Your role

Residential
host.

You own one charger, or a few, at a home. You do not use the operator console and you should not want to. Everything you need is in the driver app at app.evinitiative.com, under My Home.

Where this happens

The one thing to get right before you start

Residential hosting is in the driver app at app.evinitiative.com, under My Home. It is not in the operator console at admin.evinitiative.com. If you have been sent to the admin console and asked to find your home charger, you are in the wrong place.

Install the app to your phone’s home screen and it behaves like any other app, with no app store and no update prompts. The install page has the two-tap version for iPhone and Android.

Under My Home you get a live status card for the charger, one-tap start, session history, and the settings below. You name the home and the charger, set the address, record your own utility rate, and set an amperage cap if the circuit needs one.

My Home screen in the driver app for a test homeowner. Under the title My Home and the line Your home charging setup is a photo of a wall-mounted home charger, then the registered charger card: Sample Co. H1, J1772 · 7.2 kW, and Serial SAMPLE-HOME-01, with a green Available status pill and an arrow to the charger page. A green Start charging button sits under the card.
My Home in the driver app: the charger’s live status card and Start charging. Sample screen with test data.

Turning the plug into income

A charger sitting idle twenty hours a day is a depreciating asset. Opening it to guests is one short walk in the app and you can close it again with one switch.

Enrol the charger and open it to guests
Do it yourself
  1. In My Home, open the charger and start Earn from your charger.
  2. Step 1, Price, then step 2, Hours.
  3. Step 3, Get paid: tap Set up payouts with Stripe and finish Stripe’s form. Turn on earning appears once payouts are set up.
  4. Tap Turn on earning. The first time, a notice says EV Initiative facilitates the connection and the agreement is between you and the driver. Tap I understand.
  5. Check that Open to guests is on in the charger’s settings card.
Or just ask EVII™
How much did my charger earn this month?
Who charged at my house last week?
Close my charger to guests until Monday.

Guest access is a switch, not a commitment. Open it when you want the income and close it when you want the driveway.

Earn from your charger, step 3 of 3 (Get paid), with Price and Hours ticked. The summary reads Price: $0.30/kWh · $1 connection fee (EVI) · $0.25/min idle after 15 min free, up to 60 min, and Hours: 2 windows, each with a Change button. A status card says Payouts are not set up yet. The text explains that Stripe will ask for a legal name as on an ID, a home address, an ID and a selfie, and bank details, about three minutes. The Name as on your ID field shows Home Host (test), and the green button reads Set up payouts with Stripe.
Get paid, the last step of the earn walk, before payouts exist: Set up payouts with Stripe opens Stripe’s form. Sample screen with test data.
About sharing your charger dialog in the driver app, shown the first time a test host taps Turn on earning. Under a shield icon it reads: EVI facilitates this connection. The agreement (times, pricing, expectations) is between you and the other driver. We process payments and surface contact info. We don’t enforce or arbitrate. The buttons are Not now and I understand.
This notice opens once, the first time you tap Turn on earning after payouts are set up. I understand accepts it; there is no box to tick. Sample screen with test data.
Settings card on a test home charger’s page after earning is turned on. The Open to guests switch is on, with the note that drivers outside your household pay the price set below. Guests pay is $0.30 per kWh; family and the free pass list always charge free and the host keeps 85%. Your electricity cost (estimate) shows $0.15 /kWh with a Set in Home Settings link. Connection fee is $1 per paid session, set and kept by EVI. Idle fee is $0.25 per minute (you keep $0.21 per minute; at most $15.00 a session over 60 minutes). Grace period is 15 min, from 5 to 30 and required with an idle fee. The margin line ends with you keep about $0.105 per kWh. At the bottom the Public network listing switch is also on, with the note that turning it off hides the charger from the EVI driver map while the direct link or QR still works.
Open to guests is the switch at the top of the charger’s settings card, above the price and fees. Sample screen with test data.

Setting your rate

You set a price per kilowatt-hour, and that is the full price a guest sees before they plug in. The price in force when a session starts is the price that session pays, so a change never reaches backwards.

The margin line

As you type a price, the app does the arithmetic live, before you save: what guests pay, what you receive after our 15%, minus your own electricity estimate, and what you actually keep per kilowatt-hour. Set your utility rate in Home Settings first, or that figure is gross rather than margin. The utility rate is informational and is used only to show you your own margin. It never changes what a guest is charged.

Set the price and the hours
Do it yourself
  1. Open the charger in My Home and set the guest price per kWh.
  2. Set guest hours by day of week. They are in your charger’s own local time, and the charger’s page names the timezone the windows use.
  3. There is no connection fee for you to set. EV Initiative may add a fixed connection fee of its own, shown to the guest before they start. It is ours, it is not shared, and it never reduces your 85%.
  4. Optionally add a per-minute idle fee for a car left plugged in after charging finishes.
Or just ask EVII™
Set my guest price to 38 cents.
Open my charger to guests on weekdays from nine to six.
What am I actually keeping per kilowatt-hour?
Earn from your charger, step 1 of 3 (Price) for charger SAMPLE-HOME-01. The intro says guests pay the price you set, you keep 85%, EVI takes 15%, and family and the free pass list keep charging free. Guests pay is set to $0.30 per kWh, followed by the line: guests pay $0.30/kWh plus a $1 connection fee, which goes to EVI; you receive $0.255 per kWh after EVI’s 15% fee; minus your $0.15 electricity estimate, you keep about $0.105 per kWh. Connection fee shows $1 per paid session, set and kept by EVI. Idle fee is $0.25 per minute, with notes that it applies after the grace period for at most 60 minutes a session, a maximum of $2.00 per minute, you keep $0.21 per minute, and the most a guest pays in idle fees is $15.00 a session. Grace period is 15 min, allowed from 5 to 30 and required with an idle fee. A Continue button is at the bottom.
Step 1, Price: as you type, the line under the price shows what guests pay, what you receive after the 15%, and what you keep after your electricity estimate. Sample screen with test data.
Earn from your charger, step 2 of 3 (Hours), with Price already ticked. The text says to choose when guests can charge and that with no windows guests can charge any time. Two guest windows are set: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and Sun and Sat from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, each with a delete button. Add window, Continue and Back buttons follow.
Step 2, Hours: guest windows by day of the week. With no windows, guests can charge any time. Sample screen with test data.

