Funded vs owner-operated: the car-park charging decision
This is the single biggest choice a car-park owner makes — and the one no charge-point operator will lay out neutrally, because a straight comparison undercuts their own model. Here it is, without an agenda.
QUICK ANSWER
In a fully-funded deal a charge-point operator installs and owns the chargers at £0 capital to you and pays you a revenue share — lowest risk, lowest control, no operating burden. Owner-operated means you buy the hardware and connection and keep the full margin between the retail price and your energy cost, plus the grant and 100% tax allowance — highest upside, but you carry the capex, grid and O&M risk. Hybrid blends the two. As a rule of thumb, above ~30-35% utilisation owning tends to win on economics; below it, the risk transfer of a funded deal is usually worth more than the extra margin. The right answer is site-specific — we model both for you.
Fully-funded vs owner-operated vs hybrid
| Fully-funded (CPO) £0 capex, revenue share | Owner-operated You buy, you keep the margin | Hybrid / managed Shared or financed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront capital | £0 to you | Full hardware + connection | Shared / financed |
| Who owns the chargers | The operator | You | Shared / you |
| Your income | A revenue share (~20-40%) | All of the retail-minus-energy spread | A blend or a fixed fee |
| Grid-connection risk | The operator | You | Usually the operator/partner |
| O&M and reliability SLA | The operator | You (or a contract) | Shared |
| Tariff & brand control | Partial | ||
| Grant + 100% tax allowance to you | Sometimes | ||
| Typical contract length | 15-25 years | You decide | Negotiated |
| Best when | Provision + yield, no capital | High utilisation, want the upside | Phased or part-financed |
When each one actually wins
Choose fully-funded when…
- Your site is public off-street (retail, supermarket, leisure) with uncertain utilisation.
- You want provision and yield without capital or an O&M team.
- A rapid bank would need a costly grid connection you'd rather the operator carried.
- Charging is a means to footfall, not a profit centre in itself.
Choose owner-operated when…
- Utilisation is likely to be strong (~30%+) — high footfall or a captive audience.
- You have workplace/staff bays eligible for the £500/socket grant.
- You want full control of tariffs, data and brand, and the tax write-off.
- Your grid can take it with load balancing, avoiding a big connection cost.
INDICATIVE REVENUE ESTIMATOR
Rough out what owner-operated charging could earn
A back-of-envelope model for the owner-operated route — you own the chargers and keep the margin. It runs entirely in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere. Treat every figure as indicative: real numbers come from a site survey.
Rough model only. It derates AC power to what cars actually accept, then deducts ~45% for maintenance, standing charges, payment and back-office fees to estimate payback — but still excludes grid-connection upgrades and any grant or 100% first-year tax relief. On a fully-funded deal you’d instead take a share of this revenue at £0 capital. Real utilisation is location-driven; a site survey is the only way to firm up the number.
Get the real numbers — request a feasibility →A worked example: where the crossover sits
Take two 50kW DC rapids on a retail car park, roughly £60,000 of hardware, civils and connection. Say the retail price is 65p/kWh and your commercial energy cost is 26p, a gross spread of 39p — and after roughly 45% for maintenance, standing charges, payment and back-office fees, a net margin of about 21p/kWh.
- At ~10% utilisation (a quiet site), each 50kW charger delivers on the order of 40,000 kWh a year, so two earn roughly £17,000 net — a payback past 3.5 years and exposed if usage disappoints. Here a fully-funded deal, where the operator carries that risk for a revenue share, is usually the better trade.
- At ~30% utilisation (a busy destination), the same two chargers earn on the order of £50,000 net a year — a payback closer to 1.5 years, and owner-operated clearly wins because you keep all of that margin plus the grant and tax relief.
The crossover — where owning starts to beat a revenue share — typically sits around the 30–35% utilisation mark, which is why an honest utilisation read for your site matters far more than any headline return. Try the revenue estimator to see how sensitive the number is to utilisation, then let us model it properly.
How the three models compare on the money
Fully-funded (CPO-owned / free-to-host)
Watch: lease length (often 15-25 years), exclusivity, and make-good/removal terms that can constrain future redevelopment
Owner-operated
Watch: market net margins are low single digits, so profit hinges on the retail-minus-energy spread and on real utilisation — model it before you buy
Hybrid / concession / managed service
Watch: the detail of who carries connection cost, O&M SLA and hardware refresh
Common questions
Which model makes more money?
Owner-operated keeps the full retail-minus-energy margin, so on a high-utilisation site it out-earns a revenue share — but you carry the capex, the grid-connection risk and the O&M. Fully-funded gives you a share of the revenue at £0 capital and no operating burden. Above roughly 30-35% utilisation, owning tends to win on pure economics; below it, the risk transfer of a funded deal is usually worth more than the extra margin.
What revenue share is normal on a funded deal?
It is privately negotiated and varies widely by footfall, location and exclusivity, but shares in the region of 20-40% of charging income are commonly cited — either gross of income or net of the operator’s costs, depending on the contract. Always check which basis a quoted percentage is on.
Can I switch from funded to owned later?
Sometimes, but the lease terms decide it — funded deals often run 15-25 years with the operator owning the kit. A hybrid or managed-service structure can be designed to give you a route to ownership. We review the contract before you sign so a funded deal doesn’t quietly cap your options.