Workplace EV charger installation: steps, sizing and costs for UK businesses in 2026

A workplace EV charger in the UK costs roughly £800 to £4,000 per socket installed for 7 to 22 kW AC charging, and £15,000 to £35,000 for a 50 kW DC rapid charger before any grid works. The Workplace Charging Scheme still pays up to £500 per socket until 31 March 2027, and the full cost can be deducted in year one. The project follows five steps: needs, site survey, DNO connection, quotes, installation and commissioning.

This guide is for facilities and fleet managers planning chargers at an office, a site or a depot. It covers costs by charger type, the steps and the DNO process, the standards an installer must follow, the grants and tax, the question of who pays for the electricity, and a sizing method for a 50-vehicle fleet. It also looks at a fact that changes the business case: most company cars charge at the driver's home. Voltaback does not install chargers; it helps you get installer quotes, and it measures and reimburses home charging without hardware.

How much does it cost to install workplace EV chargers?

Price by type of charger (2026, installed, excluding VAT)

Sources: Electric Car Scheme, workplace charging costs (March 2026) and Blink Charging UK (2026). Prices vary with the site, the distance to the supply and the groundworks.

Single-phase, three-phase, AC or DC: which power do you need?

• 7 kW AC adds roughly 20 to 30 miles of range per hour, enough to refill most of a day's driving during an 8-hour working day. It is the default for workplace parking.
• 11 or 22 kW AC needs a three-phase supply, which most commercial buildings have and most UK homes do not. It only helps if the car's onboard charger accepts it: many EVs take 11 kW AC at most.
• DC rapid (50 kW and above) makes sense only where vehicles must recharge in under an hour: vans between shifts, taxis, high-mileage service fleets.

The common mistake is buying power nobody uses. A car parked from 9 to 5 gains nothing from a 22 kW socket if 7 kW refills it by lunchtime.

UK homes are almost all single-phase, so home chargers stop at about 7.4 kW. That is why 22 kW is a workplace topic, not a home one.

What drives the installation cost

• Distance from the distribution board to the parking bays: cable, trenching and reinstatement of tarmac are often the biggest line.
• Available capacity: if the site's supply is too small, a DNO upgrade or load management is needed.
• Groundworks: bollards, wheel stops, marking, signage, lighting.
• Smart features: back office, user authentication, billing, load balancing.
• Number of sockets: fixed costs (survey, design, distribution board) spread over more bays.

The costs quotes tend to underplay

• Back office subscription: a monthly fee per socket for the charge management platform.
• Maintenance and repairs: an annual service contract, and replacement of damaged cables.
• Electricity: at your business tariff, including the standing charges and capacity charges of the site.
• Insurance and liability: trip hazards and vehicle damage in the car park.
• Future expansion: ducting laid now for future bays is cheap; digging again later is not.

How does a workplace charger installation work? The 5 steps

1. Map the needs

Before any quote, answer three questions per vehicle or driver group:

• Where does the vehicle sleep? At the driver's home, at the depot, on the street?
• How long is it parked at work? A full day, an hour between jobs, overnight?
• How far does it drive? Daily miles decide how many kWh it needs.

A company car that goes home every night and covers 50 miles a day does not need a workplace charger at all if the driver can charge at home. A van that sleeps at the depot needs one. The charging installation recommendation simulator sorts your vehicles into these profiles.

2. Survey the site and its electrical capacity

An installer surveys the site: supply capacity, distribution boards, cable routes, parking layout, mobile signal for smart chargers. They calculate the maximum demand and decide whether the existing supply can take the new load, with or without load management.

3. Check the grid connection with the DNO

In Great Britain, your installer usually deals with the distribution network operator (DNO) for your area; the Energy Networks Association has a postcode tool to find it.

• Small installations: the installer follows the ENA process to decide whether the DNO is notified before or after installation.
• Several chargers at a workplace or depot: discuss the project with the DNO early and apply for a connection or capacity increase. The DNO issues a quote in 5 to 65 working days depending on the size of the connection, and you have 90 days to accept it.
• Costs: since 1 April 2023, demand customers such as chargepoint applicants no longer pay for reinforcement of the wider distribution network; they pay for the assets for their own connection.
• Timelines: a few weeks for a small connection to an existing cable; many months, sometimes longer, for a large depot.

Source: GOV.UK, connecting EV chargepoints to the electricity network.

Load management is the alternative to a bigger connection. A smart system shares the available capacity between sockets and slows charging when the building's demand peaks. For 20 bays of 7 kW, that is the difference between needing 140 kW of spare capacity and sharing perhaps half of it.

4. Put installers in competition

Ask at least three installers for a quote on the same specification:

• number and power of sockets, with future-ready ducting;
• smart features required (and compliance with the smart charge point rules);
• DNO process included;
• groundworks, signage and making good;
• back office and maintenance costs over 5 years, not just year one;
• whether they are OZEV-authorised, which is required to claim the Workplace Charging Scheme.

