EV charging at a commercial site
The chargers are rarely the hard part. The supply is. Spare electrical capacity decides the cost.
What it actually is
Sockets go into the car park and connect back to the site supply, usually with load management so the building and the vehicles share what is available.
The case is usually staff, fleet, tenants or planning rather than a saving on the bill.
Workplace charging is a set of sockets in the car park, connected back to the electrical intake of the building, usually with a load management system so the building and the vehicles share the capacity available rather than competing for it.
The chargers themselves are rarely the difficult part. The supply is. Every socket adds load to a connection that was sized years ago for a building without electric vehicles, and the cost of the project is driven far more by what is between your intake and the car park than by the units on the wall.
The reason to do it is usually not a saving on a bill. It is fleet transition, staff and visitor expectation, a tenant requirement, a planning condition on a development, or a decision to charge for the electricity and recover the cost that way. Be clear which of those you are buying, because it changes the specification.
Dwell time decides everything about the equipment. Where vehicles sit for hours, slow sockets are cheaper, kinder to the supply and entirely sufficient. Where vehicles turn over in minutes, you need fast charging and a much larger supply, and that is a different order of cost.
Which buildings it suits, and which it does not
It suits sites with off street parking, a fleet, or staff and visitors who park for hours rather than minutes.
It suits you less where parking is on street, dwell time is short, or the supply is near its agreed capacity.
- Offices with staff parkingGood fitAll day dwell time means slow sockets do the job, and load management can spread a modest supply across many cars.
- Depots and van fleetsGood fitVehicles return overnight and sit for hours. Overnight charging fits well outside the building's own peak.
- Hotels and leisureGood fitLong dwell times, and charging can be a service you offer rather than a cost you absorb.
- Retail parks and supermarketsDependsShort dwell means fast chargers, which means a serious supply question. Often better done with a charge point operator funding the equipment.
- Multi let industrial estatesDependsMetering and recharge across tenancies is the real complexity, not the hardware.
- Warehouses with heavy goods vehiclesDependsHeavy vehicle charging is a large electrical undertaking. Treat it as an infrastructure project with a network conversation at the start.
- Buildings with on street parking onlyRarelyNo parking you control means no practical place to put a socket.
- Sites already at their agreed capacityRarelyNot impossible, but the connection or a battery has to be solved before the sockets.
What it typically costs and saves
- Installed cost
- from £1,200 to £3,200 per socket
What drives the variation
- •Groundworks and trenching distance, which is the biggest single variable.
- •Socket rating. Fast charging costs several times more per point than slow charging and demands far more supply.
- •Whether any supply reinforcement or new connection is needed.
- •Distribution boards, protection, metering and load management hardware.
- •Bollards, surfacing, signage and bay marking.
- •Back office software, access control and payment, which is usually an ongoing cost rather than a capital one.
How this appears on your building
- Charging demand has not been given, so no annual saving has been produced.
What decides whether it works on your building
Spare import capacity
The first question, always. Your agreed capacity and your measured peak together tell you how much headroom exists. Load management can stretch it a long way by sharing what is spare across the sockets, but it cannot create capacity that is not there.
Distance from the intake to the parking
Cable and groundworks are a large share of the cost, and trenching across a car park is disruptive as well as expensive. A short run to a compact cluster of bays is far cheaper than sockets spread around the site.
Dwell time
How long vehicles actually stay decides the socket rating. Overspecifying speed for cars that sit all day wastes both money and capacity.
Who is charging and who pays
Staff, fleet, visitors, tenants and the public all imply different metering, access control and billing. Decide this before the specification, because retrofitting a billing model is awkward.
Tenure and the car park
If you lease, the lease may restrict works to the car park or the fabric. If you let, the tenant may want charging you have not budgeted for. Either way the agreement comes first.
Future phases
Demand grows. Whether you lay ducting and cable capacity now for bays you will not fit for several years is the cheapest decision you will make on this project.
