Commercial EV charging myths vs facts
The EV charging landscape changed a lot in 2026, and most published guidance is out of date. Here are the myths we hear most, corrected with the current, sourced position.
| The myth | The fact (as at July 2026) |
|---|---|
| The Workplace Charging Scheme grant is £350 per socket. | It rose to £500 per socket on 1 April 2026 (75% of cost, up to 40 sockets, until 31 March 2027). Most of the web still quotes the old £350 figure. |
| A 22kW charger will charge our cars three times faster than a 7kW. | Most EVs cap their onboard AC charger at 7-11kW, so a 22kW unit usually delivers only ~11kW to a typical car. Paying for 22kW is often paying for capacity the vehicles cannot use. |
| We will need an expensive grid upgrade to add chargers. | Usually not. Dynamic load management shares your spare capacity across the chargers, letting you fit many more sockets to your existing supply — a £100-£450 controller instead of a £3,000-£200,000 upgrade. |
| There is a government grant that covers the groundworks for our fleet. | The EV Infrastructure Grant for staff and fleets closed on 31 March 2026 and was not replaced. Van/HGV/coach depots can use the Depot Charging Scheme (70%, up to £1m); everyone else uses the WCS plus 100% tax relief. |
| Company EVs are taxed at 2% benefit-in-kind. | The 2% rate ended on 5 April 2025. Pure-electric company cars are 3% in 2025/26, 4% in 2026/27, rising to 9% by 2029/30 — still far below the up-to-37% for petrol and diesel. |
| We legally have to install EV chargers. | Only for new buildings and major renovations. Approved Document S requires chargepoints in new non-residential buildings with more than 10 parking spaces. Existing buildings have no duty to retrofit. |
| Letting staff charge their cars at work is a taxable perk. | It is not. Charging an employee’s own EV at or near the workplace is exempt from benefit-in-kind under s237A ITEPA 2003, provided it is available to staff generally. |
| We will be locked into one charging network. | Not if you specify OCPP-compliant hardware (1.6J or 2.0.1). OCPP lets your chargers work with any compatible back-office, so you can switch software provider without replacing the units. |
| Public rapid charging makes an EV fleet no cheaper than diesel. | On the public rapid network (~54p/kWh) the saving shrinks — but depot and overnight charging at ~7p/mile versus ~22p diesel is where the saving lives. Charge on site, not on the road. |
Every figure above is dated and drawn from a primary UK source (gov.uk, HMRC, legislation.gov.uk). See our grants guide, cost breakdown and charger-type guide for the detail.
Related questions
What grants can my business get for EV chargers in 2026?
The main live scheme is the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS): from 1 April 2026 it gives up to £500 per socket (raised from £350), covering 75% of the install cost, capped at 40 sockets, running to 31 March 2027. Van, HGV and coach depots can also use the Depot Charging Scheme (70%, up to £1m). The separate EV Infrastructure Grant for staff and fleets closed on 31 March 2026 — don't chase it.
WCS versus the EV Infrastructure Grant — what's the difference?
The WCS is a per-socket subsidy — up to £500 per socket, maximum 40 — toward the chargepoints themselves, open until 31 March 2027. The EV Infrastructure Grant for staff and fleets was broader (up to 75% of wider groundworks to £15,000 plus £500 per future-proofed space), but it closed to new applications on 31 March 2026. For most businesses in 2026, the WCS is the route to pursue.
Should we install 7kW, 22kW or rapid chargers?
Match charger speed to how long vehicles park. 7kW AC suits all-day parking — staff, offices, hotels — adding roughly 25-30 miles per hour. 22kW AC suits 2-4 hour dwell where you have three-phase power, though most cars only accept 7-11kW AC so it's often no faster. DC rapid (50kW+) suits quick turnarounds — customer car parks, forecourts, fleet redeploys — but costs far more and needs a strong supply. Most workplaces are best served by banks of 7kW units.
How does load management actually work?
Dynamic load management monitors your site's total electrical demand in real time and shares the spare capacity across active chargers, throttling each so the incoming supply is never overloaded. When the building draws more power, chargers step down; when demand falls, they ramp back up. This lets you install more sockets than your supply could run at full power at once — exploiting the diversity factor — and often avoids an expensive DNO reinforcement. A load-balancing controller (£100-£450) is far cheaper than a supply upgrade.
Do we legally have to install EV chargers?
Not for existing buildings. But under Approved Document S (Part S) of the Building Regulations, in force since 15 June 2022 in England, a new non-residential building with MORE than 10 parking spaces must have at least one EV chargepoint plus cable routes to one in five of the remaining spaces. The same applies to major renovations that leave more than 10 spaces. So new-build and significant refurbishment projects trigger the requirement; Scotland and Wales have their own rules.
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