When two of my sites opened, one of them at a hotel, I priced charging between 45 and 55 cents a kWh. That was roughly what the local Electrify America and Tesla stations charged at the time. I wanted to see how people would react and how they'd use the stations. They used them. Nothing crazy.
Once I had some repeat customers and some stability in utilization, I started raising the price by 5 cents every month or so. It peaked at 65 cents a kWh. I've kept it there for about two years. If anything, utilization has gone up.
Have I heard complaints about the price? Yes. I've also watched that same hotel charge $5 for a bottle of water you could get at Walgreens if you drove five or ten minutes. Nobody writes the hotel an angry email about the water. The point of a hotel charging experience, and of charging in general, is convenience. I'm pricing for convenience.
If you run a hotel, I've written separately about what I'd tell you about a free charger.
The industry prices like it's apologizing
A lot of charging is priced as if the operator owes the driver a favor. It doesn't have to be. Charging is inelastic to price. People worry about that more than they should, and the biggest network in the country just showed why.
Paren's Q3 2026 report has Tesla's average non-member price at $0.569 per kWh, up 15% in a year, and its member price at $0.396, up 9%. Everyone else averages about $0.533 and has been flat for five straight quarters. Over the same year, US fast-charging sessions grew 26%, and Tesla still built about 31% of the new fast-charging ports added in Q3. Gas, meanwhile, averaged a record $4.33 a gallon in September, according to AAA. I covered those numbers in an October roundup.
That's supply and demand working. Tesla has a robust system, people want to use it, and of course it's going to charge for it and make a profit. I wouldn't call that the Apple model. I'd call it a sustainable business model. You have to look at charging as a business, not a charity. Charging more because people will pay it helps your bottom line and makes the business more sustainable.
Nobody else in retail apologizes for location
None of this is new. Gas stations don't make much on fuel. Most of the money is in the store. But they still price fuel on traffic and demand. A station on a busy road with no competition charges more than one on a quiet road or one with competition nearby.
A McDonald's in New York City can charge different prices depending on which part of the city you're in. Airports charge airport prices for everything. Yes, costs differ by location, and utility costs have probably gone up for most hosts. But pricing is still pricing. A sustainable business prices on demand.
Charging already does a little of this. In the same Paren report, the average fast-charging price runs from $0.424 per kWh in Nebraska to $0.877 in Hawaii. About 27% of per-kWh stations use time-of-use pricing, where the peak rate averages $0.637 and off-peak averages $0.438. The other 73% charge one flat price all day.
That doesn't mean raise your price tomorrow
Does this mean everyone should raise prices? No. Tesla can charge more because it has the utilization and the volume. Most other networks are still building that. Charging shouldn't be a loss-making business. It can be profitable, but you need the utilization and the volume to drive it, and you have to know what's actually driving your demand and what isn't.
Here's how I did it at my sites:
- Start at the local market price and see how people react.
- Wait for repeat customers and steady utilization before you touch it.
- Raise it in small steps, about 5 cents a month, and watch what happens after each one.
- Stop where it settles, and hold. Mine has held at 65 cents for about two years.
- Expect a few complaints. Price for the convenience you're actually selling.
What I'd do
If you host chargers and you're still at the price you opened with, look at your repeat customers and your utilization trend. If both are steady, you've probably earned the right to test a small increase. Do it in steps, watch the sessions, and don't apologize for it.
The business model guide walks through where the revenue in a charging site actually comes from, and the benchmarks page shows what other sites earn. If you're still deciding where to build, the site planner takes your own numbers.
