Workplace electric car charging schemes in the UK: 2025 guide

Employers thinking about EV charging in 2025 usually start with one question: should we install chargers on site? It is the right question to ask, but it is only half the picture. This guide covers the options for workplace charging schemes and where a salary sacrifice charging benefit fits alongside them.

The two separate problems employers are solving

It helps to separate two distinct things that both get called "workplace EV charging":

1. Physical chargepoints on site, for employees and visitors to plug in while at work
2. How employees pay for charging generally, whether that happens at work, at home, or on the public network

Most employer effort so far has gone into the first, installing chargepoints in the car park. Far less has gone into the second, even though most charging still happens away from the workplace.

On-site chargepoints: what is involved

Installing workplace chargers typically means:

• A capital or financed cost for the hardware and installation, sometimes offset by grant schemes
• Ongoing management of access, whether that is free, subsidised, or metered per employee
• A tax position to get right, since free workplace charging for company-provided or salary sacrifice EVs is generally exempt from a taxable benefit, but the exemption is narrower for employees charging personal vehicles that are not part of a scheme

On-site charging is a genuinely useful benefit, particularly for employees without off-street parking at home, but it only covers charging that happens during the working day, and only for people who commute by car and can get a bay.

Salary sacrifice charging: what it adds

A salary sacrifice charging benefit does not require any physical infrastructure. Employees pay for charging, wherever it happens, at home overnight, at a workplace charger, or on the 76,000+ public chargepoint network, through the app and charge card, and the cost is deducted from gross salary. That delivers a 20 to 50% saving depending on tax band, without the employer needing to install or manage anything on site.

Critically, it also covers employees who cannot benefit from on-site chargers at all: those who do not drive to work, those without a guaranteed bay, and those whose home charging setup is limited because they lack off-street parking, a situation affecting roughly nine million UK households.

Combining both approaches

The two are not competing options. A sensible 2025 workplace charging strategy usually looks like:

• On-site chargepoints for employees who commute by car and can use them, prioritised by need
• A salary sacrifice charging benefit for every EV driver, covering home, workplace and public charging in one system
• Clear guidance on which employees are eligible for which, and how usage is recorded

Approach	Covers	Requires
On-site chargepoints	Charging during the working day, for on-site employees	Capital cost, ongoing management
Salary sacrifice charging	Home, workplace and public charging, for all EV drivers	Payroll deduction, no infrastructure

Setting a scheme up

For the salary sacrifice element, the process is straightforward and bolts on to any existing EV salary sacrifice or company car scheme:

1. Confirm eligibility rules with HR and payroll
2. Sign the agreement and add the deduction line to payroll
3. Roll out the app and charge card to employees, covering home, work and public charging via Plugsurfing
4. Let ongoing support and billing run outside day-to-day HR admin

Full setup detail is on the how it works page, with specifics for HR teams and finance and payroll.

Next steps

To model what a combined workplace and salary sacrifice charging approach would save your employees, try the savings calculator or book a demo.