Curbstar vs. building-fed chargers

Why are EV Charging projects so expensive?

Conventional EV charger deployments get electricity from a nearby building. The building's service, panel and feeders have to carry the parking lot's electrical load on top of everything else. That means panel and feeder upgrades, a circuit run from the electrical room out to the lot, trenching across walkways and other hardscape, and more permits and inspection.

Curbstar includes all the infrastructure that conventional deployments have to include and upgrade inside the building. It has its own meter socket, and an electrical panel with a 125A main that doubles as the emergency disconnect. It gets its own service from the utility, directly from a nearby transformer. Because most parking areas have a nearby transformer, Curbstar runs tend to be shorter than building fed runs. No building necessary.

Building-fed charger: power runs from the utility transformer into the building's electrical room, which needs $5k to $20k in upgrades, then through a trench across paved surfaces that must be demolished and rebuilt, $7.5k to $20k, out to the charger. Higher upfront cost, disruptive construction, and long-term planning, since future expansion may require more building infrastructure upgrades.

Curbstar: EV charging infrastructure that bypasses the building entirely. A short utility-side run from a pole or pad mounted transformer feeds the Curbstar pedestal directly, with minimal pavement work and no building electrical upgrades. Less construction, no building dependency, and chargers can be added incrementally as demand grows.

Head to head, one pedestal, installed

Curbstar v1 ground mount against a comparable two-port, 40A ground mount charger fed from a building.

Cost item	Curbstar v1Ground mount	Building-fed Level 2Comparable 2-port unit
Building electrical upgrades	$0	$5,000 to $20,000
Typical construction	$5,000 to $7,000	$7,500 to $20,000
Permits and inspection	About $1,000	$1,000 to $3,000
Utility service upgrades	$0 to $6,000	$0 to $6,000
Typical installation, one pedestal	About $10,000	About $36,000
Annual recurring cost starting atIncluding percent of revenue retention, cloud fees, service fees	$600	$1,200

Add hardware for the all-in: about $23,500 for Curbstar vs about $48,000 for building-fed.

Each project is different, and real costs depend on the property layout, the condition of the building electrical, the local utility and grid. However, figures like these repeat across most properties and projects. These figures don't include hardware or incentives which are roughly equivalent regardless of approach. Building-fed figures are for a comparable two-port, 40A ground mount charger priced by an authorized dealer, with cloud plan and revenue terms based on competitive research.

Same service. Half the price.

Why are EV Charging projects so expensive?

Head to head, one pedestal, installed

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