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Pillar 04 · EV charging

Commercial EV charging, on your solar first

More of the cars arriving at business sites are electric: battery EVs were 24.9% of new vehicles sold in Australia in August 2026. Vitalic Energy designs, builds and runs charging for your own fleet, your staff and visitors, or the public, as part of your site’s energy system. Charging runs on solar first, and the control layer keeps it from setting a new demand charge.

Last updated 12 October 2026

Cars parked beside a solar carport, photographed from directly above

At a glance

Saves
Fleet and staff charging on your own solar, not public prices
Earns
Public charging at 60c a kWh and up, from solar worth 3c to 4c exported
On its own
An uncontrolled charger can set a new demand peak
Sized by
A business case: demand, site supply and expected returns

Which kind of charging suits your site

We design charging for three kinds of use, and many sites combine them. Each will grow over a charger’s life: on CSIRO’s middle forecast, electric vehicles grow from 2.7% of Australia’s cars in June 2026 to 10.4% by June 2030.

Your own fleet. Vehicles come back to base on a known timetable, so charging is planned around it: on solar through the day and off-peak overnight. Nothing is sold. The return is what the site saves against fuel and public charging.

Staff and visitors. Cars stay parked for most of the day, so slower AC chargers do the job and line up with the solar peak. You can charge for it or offer it free. For an eligible electric car provided to an employee, the charging electricity is exempt from FBT.

The public. Drivers pay per kWh, typically 60c and up for fast charging. Fast DC chargers earn more per kWh than AC chargers and draw much more power, so the price, the demand charge and the selling rules shape the design.

The business case for your site

Before you commit, we build a short business case for the use you have in mind. It covers five things.

Part · what it covers
PartWhat it covers
DemandHow much charging the site will see. For a fleet, from its vehicles and timetable. For public charging, modelled from the local market, published research and other local sources we have access to. Where chargers already exist, we start from their data and look for what to improve.
Market and locationFor public charging: what drivers pay at nearby chargers, who you compete with, and how well the site suits drivers, including access from arterial roads and somewhere to wait.
SupplyWhat the site’s switchboards can supply, how many bays that supports without a new grid connection, and what the Wiring Rules and the rules for selling charging require.
OptionsWhere the chargers go, how many and how powerful, who owns and operates them, and what to build now or leave room for, with our recommendation.
Expected returnsModelled revenue or savings and payback, with the assumptions and caveats they rest on, and how the chargers work with the site’s solar, battery and control layer.

What charging adds to solar

EV charging gives a site’s solar a better use than export. Surplus solar exported at midday earns about 3c to 4c a kWh. Used to charge your own fleet, it replaces energy you would otherwise buy. Sold through a public charger at 69c, it earns about 58c more than export after GST (Figure 1). That strengthens the case for solar you already have, and for new solar such as a canopy over the bays.

Exported to the grid3–4c
Sold through a chargermargin kept: about 58c69c
Figure 1. Sold through a public charger, a surplus kWh earns more than 14 times what it earns exported. Cents a kWh. 69c is an example price, GST-inclusive, at the bottom of NRMA’s 69–99c range; the charging platform’s fees come out of the margin. Export value: IPART’s 2026–27 midday benchmarks for the NSW networks, 3.1c to 4.4c a kWh; the margin is worked from 4.4c.

How charging fits the stack

Chargers join the site’s energy system rather than adding a new load to it. One control layer runs them with the solar and the battery, so charging uses solar first and does not set a new demand peak.

Where the chargers sit

The chargers connect to the site switchboard beside the solar and the battery, and the control layer directs all three (Figure 2).

Solar feeds a hybrid inverter, which charges and discharges the Battery storage battery and supplies the site switchboard, which also feeds the EV chargers. The site imports from and exports to the grid through the meter. An intelligent control layer reads price, tariff and site load and directs each of them. Intelligent controlreads price, network tariff and site loadDCAC Solarrooftop array Hybrid inverterconverts and routes Siteswitchboard + load Gridthrough the meter Battery storagestores midday solar for later EV chargerssolar firstenergycontrol
Figure 2. One control layer directs the solar, the battery and the chargers.

Where the energy comes from

Charging runs on solar first, then the battery, then the grid. Public charging is busiest from late morning to late afternoon, when solar is at its peak, and fleet and workplace charging can be timed to match. A battery keeps some of the midday surplus for evening sessions (Figure 3).

An illustrative commercial day. Solar rises from 6 am to a midday peak and sets at 6 pm, and the site's own load runs under it. Public EV charging runs through the day, busiest from late morning to late afternoon. At midday it runs on solar the site is not using, with surplus solar still left over. In the evening the battery supplies it, then the grid.
Figure 3. Public charging is busiest from late morning to late afternoon, so much of it runs on solar the site would otherwise export. The pale area above the charging is solar still left over. The battery, then the grid, carries the evening. Illustrative shapes, not a model of any site.

