All insights
Perspective
EV charging for gyms: how a workout becomes a charging session
Sofie Berggren
·
Most car parks are a cost. A gym car park is closer to an asset, because the people using it stay put. EV charging for gyms works for one simple reason: a member arrives, trains for 60 to 90 minutes, and leaves. That is close to an ideal charging window, long enough to put meaningful range into a car without anyone waiting, and short enough that the same bay can serve several drivers a day.
The reason most fitness sites still have no fast charging is not a shortage of interested drivers. It is the electrical connection at the building. This article covers why gyms suit charging, why the grid connection is usually the obstacle, how battery storage gets around it, what the revenue could look like, and what to check before committing.
Why gyms are unusually good locations for EV charging
Dwell time is the scarce ingredient in public charging, and two things tend to go wrong at destination sites. Where people stay only a few minutes, the charger has to be very powerful and very expensive to deliver anything useful. Where people stay all day, a single car can occupy a bay for eight hours and the charger earns almost nothing.
A gym sits between the two. An hour on site is enough to deliver around 40 kWh, a useful amount of range for most drivers, without the charger running at full power, and it means a bay can turn over several times a day. Gym visits are also habitual, so utilisation is easier to forecast than at a passing-trade location, and member pricing becomes a credible offer rather than a gimmick.
The demand picture supports this. According to the International Energy Agency's Global EV Outlook 2026, global electric car sales passed 20 million in 2025, meaning roughly one in four new cars sold worldwide was electric. The IEA also notes that fewer than 5% of electric cars on the road can currently use chargers above 250 kW, so the fleet driving to your site today is well served by a charger in the 100 kW range rather than the very high powers that dominate headlines.
The real constraint is the grid connection, not driver demand
Every building has a maximum amount of power it can draw at once, set by its main connection and protected by its main fuse. It is usually specified in amps, and for a mid-sized commercial building it is often smaller than owners expect. A site can run lighting, ventilation, heating and gym equipment quite comfortably on a connection that a DC fast charger would overwhelm on its own.
DC fast charging means the charger converts alternating current from the grid into direct current and feeds the car's battery directly, which is what makes it fast. It also makes it demanding. Add a 160 kW charger to a building whose entire connection is rated at a fraction of that, and the connection becomes the limit.
The conventional answer is to upgrade: a larger fuse, possibly a new transformer, new cabling, trenching across the car park and an application to the local grid operator. That combination is what usually kills the project, and often not because of the equipment cost. It is the civil works, the disruption to a car park your tenant needs open, and the wait for a connection decision. The IEA makes a related point at system level, observing that poorly planned charging infrastructure drives up peak demand, which in turn raises costs and lengthens grid connection timelines.
Connection rules, upgrade costs and permitting differ substantially between countries, so treat this as the general pattern rather than a quotation for your site. If you want to know what your existing connection can actually support, try our savings calculator.
How battery storage lets you add fast charging to the connection you already have
A battery energy storage system, usually shortened to BESS, is a set of batteries with the electronics to charge and discharge them under software control. Pairing one with a charger changes the arithmetic of the connection.
The battery draws power slowly and steadily from the existing supply while nothing is plugged in. When a member starts a session, the car is fed largely from the battery rather than directly from the grid, so the building's peak draw stays low while the power reaching the car stays high. The battery then refills before the next session. A gym suits this well because demand is spread across the day, leaving an hour or more of quiet time between sessions for the battery to recover.
Two further points matter commercially. If the site has solar panels, or might add them, the same cabinet can take a direct solar input, so generation that would otherwise be exported at a low price goes into charging instead. And where a unit has two outlets with flexible power allocation, one car alone can draw the full output while two cars share it, so capacity is not stranded when only one bay is in use.
The honest limit: a battery reduces or defers the need for a grid upgrade in many cases, and it does not remove that need in every case. Whether it works at your site depends on your load profile, connection size, expected sessions and local regulation.
How much revenue can EV charging for gyms generate
The calculation below is based on a 160 kW EV charger with a 261 kWh battery, assuming 40 kWh delivered per charging session and a charging price of approximately €0.27/kWh.
