🎯 The business: an electrical contractor that specializes in one thing: charging equipment. Home Level 2 chargers first, then apartment buildings, workplaces and fleet depots. The electrification decade needs more installers than it has, and a specialist out-sells a generalist on every quote.
New EV owners, usually within a month of buying the car, referred by dealers and utility rebate programs. A home Level 2 install bills $800 to $2,500 depending on the panel and the run. Multifamily and workplace projects run $20,000 to $200,000 and up, often with utility or federal incentives paying a share. Fleet depots are the large, repeatable contracts.
| Electrical contractor license (yours or a licensed partner’s) | $300 to $1,000 plus the exam path |
| Van, tools, meter, conduit bender, opening stock | $15,000 to $30,000 |
| LLC, bond, liability insurance | $3,000 |
| EVITP certification (required for many public-funded jobs) | $300 to $500 |
| Website, dealer and utility installer listings | $1,000 |
| All-in | ≈ $20,000 to $36,000 |
Get on your utility’s approved installer list and the charger manufacturers’ networks; both send customers. Visit every EV dealer within thirty minutes with a flat-rate card for their sales desk. Build a quote process that works from photos of the panel and the garage, so you can price a job in an hour. Learn the rebate paperwork cold; filing it for customers wins quotes.
A $1,600 home install is about four hours and $400 of materials, so two a day is a very good day. Three a day, five days a week, is roughly $20,000 a week of revenue with two electricians. A single multifamily project can equal a month of homes. Permit fees and inspection scheduling are the drag on volume; a dedicated office person pays for themselves early.
Electrical work requires a licensed contractor in every state, and most require a permit and inspection for a charger circuit. The National Electrical Code article on EV supply equipment, utility interconnection rules for larger loads, and the certification requirements attached to any incentive program you want your customers to use.
Panels that are full, which turns a $1,200 job into a $4,000 service upgrade the customer did not budget for; quote it from the photo, not on site. Rebate programs that change mid-year. Permit backlogs. Commercial projects with slow-paying developers. Price for the paperwork, not just the wire.