Who pays for the chargers at a supermarket or service station?

In many cases a CPO finances, builds and operates them, and the site host receives rent or a revenue share. Public funding can also contribute.

Explained in

EV charging fundamentals · Stop 07Who owns the charger?The contracts behind one charging site: who invests, operates, supplies hardware and software, connects the grid, and why utilisation matters most.

Terms

  1. CPOCharge point operator: runs the chargers, keeps them available and sells the charging service.
  2. Site hostThe owner of the location, who provides the parking spaces for the chargers.
  3. Revenue shareAn arrangement in which the site host receives a share of the charging revenue, per kWh or per session, instead of a fixed rent.
  1. What decides whether a charging site pays off?Utilisation: sessions and energy per day measured against the fixed costs. Location, roaming reach and availability all feed into it.
  2. Why do hotels install slower chargers?Guests park for hours, so 11 kW AC serves them well, while expensive high-power DC would rarely pay back. The power of a site follows how long people stay.
  3. Why does charging involve so many companies?Three things spread the work: the grid connection, the location where people park, and contracts that work across many networks. One company can hold several roles, but the roles stay separate.
  4. 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.