of 2027.
- Why does a charging hub need its own transformer?A megawatt at 400 V needs about 1,700 A. At medium voltage the current is a fiftieth of that, so large hubs connect there with their own transformer.
- What is utilisation of a charger?The energy a charger delivers compared with what it could deliver at full power all year. Because most costs are fixed, it decides whether a site pays back.
- What is in a grid connection offer?The connection point, the agreed capacity, a one-off contribution and the cable cost, the grid fees with their capacity and energy price, the timeline and the conditions. The deep dive reads a composed offer line by line.