Scenario | Sessions per day | Energy delivered per day | Gross charging revenue* |
|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 2 | 80 kWh | about €650 per month, €7,900 per year |
Expected | 5 | 200 kWh | about €1,630 per month, €19,800 per year |
High utilisation | 8 | 320 kWh | about €2,600 per month, €31,700 EUR per year |
*Based on 30 days per month and 365 days per year. All figures are estimates before tax. All figures are estimates before tax and do not account for electricity costs, grid fees, payment processing fees or other operating costs.
How to run the numbers for your own site
The calculation is simple, so you can replace our assumptions with yours: sessions per day, multiplied by energy per session, multiplied by your price per kWh. Our savings calculator does it for you.
The table shows gross revenue, not margin. Subtract the cost of the electricity you buy, any network or capacity charges, payment processing and roaming fees, and any share owed to another party under your commercial arrangement. What remains is the figure to compare against the installed cost of the equipment.
Where the value lands: owner, operator, member
For the property owner. The installation adds a service tenants and their customers increasingly ask about, puts electrical and parking infrastructure in place before it becomes a condition of letting rather than a differentiator, and creates a potential revenue line from space that currently generates none. One commercial question is worth settling before any technical work begins: who owns the charging revenue. The landlord may fund and operate it, the gym tenant may, or the two may share it. Each route changes the business case, the lease implications and who carries the utilisation risk.
For the gym operator. Charging is a retention argument. It gives members a reason to choose one site over an equivalent one a few minutes away, supports discounted member pricing or a membership tier, and reinforces a modern, practical brand position, all without adding staff.
For the member. Charging happens during an hour already committed, so it replaces a separate errand rather than adding one. They plug in on arrival, train, and drive away with more range than they came with.
Siting: what makes a good charging bay at a fitness site
Placement affects both cost and revenue, and the two usually pull in the same direction. Siting the unit close to the building keeps it near the existing electrical connection, which cuts cable runs and trenching, and trenching is the most disruptive and least predictable part of the installation. Visibility matters just as much: a unit members can see from the entrance and the car park gets used, while one tucked behind the building does not. Easy access, clear marking and the option of reserving one or two dedicated bays all protect utilisation by keeping the bays available to the drivers who need them.
The equipment: charging and storage in one cabinet
The practical route for a site like this is a single cabinet containing both the charger and the battery, rather than two installations to specify, site and connect.
The Emaldo EM-C+H160 is built for that job. It delivers up to 160 kW of DC charging across two CCS2 outlets, the connector standard used by most electric cars in Europe, with flexible allocation between them. Behind the charger sits a 261 kWh battery using LFP cells, a lithium iron phosphate chemistry chosen in commercial installations for its thermal stability and long cycle life.
What to check before you commit
How big is your existing connection? Your main fuse rating and connection capacity are on your electricity agreement or your distribution board, and your grid operator or an electrical contractor can confirm both. This is the first number any supplier will ask for.
What utilisation is realistic here? Member numbers, visit patterns, the share of members likely to drive electric and what charging already exists nearby matter more than national EV statistics.
What do local rules require? Connection applications, permitting, metering and fire safety requirements vary by country and sometimes by municipality.
Who bills the driver, and how? Card, app, RFID or membership account each change the member experience and the fee structure.
What happens over the life of the battery? Ask for cycle life under stated test conditions, expected capacity retention, and what the warranty covers.
Once you have the first of those numbers, the rest follows quickly. Use our savings calculator to learn more.
Speak to an energy expert about your site
Every figure above changes with your connection size, your local charging prices and your members' habits. Try the savings calculator for a first estimate, then you can speak to an energy expert about your site or project to find out what suits you. That is the only case worth planning around.
Frequently asked questions
How much grid capacity do I need for DC fast charging at a gym?
Less than you would need without a battery. A conventional 160 kW charger needs a connection able to supply that power directly, whereas a battery-supported unit can draw far less from the building and use stored energy to meet the peak. The exact requirement depends on your connection, your building's own load and expected sessions, so it needs calculating for your site.
Who owns the charging revenue, the landlord or the gym?
That is a commercial decision, not a technical one. Either party can fund and operate the installation, or they can share it. Settle it before the project starts, because it determines who carries the utilisation risk.
Can this work alongside solar?
Yes, where the unit supports a direct solar input. On-site generation can go into charging rather than being exported, though how much value that adds depends on your local export arrangements.