Funding workplace EV charging: costs, grants and the practical route

A workplace or depot charging project is four things: the chargepoints, the electrical infrastructure that feeds them, the civils that get cable into the ground, and the software that manages access, scheduling and billing.

Businesses comparing quotes on hardware price alone tend to be surprised twice. Once by the groundworks, and again by the network cost if the site needs more capacity.

The Workplace Charging Scheme is a voucher based contribution towards the purchase and installation of chargepoint sockets at eligible workplaces, capped per socket and limited to a maximum number of sockets per applicant. It is applied through an authorised installer and it reduces the invoice rather than paying the whole cost.

Grant terms change, so the current eligibility rules, caps and socket limits should always be checked on the relevant government guidance before a project is budgeted. What does not change is the shape of the decision: a grant lowers the number, it does not remove the need to fund the rest.

Charging infrastructure is long life plant that supports a fleet saving on fuel and maintenance. Paying for it entirely from working capital in year one puts the cost ahead of the benefit.

Financing the balance spreads the cost across the years the asset is used. For many fleets, the monthly cost of the infrastructure is comfortably covered by the difference between diesel and electricity.

The common mistake is installing exactly enough sockets for today. The second phase then costs far more than it should, because the ducting, the cable route and the supply capacity all have to be revisited.

Installing infrastructure once and adding chargepoints in stages is usually cheaper over five years than installing twice.