Voltaback does not install chargers, but our installer quotes service helps you get comparable quotes for your sites and drivers.

5. Install, commission and monitor

The installer installs, tests and certifies the installation, issues an Electrical Installation Certificate and registers the work as required. Then the work starts: access rules, a charging policy for staff, and a monthly look at usage. An unused socket is a cost, not an asset.

The standards and rules that apply

There is no general duty in the UK to retrofit chargers in an existing office car park. Part S applies when you build or substantially renovate; our article on EV charging building regulations details what it requires for company car parks.

Who can install workplace chargers?

A qualified electrician, normally registered with a competent person scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT, with specific EV charging training. To claim the Workplace Charging Scheme grant, the installer must also be OZEV-authorised: you cannot claim the grant without one. For the architecture of the whole charging chain, from the supply to the car and the back office, see EV charging infrastructure explained.

Permissions, landlords, accessibility and insurance

Four practical points often delay projects more than the electrical work:

• Landlord consent. If you lease your premises, the lease almost always requires consent for alterations and new electrical installations. The Workplace Charging Scheme also requires you to own the site or have the landlord's consent. Ask early, with the installer's drawings.
• Planning. In England, chargers in an off-street car park are generally permitted development within size limits, but listed buildings, conservation areas and very large installations (substations, canopies) can need consent. Your installer or local planning authority will confirm.
• Accessibility. For chargers that visitors or the public use, BSI's PAS 1899 sets out how to make charge points accessible: bay size, reach heights, cable weight and kerbs. Applying it to staff bays costs little at design stage.
• Fire and insurance. Tell your insurer about the project. Underground or enclosed car parks raise specific questions on fire detection, ventilation and access for the fire service; agree them before installation, not after.

Project timeline for a typical site

On a site with enough capacity, three months from decision to first charge is realistic. Where a new connection is needed, plan in quarters, not weeks, and remember the 31 March 2027 deadline for the WCS and the 100 % allowance.

Metering and billing at the workplace

If you only provide free charging to company cars, a smart charger's own meter is enough to follow usage. If you bill staff or visitors per kWh, the measurement used for billing must be legally reliable: use chargers with a MID-certified meter (the Measuring Instruments Directive standard, applied in the UK through the Measuring Instruments Regulations), and keep the back office records.

At home, the logic is the same: the kWh that the employer reimburses should come from a reliable source. Voltaback relies on the home's MID-certified meter, not on a standalone cable meter, and links each session to the company car from the car's own data, with no charger to install at the driver's home.

Depot charging for vans: a different exercise

Vans that return to a depot every night are the strongest case for workplace charging, and the hardest to size:

• Energy per van is higher: payload, stop-start routes and heating raise consumption well above a car's.
• Dwell time decides the power: a van parked 12 hours overnight is fully served by 7 kW; one with a 2-hour turnaround between shifts needs DC.
• Simultaneity is the real constraint: 30 vans plugging in at 6 pm all want power at once. Load management and timed charging spread the demand over the night and on the cheapest business tariff periods.
• Resilience matters: one broken charger can mean one van that cannot work tomorrow. Plan a spare socket and a maintenance contract with a response time.

For mixed fleets, the usual answer is depot AC for vans that sleep on site, home charging for drivers who take their van home, and a public charging card for the exceptions.

Grants and tax relief in 2026

Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS). A voucher run by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles:

• up to £500 per socket for installations completed on or after 1 April 2026 (£350 before);
• up to 75 % of purchase and installation costs including VAT, within the per-socket cap;
• up to 40 sockets per applicant across all sites;
• businesses, charities, public sector bodies and small accommodation businesses, with dedicated off-street parking;
• vouchers valid 180 days, within which the work must be done and claimed;
• applications close on 31 March 2027.

Source: GOV.UK Find a Grant, Workplace Charging Scheme.

100 % first-year allowance on chargepoints. Expenditure on new chargepoint equipment can be deducted in full in year one, until 31 March 2027 for Corporation Tax and 5 April 2027 for Income Tax (GOV.UK).

On a 20-socket project at £1,900 per socket, the WCS cuts the bill by £10,000 and the allowance gives Corporation Tax relief on the rest in the first year. Our article on the Workplace Charging Scheme explains eligibility and the application step by step.

Who pays for the electricity at workplace chargers?

For the employee, it is tax-free. Charging a company car at work creates no additional benefit. Charging an employee's own car at work is exempt under section 237A ITEPA 2003, provided the facility is available to employees generally at that workplace (legislation.gov.uk, s.237A, HMRC EIM23900).

