ForgeAsset / Deal structures
Three ways a Supercharger site gets owned
The same twelve stalls on the same parcel produce very different cash flows depending on who paid for them. A model answers whether a site works as an operating business; the structure decides who receives that result. These are the three arrangements that recur, described in terms of what each party receives and carries.
Nothing here is a recommendation of a structure or a counterparty, and the terms of any specific agreement govern over any general description.
Own the site outright
The property owner funds construction, owns the hardware, and keeps the charging revenue.
The property owner receives
- —All charging revenue, at the retail price per kWh set for the site.
- —Clean-fuel credits where the state has a program, net of aggregator commission.
- —Depreciation on the equipment, and any capital incentive the project qualifies for.
The property owner carries
- —The full project cost — or its down payment plus a financed balance.
- —The utility bill, including the demand charge, which varies by roughly a factor of eight across the filed tariff library.
- —Operating costs: the network fee, insurance, entity taxes, property tax on the equipment, and maintenance.
- —Utilization risk. Revenue tracks traffic, and the ramp is the least predictable input in the model.
What the model prices: Fully. This is the structure the engine models end to end — every revenue and cost line, 15 years, payback, NPV, and IRR.
Lease the ground to an operator
A third party funds and operates the site; the property owner receives contracted payments for the parking area.
The property owner receives
- —A contracted payment stream, typically fixed or a percentage of throughput, independent of the site's own profitability.
- —No construction cost and no utility bill.
- —Whatever ancillary benefit the traffic brings to the rest of the property.
The property owner carries
- —Foregone charging revenue — the upside belongs to the operator.
- —Counterparty exposure for the term of the agreement.
- —Land committed for the lease term, with whatever reversion and removal terms the agreement specifies.
What the model prices: Partly. A contracted payment stream is straightforward to value on its own terms. What the engine adds is the other side of the table: modelling the site as an operating business shows what the operator's economics look like, which is the context in which a proposed lease payment can be read.
Host a third-party-funded build
A developer funds construction on the owner's property under a revenue-share or fixed-payment arrangement, with ownership terms varying by agreement.
The property owner receives
- —Participation in site revenue without funding construction.
- —Access to a build the property could not otherwise finance.
The property owner carries
- —A share of the economics proportional to what was contributed, which is generally the smaller share.
- —Terms that vary enormously between agreements — revenue-share basis, escalation, term, buyout, and who holds the incentives are all negotiated rather than standard.
- —Dependence on the funding party's underwriting, which may use assumptions the property owner has not seen.
What the model prices: Indirectly. The engine prices the underlying site. What the host receives is a contractual slice of that, so the model's role is establishing what the whole is worth before the split is agreed.
The question that comes first
Each structure divides a site's economics differently, which means each one is a claim on the same underlying number: what the site earns as an operating business. A lease payment can only be read against the revenue it displaces, and a revenue share can only be read against the revenue being shared.
That underlying number is set mostly by two things — the territory's filed utility tariff, which varies by roughly a factor of eight across the library, and the site's utilization. Build cost matters less than either; the build-cost tool prices that line for any stall count and state.
Deal structures — questions
- Can a property owner host a Supercharger without paying for it?
- Arrangements exist in which a developer or operator funds the hardware and construction and the property owner contributes the parking area in exchange for contracted payments. The property owner carries no capital cost and no operating exposure, and correspondingly does not receive the charging revenue. Terms are set entirely by the agreement, not by the program.
- Which structure produces the highest return?
- They are not comparable on a single number, because they carry different capital at risk. Outright ownership takes the full construction cost and the full utility-bill exposure and receives all charging revenue; a ground lease takes neither and receives a contracted payment. A model can price each set of cash flows; ranking them depends on the capital, risk tolerance, and alternatives of the party asking.
- Does the model handle a leased site?
- The scenario carries a host type of owned or leased. Rent is modelled as an operating cost in both cases, and the host type raises the severity of the lease-related entries in the risk register — a site operating on ground the owner does not control carries a term-and-renewal exposure that an owned parcel does not.
- What does the model not decide?
- Which structure to choose. The engine prices the cash flows implied by a set of inputs and renders no verdict on a deal structure, counterparty, or contract. Lease terms, revenue-share mechanics, and ownership transfer provisions are legal questions for the parties and their advisors.
Every structure divides the same underlying result. Model the site as an operating business first — payback, NPV, IRR, and a 15-year cash flow on your territory's filed tariff.
Run a scenarioForgeAsset is software, not investment, tax, or legal advice. Lease terms, revenue-share mechanics, and ownership provisions are legal matters for the parties and their advisors; no part of this page is a recommendation of any structure, counterparty, or agreement.