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. Most steps depend on each other, so the developer in this path starts the grid connection first.

Explained in

Charging infrastructure · Stop 03Which 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. This developer therefore starts the grid connection first and secures the land early.

From “The order matters”, stop 03

Terms

  1. RoamingCharging in another company's network with your own card or app.
  2. Site hostThe owner of the location, who provides the parking spaces for the chargers.
  3. LeaseThe contract that lets an operator use a site's parking bays and space for its chargers in return for a fixed rent.
  1. How many public charge points are there in Europe?More than 1.1 million in the EU alone: the European Alternative Fuels Observatory counted 1,159,838 public recharging points in August 2026. The map on this site covers part of the network: 839,000 public charge points at 227,000 sites across Europe, from national registries and OpenChargeMap.
  2. 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.
  3. Why does a charging hub need its own transformer?Large hubs connect at medium voltage, in Germany 10 to 30 kV, above the 400-volt street grid. The transformer that steps the voltage down for the chargers then becomes part of the site.
  4. 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.