Demand charges

On a demand tariff, the network bills the site’s busiest half hour each month, and one fast-charging session can set a new peak. The control layer shares and limits charger power so the site’s grid draw stays under the peak it already pays for (Figure 4). Solar cannot do this on its own, because one cloudy half hour can set the month. A battery adds headroom where there is one.

An illustrative cloudy weekday. The site's own grid draw rises through the working day. Left uncontrolled, public charging stacks on top of it and rises well above the month's existing peak from late morning to late afternoon, which would set a higher demand charge. Controlled, charging fills only the headroom under the existing peak during those hours, and runs at full power in the morning and evening when there is room.
Figure 4. The control layer keeps charging under the peak the site already pays for. On a cloudy weekday, uncontrolled charging would set a new, higher peak and a higher demand charge for the month; controlled, drivers still charge, more slowly in the busiest hours. Illustrative shapes, not a model of any site.

Grants, tax incentives and other benefits

The business case finds and uses every grant and tax incentive open to your site. These are examples open today.

Grants

Tax and certificates

Other benefits

  • Charging revenue. Public drivers pay per kWh, at a price you set.
  • Idle fees. A per-minute fee once a car has finished charging keeps bays free for the next driver.
  • Car makers’ charging plans. Some car makers give new EV owners a year or more of free charging on a public network, which brings those drivers to sites on it.
  • Lower fleet running costs. Vehicles charged on site, on solar first, avoid public charging prices.

Up to $30,000: the NSW EV fleets incentive pays half the cost of a fast charger, up to $30,000 a port (applicant guidelines, December 2025); new applications join a waitlist until 30 November 2026. Grants open and close, and some charger rebates advertised online do not exist, so we check each against the government’s own page.

How EV charging works with the other four pillars

Pillar 01 · GenerationSolar PV GenerationDisplaces daytime grid imports at the retail rate.Pillar 02 · StorageBattery Energy StorageTime-shifts energy; cuts the billed demand peak.Pillar 03 · Demand managementDemand Response ManagementHolds flexible load out of the priciest intervals; cuts demand charge.Pillar 05 · Intelligent controlIntelligent Control SystemsChooses the cheapest source every 0.1 seconds.
Frequently asked

Common questions about commercial EV charging

Are there grants for business EV chargers?

Yes, in some states and sectors. In NSW, the EV fleets incentive pays half the cost of a DC charger up to 60 kW, to $30,000 per port, and up to $3,000 per AC port; new applications join a waitlist until 30 November 2026. Federally, the DRIVEN rebate is for dealerships and repairers, and ARENA’s Driving the Nation funds heavy-vehicle charging. As at 12 October 2026 we found no open business charger grant in Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, the ACT or Tasmania.

Can a business claim a charger under the instant asset write-off?

The ATO’s $20,000 instant asset write-off is permanent from 1 July 2026 for businesses with turnover under $10 million, and applies per asset installed ready for use. The ATO does not list chargers by name, so confirm with your accountant.

Is charging an employee’s EV at work subject to FBT?

For an eligible electric car provided to an employee, including through salary packaging, the ATO exempts both its private use and the electricity to charge it from FBT. The exemption does not cover a home charging station, and the government will review it by mid-2027.

What do drivers pay at public fast chargers?

60c a kWh and up. NRMA’s network charges 69c to 99c a kWh by site. In southern Brisbane on 9 October 2026, published fast-charging prices averaged 70c to 72c a kWh, session fees included, and almost every site charged 60c or more.

What is surplus solar worth if it is exported?

At midday, about 3c to 4c a kWh. IPART’s 2026–27 benchmarks for solar exported in the middle of the day are 3.1c to 4.4c a kWh across the NSW networks. Regional Queensland’s regulated rate is 6c, and in Victoria a retailer can pay nothing. No regulator publishes what larger businesses receive.

Do I need a licence to sell EV charging?

In Victoria, selling electricity to charge an EV is a deemed exemption under the General Exemption Order 2022, with an annual report to the Essential Services Commission. In Western Australia, charging station operators are exempt from licences until 30 June 2027. Elsewhere in the national market the AER is revising its exemption guidelines, with final versions due in November 2026, so we check the position for your site before you charge drivers.

Will DC fast chargers raise my demand charge?

Left uncontrolled, they can: on a demand tariff, one session can set the month’s peak. The control layer shares and limits charger power so the site’s grid draw stays under the peak it already pays for. Smaller charging loads may avoid demand tariffs altogether: charge-point operators using up to 160 MWh a year can opt into time-of-use tariffs in Victoria and on Energex and Ergon, and Western Power’s RT40 and RT41 tariffs charge no demand charge while evening-peak use stays under 15%.

Sources

Tax, tariff and selling rules as read on 7 October 2026; grants, market, price and export figures as read on 12 October 2026. Grants open and close; check the program page before relying on one.

What EV charging is worth on your site

Tell us how the chargers would be used. With twelve months of NMI interval data and your current tariff, we model demand, supply and returns against your real load.

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