Chargepoints in the staff car park so employees top up while they work — the highest-volume, lowest-tariff business use case, and the one the government grant is built for.
What workplace & employee charging involves
Daytime high-dwell load ideal for 7kW AC and on-site solar; the Workplace Charging Scheme (£500/socket, 75%, up to 40 sockets, to 31 March 2027) is designed for exactly this; staff charging their own EVs is tax-free (s237A ITEPA).
Sizing and cost
A typical workplace & employee charging project runs to 2-20 sockets, mostly 7kW (or 22kW on three-phase), load-managed, at an indicative £10,000-£60,000 (before the WCS grant) with roughly a 3-year payback. The biggest cost variable is the electrical connection, not the chargers — which is why we lead with your supply and use load management to fit more sockets within it wherever possible. See the full cost breakdown and charger-type guide.
Compliance and connection
Smart Charge Points Regulations 2021 (off-peak default, randomised delay, cyber-security, OPSS); DNO notify or apply; IET Code of Practice 5th ed / BS 7671.
We handle the Distribution Network Operator application and, where a public or paid element applies, design to the relevant regulations from the outset. Read more on load management and the DNO connection.
Funding this project
The Workplace Charging Scheme (up to £500 per socket, 75% of cost, to 31 March 2027) is the main route here, alongside the 100% First-Year Allowance on the equipment. See our grants and funding guide for the current, dated position and the schemes that closed in 2026.
Workplace charging: the 8-hour dwell that makes 7kW the smart choice
Staff charging is defined by one thing no other use case shares: dwell time. Employees arrive in a tight morning cluster, plug in, and leave the car parked for eight hours or more. That single fact rewrites the whole design brief. You are not chasing speed — you are spreading a modest amount of energy across a long, predictable window. A typical commuter needs 30-60 miles of top-up a day; a 7kW AC socket delivers roughly 25-30 miles per hour, so it refills a daily commute in under two hours and comfortably fills a battery over a working shift. Rapid 50kW DC (£25,000-£45,000 per unit) is wasted here — most cars cap at 7-11kW AC anyway, and paying rapid prices to fill a car that isn't going anywhere until 5pm is money set on fire. For staff car parks, 7kW beats 22kW decisively on both cost (£800-£1,500 per bay versus £2,500-£4,500) and grid draw.
The grant is built for exactly this. The Workplace Charging Scheme pays £500 per socket, covering 75% of the purchase and installation cost, up to 40 sockets across your sites, running to 31 March 2027. It is the one incentive designed specifically around employer-provided charging — no other use case fits it so cleanly. Layered on top, the 100% First-Year Allowance to 31 March 2027 lets you write down the full remaining capital cost in year one. See grants and funding for how to stack these before the deadline.
Sizing by driver count and simultaneity. The mistake is one socket per EV. Because dwell is long and arrivals stagger, you can share. A sensible starting ratio is one 7kW socket per 3-4 regular EV drivers, with dynamic load management smoothing the morning cluster so nobody waits. Worked example: 40 staff, 12 current EV drivers rising to 20 within three years. Install 6-8 sockets now, pre-cable the trenching for 16. At 7kW each, eight sockets is a 56kW theoretical peak — but real simultaneity rarely tops 60%, so dynamic load management holds actual draw around 30-35kW and keeps you off a costly DNO reinforcement. Any three-phase or high-load install still needs G99 approval before works begin.
BiK exemption is a genuine recruitment perk. A member of staff charging their own EV at the workplace pays no Benefit-in-Kind (s237A ITEPA) — free, tax-free top-ups every shift. Paired with the 4% company-car BiK rate for EVs in 2026/27, workplace charging becomes a low-cost, high-visibility benefit that helps win and keep people.
Solar synergy seals it. Daytime dwell overlaps almost perfectly with solar generation. Cars parked 9-to-5 soak up midday PV output that would otherwise export at a poor rate, turning surplus generation into free staff miles and slashing payback. If your site has more than 10 parking spaces and is newly built or majorly renovated, Building Regs Part S already mandates charging provision — so you may as well size it to earn its keep.
Want the socket count, load plan and grant-adjusted figures for your car park? Get a workplace charging quote.
Typical workplace & employee charging install
- Sockets & power
- 2-20 sockets, mostly 7kW (or 22kW on three-phase), load-managed
- Typical project value
- £10,000-£60,000 (before the WCS grant)
- Payback
- 3 years
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- 3. Install and aftercare by MCS-certified engineers.
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