Tariff structure decides what a session is worth. Utilization decides whether the connector pays for itself - and utilization is the number promotions and loyalty programs exist to move. The trouble is that most charging promotions are run as discounts with no hypothesis attached: a blanket percentage off, for everyone, at every site, at every hour. That reliably lowers revenue per session and only sometimes raises session count.
A promotion should be aimed at one of three problems
| Problem | What's actually wrong | What kind of offer addresses it |
|---|---|---|
| Empty hours | Connectors idle overnight or mid-week while peak hours queue | Time-of-day pricing or off-peak credit - shifting demand, not adding discount |
| No first session | Drivers pass the site but have never tried it; the unknown is the barrier | First-session credit or launch promotion, capped and time-limited |
| No second session | Drivers charge once and go elsewhere; there's no reason to return | Loyalty tiers, wallet top-up bonuses, corporate account rates |
Naming the problem first is what keeps a campaign from being a discount in search of a justification. It also tells you what to measure afterwards, which is where most charging promotions fall apart.
Off-peak shifting is the highest-value promotion available
Moving a session from a congested hour to an empty one earns revenue that didn't exist before, at a site where the alternative was a driver leaving because every connector was busy. It also usually moves energy into a cheaper electricity band, improving margin on the same kWh - which is why this is the one promotion type that can improve both utilization and unit economics at once. The prerequisite is knowing your own demand curve per site, because an “off-peak” discount applied during hours that were already busy is pure margin given away.
Launch promotions: cap them, and set an end date up front
A new site has no reputation and no habitual users, so a capped introductory offer is often the cheapest way to buy the first few hundred sessions and the reviews that follow. Two constraints keep it from becoming permanent: a defined budget or session cap, and an announced end date. An open-ended discount trains drivers to expect the discounted price as the real price, and removing it later reads as an increase - which costs more goodwill than the promotion ever bought.
Loyalty tiers vs. a slow discount
A loyalty tier works when the reward is something a competitor can't copy by lowering their price - priority or reserved access at busy sites, included idle-fee grace time, a better corporate rate, early access to new locations. A tier whose only benefit is a per-kWh discount is a discount with extra steps: it costs margin on exactly your most loyal, least price-sensitive drivers, who were going to charge with you anyway. The test is simple - if the tier benefit could be replaced by a lower headline price without the driver noticing, it isn't a loyalty program.
Measuring a campaign honestly
- Incremental sessions, not total sessions. Compare against the same site's pre-campaign baseline and against sites without the offer - total session growth during a promotion includes growth you'd have had anyway.
- Revenue per session and total revenue together. A campaign that doubles sessions at half the price moved a lot of energy and no money.
- Retention after the offer ends. The number that decides whether you acquired customers or rented them. Measure it 30 and 60 days after the end date, per cohort.
- Per site, not network-wide. The same offer usually performs very differently at a workplace lot and a highway corridor - averaging them hides both results.
- Cannibalization. Check whether off-peak volume grew or peak volume simply moved at a lower price.
What the platform has to support
- Campaigns as configuration, not app releases. If a promotion requires shipping an app update, your campaign calendar is gated on app store review - which makes time-limited offers impractical.
- Targeting by site, charger and time band. Network-wide-only promotions force you to discount sites that didn't need it.
- Caps and end dates enforced by the system. Budget limits that depend on someone remembering to switch a campaign off will eventually be exceeded.
- Reporting that separates promotional revenue from list-price revenue. Without the split, you can't tell a successful campaign from an expensive one - see how promotional credits flow through billing and settlement.
- Corporate accounts and wallet mechanics. Negotiated rates for a fleet or employer are a retention tool, not a discount - and they need to bill correctly, which is part of what fleet operators expect.
CarChargeOS supports in-app promotional campaigns, tariff overrides per station and charger, loyalty tiers and corporate accounts from the operator console - see the Commerce layer on the platform page.
Frequently asked questions
Do charging promotions actually increase revenue?
Targeted ones can, because the marginal cost of an additional session on an already-installed connector is mostly just energy. Untargeted percentage-off promotions usually don't: they discount sessions that would have happened at full price. The difference is whether the offer is aimed at empty capacity or applied across all of it.
How long should an introductory promotion run?
Long enough to build a habit at a new site - typically weeks, not months - with a session or budget cap and a published end date. The point is to get drivers past the first session; past that, a standing discount just resets their idea of your normal price.
Is a loyalty program worth it for a small network?
Below a few sites, retention usually comes from reliability and location rather than a points scheme - and uptime is the cheaper investment. A loyalty program starts to matter once drivers have a real alternative nearby and you need a reason beyond price for them to keep choosing you.