Leave the hours empty and the charger is open whenever guest access is on. Your own charging ignores the hours entirely, and so does anyone on your free list.

Who can use it

Let your neighbour charge free
Do it yourself
  1. Open the charger, then the free list.
  2. Invite them by email. They get a join link.
  3. They are free at any hour from the moment they accept.
Or just ask EVII™
Add sam@example.com to my free list.
Who is on my free list?
Block the driver who left their car plugged in overnight.
Home Settings, three cards. Free pass list: the same list as on the charger page; people on it charge free at this home charger and become friends automatically. It has an Add friend button, an email field with the placeholder friend@example.com and an Invite button, and one member, Pass Friend (test), with a remove button. Invite link: one link for the whole household; a link is active and has been used 2 times, cannot be shown again, with a Create a new link button and a Turn off the current link option. Household: people who joined through the invite link; Kim (test) is set to Can edit and Lee (test) to Can view, each with a remove button.
Home Settings: the free pass list with an email invite, then the household invite link and its members. Sample screen with test data.
Access lists on a test home charger’s page. Free pass list: everyone on it charges free any time; add family and friends by full email address or phone number; also editable in Home Settings. It holds Pass Friend (test), tagged Outside your home, 1 / 100 users, then a Full email address or phone field with an Add button and the note that the app does not show suggestions. Blocked drivers: drivers on this list can never charge here, the free pass list does not override it, and to them the charger simply appears closed. It holds Blocked Driver (test), 1 / 200 users, with the same field and Add button.
The charger’s page has the same free pass list and a Blocked drivers list, which the free pass list does not override. Sample screen with test data.

Under Contacts you see everyone who has charged there, everyone on your free list, and everyone who has opened your share link, with sessions, energy, when they last charged and what each person paid. You do not see a paying guest’s phone or email, and they do not see yours.

Contacts screen for a test host’s home charger, subtitled 3 people. First, Pass Friend (test), tagged Free pass list, with the email pass.friend@example.test and Added Sep 2, 2026: 4 sessions, 38.6 kWh, last charged Sep 28, 2026, then Call, Text and Email buttons, a note reading Neighbor, usually charges on weekends (sample note), a Save note button and a Remove from free pass list button. Second, Guest Driver (test), tagged Paying guest, with no contact details: 3 sessions, 27.9 kWh, last charged Sep 26, 2026, paid $11.37. Third, Sam Visitor (test), tagged Visitor: opened the link Oct 1, 2026.
Contacts for a home charger: someone on the free pass list with sessions, energy, last charged and contact buttons; a paying guest with the amount paid; and a visitor who opened the link. Sample screen with test data.

On the map, or not

A home charger is not on the public map, and there is currently no way to put it there. Home locations are created hidden from the driver map and the map leaves them out, so guests reach you by a direct link or a QR code you share with people you choose. In practice that is how almost every home host wants it.

The toggle in the app does not do anything yet

There is a public map switch on the charger screen, and its hint says your charger is listed publicly by default. Neither is true for a home charger today: the switch changes nothing and you are not listed. We would rather tell you that than have you flip it, wait for guests, and conclude the charger is broken. Your share link is the thing that works.

Share the charger without putting it on the map
Do it yourself
  1. Open the charger and find the share block.
  2. Copy the link, or print the QR.
  3. Anyone with it lands on your charger, and the link survives them having to sign in first.
Or just ask EVII™
Give me the share link for my charger.
Take my charger off the public map.
Share this charger card on a test host’s charger page in the driver app. The text says to send the link or let a guest scan the QR, which opens this exact charger in the EVI app even when the charger is hidden from the map, and that people on the free pass list charge free while other drivers pay the guest rate when guest access is on. The link reads https://app.example.test/charging-station/5e5e5e5e5e5e5e5e5e5e0501?charger=SAMPLE-HOME-01, with Copy and Share buttons, above a QR code for the same sample link.
Share this charger, on the charger’s page: the link with Copy and Share, and a QR code for the same link. Sample screen with test data.

Getting paid

You keep 85% of every kWh a guest buys, before card processing. We take 15% and absorb the payment fee out of our side. Payouts land in your own bank account through your connected Stripe account. Nobody invoices anyone and you never have to request a payment.

Earnings screen for a test home charger, subtitled Cleared payouts on this charger. All-time earnings $48.62. A revenue chart in USD for the last 7 days, with 7D selected over 30D, shows EARNED $11.76 from 5 sessions. Three cards: This month $5.46, Last 30 days $16.30 and Last payout $11.25 with its date. At the bottom: View your payout history and balance in Stripe, with an Open Stripe dashboard button.
The charger’s Earnings screen: cleared payouts, recent totals, and Open Stripe dashboard for your payout history and balance in Stripe. Sample screen with test data.

All of the Stripe detail, including exactly what Stripe asks for, what happens while verification is pending, and what to do if it fails, is on the connecting your bank page. Read it before you start rather than in the middle of it.

Earnings accrue before Stripe is finished. They just cannot move.

If you open your charger before completing Stripe onboarding, guests can still charge and you still earn. The money is held until Stripe has verified you, then it settles automatically without you doing anything else. Nothing is lost by the delay, and nothing is paid until it is done.