For the company, three models exist:

• Free charging: simplest, and tax-free for staff, but the bill is open-ended. Set rules (company cars first, time limits) to avoid all-day occupation.
• Charging staff a fee per kWh: possible, for example to cover private cars. The back office handles billing. VAT is due on electricity sold to staff, and the price should be clear.
• Free for company cars, paid for private cars: the most common mix.

VAT on the electricity the company buys for business charging at its premises is recoverable for the business share of use (HMRC VAT Notice 700/64).

A workplace charging policy in 8 rules

Chargers without rules fill up by 9 am with the same cars every day. A one-page policy avoids it:

1. Priority: company cars and pool vehicles first, then staff private cars.
2. Time limit: for example 4 hours during the day, then move the car, with a notification from the back office.
3. Booking or first come: a booking system for scarce sockets, first come for the rest.
4. Price: free, or a price per kWh for private cars, displayed clearly.
5. Overnight use: allowed or not, and for whom.
6. Faults: who to call, and how fast a fault is fixed.
7. Etiquette: cables coiled, no unplugging other cars, bays only for charging vehicles.
8. Data: what the back office records (user, sessions, kWh) and who sees it, in line with UK GDPR.

Review usage after three months. A socket used less than one day a week is a candidate for relocation; a queue every morning is a signal to add capacity or tighten time limits.

What to ask installers before you sign

• Is the quote based on a site survey, or on a desk estimate?
• Who handles the DNO notification or application, and is it in the price?
• Is load management included, and what capacity does the design assume?
• Which back office, at what monthly cost per socket, with what contract length?
• What maintenance response time is guaranteed, and at what annual price?
• Are the chargers compliant with the Smart Charge Points Regulations?
• Is the installer OZEV-authorised, and will they handle the WCS claim?
• What ducting is laid for future bays?

Where do your drivers really charge?

Before sizing a car park, look at where the energy goes today. In the UK, 81 % of EV drivers have access to a home charger, according to Which? (Zapmap, Which? report), and home is by far the cheapest place to charge: 26.32p per kWh on the October to December 2026 price cap, under 9p on an EV off-peak tariff, against about 54p on public AC chargers and 79p on rapid chargers (Ofgem, Zapmap Price Index).

Company cars follow the same pattern: they leave the office in the evening and charge overnight on the driver's driveway. Workplace chargers then serve three groups:

• drivers without home charging (flats, terraced streets without off-street parking);
• vans and pool cars that sleep at the site;
• visitors and private cars of staff, as a benefit.

How many chargers do you need? Sizing for 50 vehicles

A simple method:

1. Count the vehicles that need workplace charging: those without home charging, plus those that sleep on site.
2. Estimate their daily energy: daily miles × about 0.32 kWh per mile.
3. Divide by the energy a socket can deliver in the dwell time: a 7 kW socket delivers up to about 50 kWh in a working day, and can serve two or three cars if drivers move their cars.
4. Add a margin for growth and breakdowns, and lay ducting for future bays.

Example: 50 company cars, 60 miles a day each.

A common rule of thumb for staff charging is one bay per 8 to 10 employees enrolled in an EV scheme, adjusted upwards where few staff can charge at home (Electric Car Scheme). For a fleet, start from the profiles above: equipping every bay is rarely justified.

Is it worth installing workplace chargers? The calculation for 50 vehicles

Hardware cost per kWh. Take a 7 kW socket at £1,900 installed (the midpoint of the ranges above), minus the £500 WCS grant, so £1,400 net, over 4 years: £350 per socket per year, before back office and maintenance.

Our calculation. Add the electricity at your business unit rate and the back office subscription. An under-used socket can cost almost as much per kWh as a rapid public charger.

The comparison that matters. For the 40 drivers in our example who can charge at home, a workplace socket replaces energy that would cost 26.32p or less per kWh at home, with energy at your business rate plus hardware. For the 10 who cannot, it replaces public charging at 54p to 79p. The business case is therefore strong for drivers without home access and weak for the others.

And home charging, in both options?

Whatever you install at work, most of your fleet's energy will still be bought at home, on drivers' own contracts. The employer can reimburse it free of tax and National Insurance, private miles included, if the payment relates solely to the company car (HMRC EIM23900). That needs no charger: Voltaback measures each home session from the car itself and values it at the driver's real tariff. For the full cost of each option over a car's life, see our article on EV total cost of ownership.

Which charging solution for which vehicle?

What it changes in practice

• Size for the drivers who need it, not for the whole car park.
• Use the £500 per socket grant and the 100 % allowance before 31 March 2027.
• Lay ducting for the future, install sockets for today.
• Reimburse home charging properly: it is where most of your fleet's kWh are bought, and the cheapest.

Next step: equip the site, and pay for the charging that happens at home

Workplace chargers solve the needs of drivers without home charging and of vehicles that sleep on site. For everyone else, home is cheaper. Talk to our team to get installer quotes where you need them and to reimburse home charging at its real cost, tax-free, without any hardware at drivers' homes.