A Buyer's Guide to EV Charger Procurement for Commercial Facilities

This Checklist Is For You If...

You're an office or facility manager being told, "We need EV chargers in the parking lot." Maybe it's a request from HR for employee retention, or a push from the sustainability team. Maybe it's a directive from the C-suite after the CEO bought a Lucid. Either way, you're now the accidental expert on charging infrastructure.

I manage procurement for our company's facilities team. We're not in the automotive or energy business—we're a 400-person professional services firm. When the order came down to add EV charging, I had no idea where to start. After going through the process last year, I put together this checklist so you don't have to make the same mistakes I did.

There are 5 steps. Steps 3 and 4 are where most people get tripped up.

Step 1: Determine Your User Profile

Before you even talk to a vendor, you need to answer one question: who is using these chargers, and for how long?

Are they employees who park for 8+ hours? Visitors who stay for 1-2 hours? Fleet vehicles that need overnight charging? The answer drives everything from charger speed to billing.

• Employees (8+ hours): Level 2 chargers (6-7 kW) are fine. They can get a full charge during a workday.
• Visitors (1-2 hours): You might need Level 2 or even Level 3 DC fast chargers, but those are significantly more expensive.
• Fleet: Depends on the route. But you're likely looking at a dedicated depot setup.

We made our first mistake here. I assumed everyone needed fast chargers. The sales rep—who was very happy about this—quoted us for DC fast chargers for all 10 stations. It wasn't until I talked to our own employees that I realized most of them are happy to charge over 8 hours. We switched to Level 2 and saved roughly $40,000 on hardware alone. Maybe $45,000, I'd have to check the exact quote.

Step 2: Estimate Your Load (And Talk to Your Electrician)

This is where the romance of sustainability meets the reality of electrical panels. EV chargers draw a lot of power. A single Level 2 charger at 48 amps is roughly the same as running an entire house's AC system.

You need to know:

• The capacity of your main electrical panel (in amps or kVA)
• Your building's existing load (what's already using that capacity?)
• Available space and budget for a new sub-panel or transformer upgrade

Oh, and I should add that the utility company may need to be involved. If you're adding more than a few chargers, you might need a new transformer on the pole or a service upgrade. That's a 3-6 month lead time in many areas. We found this out the hard way when our electrician said, "The panel is full. You're looking at $15,000 for an upgrade, plus the wait."

Pro tip: get a site assessment first. Don't sign any equipment purchase orders until an electrician has looked at your building's actual capacity.

Step 3: Choose a Business Model (The Most Overlooked Decision)

This is the step that trips up 80% of facilities managers I've talked to. Everyone focuses on the hardware (the box on the wall) and forgets about the software and payment model.

There are three main models today:

1. Free charging: You own the chargers. Employees charge for free. You pay for the electricity. Pros: simple, great morale. Cons: you eat the cost, and employees will treat it as an unlimited resource. We estimated it would add roughly $1,500/month to our electricity bill with 10 chargers.
2. Pay-per-use with a network operator: A company like ChargePoint or Blink sells or leases you the hardware and handles the payment processing. Users pay per kWh or per session. Pros: you can recover costs. Cons: you're now a 'utility' and have to deal with billing questions, user support, and rate changes.
3. Make-ready (subsidized) model: You prepare the parking lot (trenching, conduit, wiring). A third-party company installs, owns, and operates the chargers. They share revenue with you. Pros: minimal capital outlay. Cons: you lose control over pricing and branding. Our company ultimately chose this model because of the lower upfront cost.

I went back and forth between Model 1 and Model 3 for about 3 weeks. Free charging would have been a huge employee perk; the subsidized model was better for the P&L. What tipped the scales was our CFO. He said, "Every $1,500 in recurring cost is $18,000 in revenue we need to find to cover it." That made the decision easy.

Step 4: Understand the Tax Incentives and Grants (The Hidden Money)

If you're in the US, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) changed the game for commercial EV charging. Under 26 U.S. Code § 30C, you can claim up to 30% of the cost of charging equipment (not installation) as a tax credit, capped at $100,000 per item.

What I mean is: if you buy 10 Level 2 chargers at $1,500 each, that's $15,000. The 30% credit is $4,500. (Check IRS guidance, because the exact calculation has changed—valid through 2032.)

There are also state-level grants. California has the CALeVIP program. New York has DRIVE Clean Rebates. Even states like Colorado and Minnesota have incentive programs. The trick is that many of these require the chargers to be in an underserved or low-income area or a multi-unit dwelling. Your office park in a wealthy suburb may not qualify.

Honestly? I missed this in our initial planning. A colleague at another company mentioned it after we'd already bought the chargers. We couldn't claim the credit retroactively—or actually we could, but we'd have to amend our taxes, which is a hassle we haven't done yet. Don't be me. Look this up before you buy.

A good starting point: the Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center maintains a state-by-state incentive list.

Step 5: Manage Installation and Operational Details

You've picked a charger, settled on a model, secured the grant. Now comes the part where theory meets asphalt.

• Permitting: Your local building department will need a permit for the electrical work. This can take 2-6 weeks depending on jurisdiction. Our city took 4 weeks—and that was after we paid a $600 expediting fee. (Should mention: the fee is usually refundable if the permit is issued within 15 days. Our city didn't honor that.)
• Parking lot layout: Will the chargers be in dedicated EV-only spots? (Best practice: yes, or you'll have ICE drivers parking in them.) How far from the building? The longer the trench run, the more expensive the installation.
• Network connectivity: Chargers need Wi-Fi or cellular for billing and monitoring. Our parking lot had zero Wi-Fi coverage. We had to install a dedicated hotspot or run a new network drop (we chose the latter, add $2,500).
• Signage: You'll need signs marking EV-only spots, including the hours of enforcement and towing policy. It's a small detail that matters when someone's car gets towed.
• Ongoing maintenance: Chargers break. Cables get run over. Screens go blank. If you're self-operating, budget $500-1,500 per charger per year for maintenance. It's not zero.

A Few Things To Watch Out For

• Don't buy more chargers than you need at the outset. You can always add more. We bought 10 when 6 would have been enough for the first year. Two are barely used.
• Get the installation contract in writing with clear timelines. Our installer was supposed to be done in 6 weeks. It took 11. The contract had no penalty for delays.
• Understand your insurance liability. What happens if someone trips over a charging cable? (Put it in a cable protector, but check your policy anyway.)
• Think about future-proofing. If you're running conduit, run bigger than you need. Conduit is cheap. Trenching is not. Running 4-inch conduit instead of 2-inch costs maybe $3 extra per foot. Adding a second charger zone later will cost thousands if you have to re-trench.

This was accurate as of early 2025. The EV charger market changes fast—new models, new incentive programs—so verify current incentives and pricing before you start budgeting. And if I were doing this again tomorrow, I'd start with an energy consultant who handles EV projects. It would have saved me a month of research and at least one expensive mistake.