What does commercial EV charger installation cost in 2026?

Updated 27 October 2026: prices, grant deadline and running costs refreshed.

“How much will it cost?” is the second question on every survey, straight after “how many chargers can we have?”. The honest answer is that the chargers themselves are rarely the biggest number. What you pay is decided mostly by where the chargers go, how far the cable has to travel, and what your electricity supply can already handle.

Here are the price ranges we are quoting in 2026, what moves a job up or down that range, and what the Workplace Charging Scheme takes off before it closes.

Typical installed prices in 2026

These are indicative figures for complete, commissioned installations, including survey, hardware, cabling, testing and certification. They exclude VAT and grant.

• Small office: two 7kW wall mounted chargers, short cable runs from the board. Typically £2,500 to £3,500 installed.
• Warehouse or business park car park: four 22kW pedestals with trenching and load management. Typically £10,000 to £16,000 installed.
• Depot rapid charging: one 50kW DC charger with a new sub board and civil works. Typically £25,000 to £40,000 installed.

Two sites with the same chargers can still land at opposite ends of these ranges. The reasons are almost always the same five.

What actually drives the price

1. Distance from the board. Every metre of armoured cable between your distribution board and the charger costs money, and the cable gets thicker (and dearer) the further it runs and the more power it carries. A charger on the wall next to the plant room is the cheapest charger you will ever install.

2. Groundworks. Running cable under tarmac, block paving or a landscaped strip means trenching, ducting and reinstatement. On a long run across a car park this can cost as much as the chargers. Fixing chargers to a wall, or running cable along a building or fence line, avoids most of it.

3. Your supply. If the building has spare capacity, the chargers connect to what is already there. If it does not, the choice is between smart load management (usually a few hundred pounds of hardware and set up) and a supply upgrade from the network operator, which can run to thousands and add months. We explain how to tell which you need in how to calculate the electrical load for your chargers.

4. Charger type and power. A 7kW wall unit, a twin socket 22kW pedestal and a DC rapid charger are very different pieces of kit. Pick power to match how long cars are parked: staff who park all day rarely need more than 7kW, fleets with short turnarounds may need 22kW or DC.

5. Access and extras. Public or visitor charging needs contactless payment and signage. Bay marking, protective bollards, out of hours working and multi phase jobs on live sites all add cost, as does any work needed to bring an old board up to standard.

What the grant takes off

Until 31 March 2027 the Workplace Charging Scheme pays up to £500 per socket, capped at 75% of the installed cost, for up to 40 sockets across all your sites. State funded schools and colleges can claim up to £2,000 per socket. Not sure if you qualify? Check our 2026 grant eligibility guide.

• Two single socket wall units at £3,000: up to £1,000 off, so around £2,000 net.
• Four twin socket 22kW pedestals at £14,000: eight sockets, so up to £4,000 off, around £10,000 net.
• For small school installs the 75% cap, not the £2,000 per socket, is usually the limit.

The grant is claimed by the installer after the chargers are commissioned, and that claim must land before the deadline. In practice that means booking a survey by January at the latest. Depots may also qualify for the Depot Charging Scheme, which we check on every fleet survey.

Running costs to budget for

The installation is a one off. After that, budget for electricity, an annual service visit, and the back office software that runs smart charging, access control and any payments. Software is usually a monthly fee per charger, and it is worth asking any installer to put it in writing up front, because it is the line most often left off a headline price. If you charge staff or visitors to use the chargers, that income can cover these costs and more; our payback calculator shows how quickly.

Five ways to keep the price down

• Put the chargers as close to the board as the car park allows.
• Wall mount where you can; pedestals mean groundworks.
• Use load management before paying for a supply upgrade.
• Lay spare ducting now if you plan to add bays later. Digging once is far cheaper than digging twice.
• Get the survey done in time to claim the grant before 31 March 2027.

Getting a figure for your site

For a quick ballpark, try our cost estimator or read the full commercial EV charger installation cost guide. For a fixed price you can budget against, a site survey is the only reliable route: it measures cable runs, checks the board and supply, and produces an itemised quote with the grant already deducted. See how we handle commercial EV charger installation from survey to aftercare.