How do I model a site business case in Monta Hub?

For: operators and planning teams using Monta Hub.

The Site business case tool lets you model the financial performance of a new charging site before you build it. You enter your assumptions — location, chargers, demand, tariff, costs and financing — and Hub returns a 10-year cashflow with the headline investment numbers (NPV, IRR, payback and after-tax IRR) and a full profit-and-loss view. It's a planning tool: every figure is an estimate based on the inputs you provide, so you can size the investment, test "what if" questions, and produce a pro-forma your finance team or an investor will accept.

Where to find it

1. In Monta Hub, open Analytics.
2. Select Site business case.

The screen has three parts: an inputs panel on the left, a cohort builder you can open to anchor demand, and a results panel on the right with four tabs.

Step 1 — Describe the site

• Location — a name and address. The country sets which regional benchmark is used as your starting demand forecast.
• Chargers — how many, the type (for example high-power DC or AC), the power per charger, and the operating hours per day.
• Horizon — how many years to model (3–20; 10 is typical).
• Model preset — picking a charger model from the catalog can auto-fill the hardware and installation costs and the power rating. You can also mix charger types (for example some HPC and some AC) in one model.

Step 2 — Set expected demand

Demand is how busy the site will be. You can enter it yourself or anchor it on real data.

• Enter it yourself — starting daily sessions per charger, a maximum (saturation) level, a year-on-year growth rate, the average kWh per session, and the shape of the growth curve (a gradual S-shaped ramp, a straight line, or flat).
• Use the Cohort builder — open it, pick a region and a performance percentile (from P25, a slow-ramp site, up to P99, an outlier hub). It shows today-vs-year-10 figures (sessions and energy per charger, utilisation) and a projection chart with industry reference lines, then Apply sends those starting figures into your growth inputs. This anchors your forecast on Monta's own usage data and public industry benchmarks rather than a guess.

Whatever you enter, the forecast is automatically capped at what the chargers can physically deliver (chargers × power × operating hours), so demand can never exceed capacity.

Step 3 — Enter your costs and assumptions

Each section has a basic view, with expert fields available when you need them. Every operating-cost line can have its own yearly escalation.

• Capital costs (capex) — hardware, installation, grid connection, site design, permitting, signage, other, and a contingency percentage.
• Operating costs (opex) — maintenance and network fees per charger, site lease, insurance, customer support, and marketing as a percentage of revenue.
• Energy tariff — peak and off-peak energy prices, a fixed monthly charge, a demand charge (per kW per month), and the share of energy delivered at peak. You can load a real utility tariff from the catalog.
• Pricing and fees — your user fee per kWh (with an optional yearly increase), a session-start fee, an idle fee and free window, and card/sales-tax/admin fees. You can also load pricing from a real operator price group.
• Incentives — capital incentives per charger or per site, an investment tax credit (ITC) percentage, and operating incentives per kWh. LCFS credit programs (California / Oregon / Washington) are supported where relevant.
• Battery storage (optional) — capacity, cost, and how much peak demand it shaves, so you can test whether a battery improves the case.
• Financing — the discount rate, how much of the capex is funded by debt, the interest rate and the loan term.
• Tax — the corporate tax rate, the depreciation method (straight-line or US-MACRS 5- or 7-year), depreciation years, and any first-year bonus depreciation.

Step 4 — Read the results

The results panel has four tabs, all sharing the scenario picker:

• Cashflow — the headline metrics plus a year-by-year table and chart of revenue versus costs with cumulative cashflow.
• P&L — an income statement from revenue down to net income for each year: revenue, costs, EBITDA, depreciation, interest, tax and net profit.
• Analysis — tools to test how robust the case is (see below).
• Climate — the CO₂ displaced versus equivalent petrol/diesel driving, using your region's grid emissions.

Understanding the headline numbers

• NPV (Net Present Value) — the value of all future cashflows in today's money, after the discount rate. Positive means the site is expected to create value.
• IRR (Internal Rate of Return) — the annual return the site earns on the money invested. Compare it to your cost of capital: higher is better.
• Payback — how many years until the site has earned back its upfront investment.
• After-tax IRR — the same return after tax and depreciation are taken into account.
• Equity at risk — the cash you put in yourself (after any debt), i.e. the amount exposed until payback.

Test how robust the case is

On the Analysis tab:

• What-if — change a single input (for example the user fee or growth rate) and see the effect on NPV and IRR immediately.
• Sensitivity — a table showing which inputs move the result the most.
• Monte-Carlo — runs the model many times with inputs varied within a range, and shows the spread of outcomes and how likely the site is to be profitable.

Compare scenarios

Every result can be viewed under three scenarios — Pessimistic, Expected and Optimistic — which lower or raise the demand and energy assumptions around your expected case. Use compare mode to view two side by side.

Save, share and export

• Share — the whole business case is stored in the page's web address, so copying the link shares the exact scenario with a colleague.
• Save — name and save scenarios to return to later, and browse your recent history.
• Export — download the year-by-year table as a CSV, or open the print report to save a one-page summary as a PDF.

Good to know

• Results are planning estimates based on your inputs — not a guarantee of performance.
• All amounts are shown in your operator's currency.
• The calculation runs in your browser, and saved scenarios are stored on your device (not yet on your account), so use the share link or save a copy if you want to keep a scenario.