Is EV charging worth installing at your factory?

Your factory should plan staff charging around shifts and measured production demand, with fleet charging treated separately. Start with confirmed users and a practical parking rota. The Workplace Charging Scheme offers eligible installations up to £500 per socket [S1]. Fully funded depends on provider appetite; compare part funded and self funded returns under realistic use. Checked October 2026.

Last checked 16 October 2026

Why offer EV charging at your factory?

Treat staff charging as a workplace service with a measurable budget. Ask employees which shifts they work, how often they need charging and whether their cars remain onsite during production. Visitors attending a quality audit or meeting are a different user group from staff staying for an entire shift.

Use assumed shift windows only for initial design. Confirm them with your roster before committing to sessions per day. A car occupying a charger while its owner works is not available for another session unless someone can move it safely. DfT recommends matching charging demand and parking duration before choosing faster equipment [S4].

Do not count recruiting benefits or extra output as cash income without evidence. Compare industrial units and the manufacturing and industrial sector for other occupation patterns.

Which funding model fits a factory car park?

Fully funded needs provider acceptance of your utilisation and access limits. It does not follow from the size of the workforce alone. See fully funded charging. A provider wanting passing motorists may need a separate entrance, changing the parking plan.

For part funded charging, compare the capital contribution against the exact income waterfall. Self funded may suit a controlled staff service, provided you budget for support and repairs.

Ask your solicitor to review lease length, landlord consent if applicable, relocation, early exit and removal. Allocate liability, vandalism, insurance, operator failure and any assessed rates. Obtain response and repair terms that work during night shifts as well as office hours.

What could factory chargers cost, earn and take to pay back?

This is an illustration, not a quote. Every commercial input is an assumption, not a market price or an offer. Kilowatts (kW) measure power; kilowatt hours (kWh) measure energy. AC means alternating current.

The effective energy cost allows for losses per kWh sold. Figures consistently exclude VAT. Grants, tax relief, finance, rates, insurance, payment fees, replacement and lost parking income are excluded. Subtract applicable costs before deciding; these operating returns are not whole-project profits.

Redo the mid case: 250 × 4 × 20 = 20,000 kWh; receipts = energy × £0.35; net income = energy × (£0.35 − £0.22) − £800 = £1,800. fully funded pays receipts × 10%. part funded pays net income × 60%, or £1,080, against £4,000–£6,400 host capital.

Simple return on investment (ROI) = annual host net income ÷ host capital × 100. Payback years = host capital ÷ annual host net income. Outputs are rounded; ranges use the capital endpoints. A loss has no operating payback. Long paybacks may exceed equipment life or your right to occupy the site. They do not include replacement.

These sessions are assumed to be paid by staff or visiting drivers. Charging your own company vehicles does not create new revenue for the business. If you make staff charging free, replace receipts with zero and approve the resulting annual cost as an employee-service budget. Do not retain these income figures in that case.

How can chargers fit around production power demand?

Supply the electrical designer with a measured profile that covers busy production, shutdown and restart. Identify machinery, compressed air and other large loads from your own records. The distribution network operator (DNO) runs the local electricity network and can discuss connection requirements [S4].

Ask for a controlled charging design that respects agreed import capacity. DfT recommends examining flexibility and available charging time before a larger connection [S4]. The commissioning test should include a production peak and a controller communication failure, with the expected safe behaviour documented by the designer.

For an illustrative demand check, a car needing 20 kWh over an assumed eight-hour shift requires 20 ÷ 8 = 2.5 kW average delivery before losses. This arithmetic does not select cable size or protective equipment. Ask the designer to model the full group of cars and their actual onboard charging limits. Read dynamic load management.

What parking and access does shift charging need?

Draw both incoming and outgoing crews on the layout. Your design should show where a finished car can park, whether spaces remain free for the next shift, and how drivers reach the pedestrian entrance. Do not assume a charger can serve successive cars merely because the factory operates outside daytime hours.

HSE recommends separating pedestrians and vehicles where possible and considering delivery movements [S6]. Keep chargers away from forklift crossings and loading manoeuvres. Use DfT inclusive mobility guidance to check walking routes and obstructions [S9]; reserve practical space for cable handling and vehicle access.

Have a planning adviser check the proposed equipment, location and nation. If you occupy leased premises, ask your solicitor to check cable rights and remaining tenure. Staff-only workplace charging falls outside the public chargepoint rules, while public use needs a separate assessment [S5]. Make that choice before advertising access.

Which grants and allowances can you assess?

The Workplace Charging Scheme is available to eligible applicants until 31 March 2027 [S1]. Keep the grant separate from your capital assumptions until eligibility and the voucher are confirmed.

HMRC describes a 100% first-year allowance for qualifying chargepoint expenditure [S3]. It is a deduction against taxable profit, not payment for the equipment. Check with your accountant about eligibility and grant interaction. The illustration excludes relief, so the operating case remains visible.

Next steps

Collect your shift roster, staff charging requests, parking plan and measured electricity demand. Compare the commercial charger cost guide, then get matched with an installer that covers your area.

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