There are some free chargers already in the ground and providing juice for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Some have been installed by restaurants or hotels. They provide a slow charge and are free to use. But, the days of free public charging for electric vehicles may soon be coming to an end.

There are the superchargers from Tesla, which are fast charge, free to use, and also green, since they use solar energy. Solar economics say a large investment is needed upfront and that the return will take many years. But if the electricity is given away for nothing, there’s no return. The superchargers idea may be nice, but it doesn’t scale.

With a small number of EVs on the road, free public charging at restaurants or hotels is a perk for attracting customers, and the corded parking spots are not costing the property owner that much. It would be totally different if there were millions of EVs out there roaming for electrons.

For example, Tesla Motors is offering Model S owners free fast charging at its Supercharger network. Assuming a Tesla Model S has an electrical consumption of 300 Wh per mile, that will make 30,000 kWh after 100,000 miles. That’s close to $5,000 of electricity. If a lot of the Model S electric car get sold, how long can Tesla afford to give away electricity? How long can anyone? The answer is that sooner or later, there needs to be sales and profit involved, somehow.

The point here is that as long as there’s free electricity for EVs drivers, there will be no private investors creating networks of charging stations.

So, more private investors are needed to expand public charging networks as EV sales numbers grow. Pat Romano, CEO of EV-charging station maker Coulomb Technologies, said that EV owners are willing to pay somewhere around $1 an hour for charging, and think that $2 an hour is “expensive.” In the US, most EVs are charged for a rate of about 3.3 kilowatts per hour, and that much energy usually costs about 50 cents. The days of free charging are coming to an end, but so far, EV owners expect to see the fee stay at a low level.

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