More employees are asking about EV charging at work, and for good reason — a car parked for the working day is effectively a captive charging opportunity, without needing a home charger for those who can’t install one. Here’s what to consider before committing to a workplace charging rollout.
Start with expected demand, not maximum ambition
It’s tempting to plan for every parking bay to have a charger eventually, but most workplaces are better served starting with a handful of chargers based on current EV ownership among employees, then expanding as demand grows. This avoids over-investing in electrical capacity before it’s needed.
Understand your building’s electrical headroom
Commercial buildings vary widely in spare electrical capacity. A site survey will tell you how many charging bays your current supply can support without a costly capacity upgrade, and whether load management (sharing available power dynamically across multiple chargers) makes sense for your building.
Decide on an access and cost model
Some employers offer charging as a free benefit; others recover cost through a simple per-session charge or payroll deduction. Networked chargers with app or RFID access make either model straightforward to administer, whereas a free-vend charger works fine for a very small, informal deployment.
Plan for growth
Choosing hardware and wiring that can be added to later — rather than a one-off installation that’s expensive to expand — saves cost as employee EV adoption increases. This is worth discussing explicitly with your installation team during the initial site survey.
See our Workplaces solutions page for more on how we approach workplace charging projects.
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