Summary
The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) is a grant that businesses can use to reduce the cost of installing electric vehicle chargepoints for their staff by up to £14,000.
- The WCS grant is capped at £350 per chargepoint socket up to a maximum 40 sockets per applicant business.
- It’s available to any businesses, charity, public authority, or small accommodation business with some conditions.
- The grant is provided by the government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV).
Tip: Pod Point provides some of the UK’s top companies with Workplace EV Charging and help you through the application process.
What is the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS)?
The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) is a government scheme for electric vehicles offered by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV).
- The WCS reduces the purchase and installation cost of a new workplace charging station (single socket) by 75% (capped at £350 per socket).
- A single business can claim for up to a maximum of 40 sockets (e.g. 40 single socket or 20 double socket chargepoints).
- You can only claim the WCS for new chargepoints which will be installed after the date the voucher is issued.
Tip: Workplace charging is a great way to encourage your staff to adopt electric vehicles! Idaho National Laboratory found that having an available charger at your workplace makes drivers six times more likely to switch to an electric car.
How do I qualify for the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS)?
The WCS is available to any business, charity, or public authority with some conditions including the following:
- You must have sufficient off-street parking which is only used by staff or the fleet and which must be either on-site or a reasonable distance from the place of work.
- While you do not need to currently have electric vehicles as part of your fleet, you will need to express an existing or future need for the business.
- You must have the charging station installed by an OZEV-approved WCS installer like Pod Point.
Small accommodation businesses and charitable organisations have recently been added to the WCS grant. These may be defined as:
- Hotels and similar accommodation.
- Holiday and other short-stay accommodation.
- Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks.
For small accommodation businesses or charitable organisations there are no restrictions on who can use the designated off-street parking.
How does the Workplace Charging Scheme work?
The WCS is a voucher based system.
- First you complete an online application.
- If successful, you will be emailed a voucher code which you can then present to your OZEV-approved installer (like Pod Point). Your installer will then use to it claim the grant after the installation is complete.
- The voucher code is valid for 120 days from the date of issue.
Tip: Pod Point installed 67 EV chargepoints at Skanska’s UK office for their employees and visitors through the Workplace Charging Scheme.
What are the benefits of electric car charging stations for businesses?
Workplace charging is ideal, because cars are parked there for long periods (e.g. employee vehicles during work hours, fleet vehicles overnight), providing a meaningful charge from low cost EV charging points.
- You can save more than £1,000 a year in commercial fleet and employee fuel costs per 10,000 miles.
- You can offer electric vehicle charging to your employees.
- You can reduce employee “benefit in kind” tax for company cars.
- A green fleet can help reduce CO2 emissions and reach sustainability goals.
Download the Workplace electric car charging whitepaper
Tip: Workplace charging is a great perk and is increasingly seen as a valuable tool for employee attraction and retention. It is also hugely valuable for the charging of electric cars and encouraging more people to drive them.
How do I claim the Workplace Charging Scheme with Pod Point?
Pod Point is an OZEV-approved installer.
To reduce the cost of your Workplace charge point, all you need to do is fill in this simple form and our team of experts will help you through the process of claiming the grant.