How long it takes and what it disrupts
Before the quote is meaningful
Capacity check, network enquiry where relevant, a decision on who charges and who pays, and a route survey for the cable.
Civils
Trenching and reinstatement is the disruptive stage. Bays are out of use, and access routes may need to change for a period. This is the part to plan around your operations.
Installation and commissioning
Mounting and connecting the units is quick once the cable is in. A short planned shutdown may be needed for the board work.
Afterwards
Access, tariffs and load management settings usually need adjusting once real usage appears. Ask who does that and whether it is included.
What usually goes wrong or gets missed
Sockets specified before the supply is checked
Then a capacity upgrade arrives as a surprise and doubles the project. The capacity check costs almost nothing and should come first.
No load management fitted
The site then trips or exceeds its agreed capacity, and exceeding it is charged at a penalty rate. Load management is far cheaper than the alternative.
Ducting not laid for later phases
The ground is opened twice, and the second time costs nearly as much as the first.
Charging speed higher than the dwell time needs
You pay more for the hardware, more for the supply, and gain nothing for a car that is there for eight hours.
Billing and recharge decided last
Metering, access and tax treatment for staff use all follow from that decision. Making it late means changing the specification.
The chargers are not maintained
A dead socket is worse than no socket. Agree who fixes faults and how quickly before you sign.
- •Sockets are specified before the supply is checked, and a capacity upgrade arrives as a surprise.
- •No load management is fitted, so the site trips or exceeds its agreed capacity.
- •Ducting is not laid for a second phase, so the ground is opened twice.
What to ask an installer
- 01What is my agreed import capacity, what is my measured peak, and how much headroom does that leave?
- 02How many sockets can I fit without a supply upgrade, using load management?
- 03How far is the cable run, and what does the groundworks element of this price cover?
- 04Are you laying spare ducting or cable capacity for a second phase?
- 05What socket rating have you specified, and why is that right for how long vehicles stay here?
- 06How is the electricity metered and billed to the people using it?
- 07What happens if the site reaches its capacity limit while cars are charging?
- 08Who maintains the units, what is the response time, and what does that cost each year?
- 09Is the back office software an ongoing subscription, and for how long am I committed?
- 10If I let the building, who owns the equipment at the end of the lease?
How it interacts with other measures
With solar
Chargers add daytime load, which lifts the share of your generation you consume yourself. Where vehicles are parked during the day, the two work well together.
With battery storage
A battery can cover charging peaks and keep the site inside its agreed capacity. Where the alternative is a connection upgrade, compare the two costs directly rather than assuming reinforcement.
With a heat pump
Both add electrical load. Do one capacity assessment covering both, and do it before either project is designed.
With an EPC rating
Charging equipment does not reduce the modelled energy use of the building, so it will not move a band.
Common questions
How many EV chargers can my building support?
That is set by the spare capacity between your measured peak and your agreed import capacity, and by whether load management is fitted. With load management, many slow sockets can share a modest amount of headroom, because they rarely all draw full power at once.
Do I need a grid connection upgrade?
Not always. Load management, slower sockets or a battery can often avoid it. Get a capacity check before assuming reinforcement, because it is one of the more expensive things a project can carry.
Should I install fast or slow chargers?
Match it to how long vehicles stay. All day parking is served perfectly well by slow sockets at a fraction of the cost and the supply. Fast charging is for short dwell, and it is a much larger electrical project.
Can I charge staff for the electricity?
Yes, with metering and a back office system, and there are tax considerations for staff use that your accountant should confirm. Decide this before specifying, because it changes the equipment.
Who should own the chargers on a let building?
Agree it in writing before installation, including who maintains them, who takes the revenue and what happens at the end of the term.
Related reading
Where these figures come from
Show the provenance
- Installed cost: from £1,200 to £3,200 per socket
- UK commercial market, 2026. The spread is mostly groundworks.
The figures on this page are modelled ranges for UK commercial buildings, not a quote for yours. Add your building and we will model it on your own roof, load and rating.