Workplace EV Charging UK: The Employer's 2025 Playbook
How UK employers plan, cost and fund workplace EV charging in 2025 — charger mix, load management, WCS + EVIG grants and the five decisions that make or break the scheme.
Workplace EV charging is now a standard employee benefit and a core piece of UK net-zero strategy. Done well, it costs less than most HR teams expect, unlocks up to £14,000 in OZEV grants, and future-proofs the site for fleet electrification. Done badly, it triggers a six-figure DNO upgrade and locks the employer into a single vendor for a decade.
What "workplace EV charging" actually means
In UK practice it means 7kW or 22kW AC chargers installed on employee car parks, energised through the site's existing LV supply, controlled by a load-management back-office, and billed either as a free benefit, at cost, or at a small markup via RFID/app.
Dwell time is the design driver. Employees typically park for 6–9 hours, so AC fast charging almost always beats DC rapid on both capex and ROI — see our AC vs DC comparison.
Typical costs (UK, 2025)
- 7kW socketed AC — £1,200–£2,500 installed per bay
- 22kW AC — £2,000–£4,500 installed per bay
- Load management module — £2,000–£8,000 site-wide
- DNO G99 supply upgrade (if required) — £15,000–£200,000+
Get a costed shortlist for your site in our free feasibility calculator.
Grants: stack WCS and EVIG
- Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) — £350 per socket, up to 40 sockets. See the full WCS guide.
- EV Infrastructure Grant (EVIG) for SMEs — up to £15,000 per site for the electrical works behind the chargers.
Five decisions that make or break the scheme
- Charger count — start with 1 socket per 8–10 employee EVs, not per parking bay.
- Speed — 7kW is enough for a full-shift top-up; 22kW only helps if the site fleet is three-phase-capable.
- Load management first — a £4,000 DLM module usually removes the need for a £50,000+ DNO upgrade.
- OCPP-open hardware — never sign a scheme that locks you to one CPO. OCPP 1.6J minimum.
- Billing model — decide up front whether charging is free, at cost, or profit-generating; it changes the back-office you need.
Common workplace pitfalls
The three failures we see repeatedly on audit: (1) chargers installed as far as possible from the intake position, doubling trenching cost; (2) no load management, forcing a DNO application that delays the project 6–12 months; (3) proprietary hardware that costs 3× more to migrate off in year 5.
Next step
Model your site — headcount, EV adoption assumption, available capacity — in our EV charging feasibility calculator or book a 30-minute call for an independent second opinion on a quote.