Electric vehicles are still growing in popularity despite the expiration of federal EV purchase incentives. These vehicles need places to charge, and serving as a charging station for employees, tenants, and guests—and in some cases, monetizing the transaction—makes sense for a growing number of building owners.
Wimer, senior product manager, EV charging, for Pacific Energy Concepts (PEC), explained how to weigh your EV charging options in his presentation at the 2026 North Texas Facilities Expo.
Why Facilities Add EV Charging
Building owners typically name one of these four reasons when they install EV charging infrastructure, Wimer said:
- Attracting people: Employees, tenants, and guests notice who is offering EV charging.
- The equipment can pay its own way: You can bill users by kWh or session to recover your costs or even earn revenue.
- Cut fleet fuel costs: Electricity per mile costs a fraction of what gasoline costs.
- Get ahead of demand: You can plan for EV charging now (and even put in infrastructure for additional charging stations you’ll install later) instead of retrofitting under pressure in the future.
Types of Electric Vehicle Chargers
There are three types of EV chargers to choose from, Wimer explained:
Level 1: This 120-volt AC option charges over a longer period.
Level 2: This AC equipment provides charge through 240V (in residential applications) or 208V (in commercial applications) electrical service.
Level 3: Also known as DC fast charging, Level 3 chargers can charge a car much more quickly than a Level 1 or 2 charger, taking a typical electric vehicle from empty to 80% charged in 20 minutes to an hour.
“Everybody wants the biggest and fastest,” Wimer said. “How long the cars stay picks the charger—dwell time is what it comes down to when picking out what kind of charger you want. If your car sits for a long period of time, having it charged while you sit is more economically efficient and better for the vehicle overall.”
Places like office buildings, multifamily, and hotels can opt for Level 2 chargers because people are staying longer, Wimer explained. Retail applications and fleet yards may want higher-power Level 2 chargers or DC fast chargers to get power into cars faster.
What Your Charger Installer Will Look At on a Site Walk
When you choose an EV charger provider, they’ll come out and look at your site to ensure it’s ready for your charging installation, Wimer said. They’ll typically look at several factors that influence your project, including:
Spare capacity in the electrical room: “What do we have to use and where can we get it?” Wimer said. “This is after understanding the need in terms of miles driven, kWh, and what you’ll need from a charging perspective.”
Distance from the panel to parking: “Distance is money and scope,” Wimer explained. “It can add varying degrees of difficulty.”
Surface areas: Are you installing the charger into asphalt, concrete, or landscape?
Cellular signal: This is critical if you plan to use networked chargers, Wimer said.
Utility service and transformer: You need spare capacity on your transformer even if it appears your building itself has sufficient capacity, Wimer explained: “It’s important to go all the way back to the source. You’d be surprised how often folks will build around what’s available on their panel with an undersized transformer on the back end, which is scary.”
Who issues the permit: Which permitting jurisdictions will your installer work with?
Room to grow: Think about your future needs on your first build. Even if you don’t plan to expand very soon, you can save your future self considerable time, energy, and money by running conduit for future EV charging stalls.
5 Costly Mistakes You Can Make When Installing EV Charging
Beware of these potential pitfalls you can run into with EV charging projects, Wimer warned.
- Buying hardware first: “The site should pick the charger, not the other way around,” Wimer said.
- Ignoring demand charges: This is a monthly bill surprise that never goes away, Wimer said. Understand your usage and demand charges and how they’ll affect your utility bills.
- Skipping the load study: If you’re unsure about the amount of power you have in the building, don’t sleep on the load study, Wimer said. You don’t want to find out mid-project that you need new electrical service.
- No room to grow: Don’t trench the same lot twice. “You don’t always need to [build in extra stall capacity] because there are instances where it doesn’t make sense, but once you have shovels in the ground, do as much as you can,” Wimer said.
- Choosing the wrong software for the job: There are many EV software providers out there, and their products are different. Choose the right software for what you’re trying to do, whether that’s billing users, sharing power with the grid, or simply complying with your state’s requirements.
