Somebody asked where they could plug in. Maybe it was a customer, maybe a tenant during a lease renewal, maybe your operations manager who just picked up a new EV and started making noise about the employee lot. That’s how this usually starts not with a strategy meeting, but with a question you didn’t have a good answer for. Here’s what I’d tell you before you invest in EV chargers.
Who’s Actually Using These Chargers
Two different drivers use a commercial charger, and they want opposite things. The customer parked at a South End shopping center for ninety minutes doesn’t need speed a Lvel 2 unit puts forty or fifty miles back in the battery while they eat, which is plenty. The driver pulling off I-77 with twelve percent left wants DC fast charging and will be gone in twenty minutes.
Figure out which one you’re serving before you invest in EV equipment. I’ve watched a property owner spend serious money on fast charging for a lot where everybody parks two hours anyway. The hardware worked fine. It just solved a problem nobody had.
Employee Lots Are the Easier Place to Start
Workplace charging is a simpler project than public charging, and it gets overlooked. Your employees park for eight hours. Low-power Level 2, sometimes two spaces sharing a circuit, covers a full day’s commute across Mecklenburg County without straining anything.
There’s no payment system to manage if you don’t want one. No public signage. No wondering whether someone’s going to sit in the spot without plugging in you know exactly who’s in that lot.
Where this falls apart is leased space. If you don’t control the parking, the conversation shifts to your landlord, and that can add months. Worth starting that call early if you plan to invest in EV capacity this year.
What Your Electrical Service Will Support
This is where projects stall. A pair of Level 2 chargers pulls real amperage, and plenty of Charlotte commercial buildings from the seventies and eighties are running panels with nothing left to give. Sometimes there’s room. Sometimes you’re looking at a service upgrade and a conversation with Duke Energy about the transformer, which is a longer timeline than most owners expect.
Load calculation first, always. It takes an electrician an hour or two on site and tells you whether this is a straightforward install or a project. Permits run through Mecklenburg County and commercial EV work gets inspected not a step to skip or self-perform. I’d rather deliver bad news in week one than after you’ve decided to invest in EV hardware and already bought it.
The Cost Picture and How to Phase It
The expensive part usually isn’t the charger. It’s the trenching, the conduit, and the panel work the stuff buried under your parking lot.
Which is the argument for overbuilding underground now. Running conduit for six spaces while the asphalt is already open costs a fraction of coming back in three years to open it again. You install two chargers today, you invest in EV infrastructure for later, and the expansion becomes a weekend instead of a project.
Duke Energy has run make-ready and commercial charging incentive programs in North Carolina, and terms change year to year check what’s active before you budget, not after. Federal tax credits have moved around lately too. Your accountant will know more than your electrician on that one.
Talk to Someone Before the Asphalt Opens
The failure mode I see isn’t a bad charger. It’s a rushed install undersized service, no permit, a parking lot torn up twice. Our Dependaworthy electricians run the load calculation and pull the county permit before anyone pours concrete. Call On Time Electric and find out what you will need to invest in EV chargers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many chargers do we need to start with?
Two is the usual answer for a customer lot, four to six for apartment complexes or if you’ve got heavy employee EV ownership. Start smaller than you think and run conduit for double. Demand data from your own lot beats anybody’s projection.
Can’t we just plug into an existing outlet?
A standard 120-volt outlet adds three or four miles an hour. Fine for an employee car sitting all day, useless for a customer. Anything faster needs a dedicated circuit, and commercial installs need a permit regardless.
How long does the whole thing take?
If the panel has capacity, two to three weeks from site visit to energized charger, most of that permitting and scheduling. If you need a service upgrade or new transformer, Duke Energy’s timeline drives everything and three months isn’t unusual.
Do people actually use these in Charlotte?
Depends entirely on the lot. Uptown garages and South End retail see steady use. A suburban industrial park with nothing walkable nearby, much less. Watch what’s already parking in your spaces before you invest in EV charging.
Is it worth it if we might sell the building?
Chargers show up as an amenity in commercial listings now, though nobody can hand you a clean number on added value. Selling within a year, skip it. Longer horizon, it’s easier to invest in EV capacity while you still own the place.
Get the load calculation done first. Everything else about this project either gets easy or gets honest after that.
