How should your EV site price parking alongside charging?

Set the electricity price and parking conditions together, then show drivers what each payment covers before they commit. Regulation 11 requires public charging prices in pence per kilowatt hour [S1]. Separate parking charges and bundled offers need careful presentation, with matching signs and payment screens. Test a complete visit before opening the bays. Checked October 2026.

Last checked 18 October 2026

Should drivers pay a parking tariff as well as a price per kWh?

Start with the visit you want your site to support. A customer arriving for an appointment needs to understand the total cost before deciding to plug in. Write down the energy price, the parking price and any validation step as separate items. Ask a colleague unfamiliar with the proposal to explain the bill back to you.

A kilowatt hour, or kWh, measures energy delivered. A kilowatt, or kW, measures power. Your electricity tariff charges for energy; your parking tariff charges for use of the space. Public charging regulation 11 requires a total charging price in pence per kWh and prevents that price increasing after charging starts. [S1]

Use the charging guides for shared installation questions and the charging cost tool to explore energy costs. This page concerns the price of the whole visit, rather than equipment payback. Use setting a public charging tariff to build the underlying energy-price calculation before adding parking terms.

How should your signs show the charging and parking prices?

DfT guidance distinguishes separate fixed parking fees charged by a third party from fixed charging fees. Charging fees belong within the displayed maximum pence-per-kWh price. Relabelling a charging fee as parking does not settle its treatment. Ask your solicitor to check who supplies each service and how the prices are presented. [S2]

Prepare a sign schedule alongside the payment-screen specification. It should tell a driver:

• What they pay for electricity and whether parking is included.
• Where to pay or validate parking, including any reception procedure.
• When the parking clock starts and which bays the conditions cover.
• What happens when charging stops and whether they need to move.
• Who can resolve a failed payment, charger fault or incorrect parking notice.

Test the journey from the entrance, from the bay and from the payment screen. Include an evening visit and a driver who cannot scan a code. Keep the wording consistent with the operational plan in managing EV bays and parking.

Could free parking while charging suit your visitors?

Assess it as a customer offer with a cost to your site. Specify whether the concession lasts while electricity flows, throughout a booked visit, or until a stated departure time. Avoid designing a rule that asks a hotel guest to move midway through their intended stay unless that is clearly the service being offered.

Use the following driver-bill illustration, not a quote. All prices and visit details are assumptions, including the assumption that the displayed prices include applicable VAT. There is no claimed uplift in sales or visits.

The assumed concession removes £4 of parking receipts per qualifying visit. To assess it, multiply that amount by eligible visits, then deduct parking collection costs avoided. Measure any extra shop or hospitality contribution separately, using actual transactions. Do not count the driver’s entire charging payment as host profit: energy, operation, tax and the agreed revenue allocation still need accounting for.

Before advertising the concession, agree who funds it. For a fully funded installation, clarify whether parking receipts sit outside the charging agreement. For part funded or self funded equipment, record the same distinction in your operating budget. These are contract questions, rather than assumed income entitlements.

What should happen when charging finishes during a longer visit?

Choose whether you need bay turnover or parking for the duration of the customer’s activity. Write a fault exception and a staff procedure before introducing an overstay fee. A vehicle waiting for a failed charger should not be treated as a successful charging session in your internal records.

Keep the detailed trigger, notifications and cap policy in your idle fees and overstay charges plan. Test here whether that policy conflicts with the ordinary parking tariff. For example, a customer could otherwise face two clocks with different end points. Have your solicitor review the complete customer terms before launch.

How do ANPR and private parking enforcement fit together?

Automatic number plate recognition, or ANPR, records registrations as vehicles pass cameras. Treat its records as part of the evidence trail. The BPA sector code covers signs, consideration and grace periods, camera checks and appeals. It is an industry code; do not describe it as a statutory parking code. Ask your contractor to identify the provisions and transitional arrangements applying to your site. [S6]

For relevant private land in England and Wales, Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 provides a conditional route to recover unpaid parking charges from a vehicle’s keeper. It is not automatic liability from a number-plate image. Land status, notices and statutory conditions matter. Do not apply this route across the whole UK without jurisdiction-specific advice; check with your solicitor. [S5]

ICO guidance also requires you to address ANPR transparency and personal-data handling. Agree responsibilities for signs, record retention, corrections and access requests. Review the sharing of charging records alongside camera records, rather than collecting extra data merely because the systems permit it. [S7]

What VAT checks should you make before publishing the tariff?

HMRC Notice 742 says parking facilities are normally standard-rated, with exceptions. Check the actual supply, including any relationship with other property arrangements. Parking should not be assumed exempt just because it involves land. [S3]

HMRC’s public-charging VAT brief maintains standard rating following a tribunal decision which HMRC sought permission to appeal. Record that distinction when reviewing older guidance or a proposed reduced-rate treatment. This is general information: check with your accountant before setting invoice and payment-system tax codes. [S4]

What should you do next?

Bring your proposed signs, parking terms, payment journey and fault procedure to the site assessment. Use the earn more from your site hub and site check, then get matched with an installer that covers your area.

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