The Next Chapter of EV Charging Is About Connecting Scale with Profitability
Ad
Reliable operations, seamless integration and strong customer experiences are emerging as the key factors determining the success of modern EV charging networks.
EV charging is no longer a question of adoption. For fuel retailers and convenience operators, charging has evolved from a future-facing investment into a business reality. The conversation today centers on network performance, customer experience, uptime and creating profitable growth across an expanding portfolio of sites.
In 2025, global EV sales exceeded 20 million, up 20% year over year. Today, more than one in four new cars sold worldwide are electric. That strong growth is no longer limited to a handful of mature markets. Emerging regions across Latin America, Asia and other parts of the world are increasingly accelerating EV adoption as governments, businesses and consumers embrace electrification.
While early EV charging deployments were often driven by location availability, utility access, incentives and market opportunity, today, operators are evaluating how charging fits into broader business operations. Reliability, service responsiveness, reporting visibility, customer experience and operational consistency have become just as important as charging speed.
The reality is that scale requires more than installing a lot of hardware. Retailers must evaluate site selection, utility constraints, funding opportunities, charger mix, future capacity requirements and long-term operational needs before construction even begins.
Increasingly, success is determined by decisions made long before the first charger is installed.
Gilbarco Veeder-Root's Konect solutions help retailers identify optimal locations, evaluate available incentives and develop scalable deployment strategies. Built on Gilbarco Veeder-Root's decades of forecourt expertise, Konect brings hardware, software and coordinated service together, enabling EV charging to work as part of the business – not alongside it.
Success in this next chapter of EV charging will depend on four critical factors: uptime, integration, seamless customer experiences and, above all, profitability.
Uptime is the driver of customer confidence
For EV drivers, reliability is often more important than charging speed.
A charger that is unavailable, out of service or difficult to use can quickly impact customer trust and brand perception. Maintaining high network availability requires more than robust equipment. It demands coordinated monitoring, proactive maintenance and clear accountability.
Successful charging networks operate as connected ecosystems where issues can be identified, managed and resolved quickly.
Why integration matters at scale
As EV charging networks mature, complexity emerges. Different hardware providers, fragmented software platforms, multiple service partners and disconnected reporting systems can all create additional management burden.
What may work for a small deployment can become increasingly difficult to manage across dozens or hundreds of locations.
The industry's next challenge is reducing operational friction before it affects performance.
This is why integrated channel partners are becoming increasingly valuable. By bringing together charging hardware, software, payment functionality, monitoring and support services within a unified framework, operators gain greater visibility and control while reducing administrative complexity. A connected commerce approach also enables retailers to deliver a more consistent customer experience across the forecourt, allowing drivers to interact with familiar payment methods, loyalty programs and retail touchpoints regardless of how they choose to fuel or recharge.
Instead of managing multiple vendors, retailers can focus on growing their business while maintaining confidence that charging operations are performing as expected.
Creating a seamless multi-energy forecourt
Around the world, retailers are transforming their sites into multi-energy mobility hubs where conventional fueling, ultra-fast EV charging, convenience retail, foodservice and digital services operate together to meet changing customer expectations.
For operators, this creates new opportunities to drive dwell-time revenue, strengthen customer loyalty and future-proof site investments. However, it also increases the need for technologies that integrate seamlessly into existing business operations.
As a result, charging cannot operate as a disconnected add-on. It must integrate naturally into the broader site environment and support the overall retail strategy, allowing energy, commerce and customer experience to work together.
The most successful operators will be those that make EV charging feel like a natural extension of the forecourt experience.
Protecting profitability for the long term
As competition increases and network density grows, profitability depends on more than attracting charging sessions. Operators must also consider the cost of managing infrastructure, maintaining equipment and supporting customers across multiple sites.
This is especially relevant as many early deployments approach upgrade or replacement cycles. These moments offer retailers an opportunity to evaluate not only charger specifications, but also the overall operating framework behind the network.
An integrated approach can help reduce inefficiencies, streamline service management and create a stronger foundation for growth.
The strongest ROIs are often realized through disciplined operations, effective network management and the ability to scale efficiently over time.
Looking ahead
When World EV Day launched in September 2020, electric mobility was still largely viewed as an emerging technology. Global EV sales totaled just a few million vehicles annually; charging networks were still developing; and many fuel retailers were evaluating whether electrification would become a meaningful part of their future business. Six years later, the industry looks dramatically different.
The next stage of the transition will not be defined solely by the next milestone of chargers deployed. It will be about how effectively charging networks perform, scale and contribute to long-term business success.
With the right foundation, strategy, technology and operational support, EV charging can become more than an offering. It can become a sustainable driver of revenue, customer loyalty and future mobility.
Gilbarco Veeder-Root is a Vontier company. Find out more on the Gilbarco Veeder-Root supplier profile on MobilityPlaza.
