EV car-park grants & funding in 2026
The honest version: less capital grant than the marketing implies, but a genuinely valuable tax position — and the two are routinely confused. Here is exactly what applies to a car park.
QUICK ANSWER
The Workplace Charging Scheme pays up to 75% of the cost, capped at £500 per socket (up to 40 sockets across all your sites), to 31 March 2027. A business can use it for bays used by its staff and fleet; parking used solely by customers is excluded, while charities, public authorities and small accommodation businesses face no restriction on who parks. Councils also look to the LEVI Fund (England), which funds local authorities rather than private operators. The old staff-and-fleets infrastructure grant has closed. For a serious owner-operated scheme the tax position often matters more than the grant: new charge-point equipment bought before April 2027 qualifies for a 100% first-year allowance — take your own tax advice.
FUNDING CHECKER
Which funding route fits your car park?
Eight questions, an indicative answer on the page, and the option to send it to us. The checker applies the Workplace Charging Scheme rules; the sections below cover the other routes. Rules last checked on 20 October 2026.
Live funding routes
The Workplace Charging Scheme and the first-year allowance were re-checked on 20 October 2026. The other rows are as researched in July 2026; follow the official link on each before you rely on it.
Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS)
designated workplace baysup to £500 per socket (raised from £350 on 1 April 2026), covering 75% of purchase-and-install cost, capped at 40 sockets across all your sites — a hard ceiling of £20,000. Open to businesses, charities, public authorities and small accommodation businesses for bays designated to you at premises you own or have landlord consent for. Confirmed until 31 March 2027. For a business the bays must be for its staff or fleet (parking solely for customer use is ineligible); public authorities, charities and small accommodation businesses face no restriction on who uses the bays. Chargers opened to the public must meet the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023.
WCS for state-funded education institutions
educationa higher rate of up to £2,000 per socket (max 40 sockets) for schools, colleges and other state-funded education sites.
LEVI (Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) Fund
public sectorthe ~£381m England fund (roughly £343m capital + ~£38m capability) that replaced ORCS, routed through local authorities to roll out mainly on-street and residential/destination charging. A public or council car park accesses it by partnering with the council, not by applying directly. In active delivery through 2026-27.
EV chargepoint grant for residential landlords
mixed residential sitesup to £500 per socket, up to 200 sockets across all sites, for private landlords, social housing, property-management companies and the public sector — relevant where a car park serves residential units.
EV chargepoint grant for renters and flat-owner-occupiers
flatsup to £500 per socket (75% of cost) for the occupant of a rented or owned flat with off-street parking.
Strategic Charging Infrastructure (SCI) scheme
strategic/en-routethe successor to the scrapped £950m Rapid Charging Fund (which was never deployed); around £190m of a wider £400m 2026-2030 EV allocation, aimed at en-route and strategic charging. Consultation ran to 28 July 2026 — one to watch rather than a live application route for a typical car park.
The tax position — usually the bigger prize
100% First-Year Allowance
A 100% First-Year Allowance (FYA) applies to NEW, unused EV charge-point equipment — extended (policy paper 26 Nov 2025) to expenditure incurred up to 31 March 2027 for Corporation Tax and 5 April 2027 for Income Tax. Second-hand or mixed-use kit falls back to the Annual Investment Allowance / main pool. This first-year write-off usually dwarfs the Workplace Charging Scheme voucher on a serious car-park project. Take your own tax advice.
VAT
Electricity supplied at public EV charge points is treated by HMRC as standard-rated 20% (Revenue & Customs Brief 4 (2026)); a First-tier Tribunal decision (Charge My Street v HMRC) that a 5% reduced rate could apply to supplies of 1,000 kWh or less a month is under appeal, so 20% stands for now. VAT-registered businesses can generally recover input VAT on the installation. Take VAT advice.
Worked example: the grant and tax stack on a workplace car park
Take an employer fitting 10× 22kW AC bays in its staff car park at an indicative £45,000 of qualifying spend. Because these are dedicated staff bays, the Workplace Charging Scheme applies — and it stacks with the tax position:
| Step | Effect | Indicative value |
|---|---|---|
| Workplace Charging Scheme | 75% of cost, capped at £500/socket — 10 sockets = £5,000 cap reached well within the 40-socket limit | −£5,000 |
| Net capital spend | the figure the business actually funds | £40,000 |
| 100% First-Year Allowance | the whole £40,000 written off against taxable profit in year one; at 25% corporation tax that is a ~£10,000 tax saving | −£10,000 (tax) |
| Recoverable VAT | a VAT-registered business generally reclaims input VAT on the installation | reclaimed |
| Effective net cost | after grant and first-year tax relief (take your own tax advice) | ~£30,000 |
The tax relief here (~£10,000) is worth twice the grant (£5,000) — which is exactly why the tax position, not the voucher, is usually the bigger prize on a serious scheme. For installed prices by charger type see what it costs to install EV chargers in a car park. For a business whose bays are open to customers, the WCS line disappears (parking used solely by customers is excluded), and a fully-funded operator model becomes the more common route.
How the routes actually work
- Workplace Charging Scheme — you apply on the scheme portal and receive a voucher code by email; an authorised installer uses it and claims the grant after installation. You need bays designated to you at a site you own or have consent for, and the voucher is valid for 180 days.
- LEVI (England, councils) — the fund goes to local authorities, mainly for on-street charging for residents without off-street parking. A private operator cannot apply directly; the route is a conversation with the council.
- 100% First-Year Allowance — claimed through your normal corporation-tax return on new, unused charge-point equipment; second-hand or mixed-use kit falls back to the Annual Investment Allowance.
What has closed — ignore content that still quotes these
- The EV infrastructure grant for staff and fleets (SMEs) — closed: customer applications ended 31 March 2026 and installer claims 26 May 2026. Its £350/socket + up to £500/parking-space infrastructure and £15,000 building cap are still quoted across the web but are gone; do not build a business case on it.
- The commercial landlord chargepoint grant — closed 31 March 2026.
- The On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) — closed to new applications (March 2025) and folded into the LEVI Fund. Avoid citing the secondary-source '~21,000 chargepoints / ~£83m'; the official DfT figure for completed ORCS projects (as at 1 April 2026) is 17,181 devices and £58.4m of grant, with the true total higher as partially-completed projects are excluded.
Which route fits which car park
The single biggest mistake is assuming one scheme covers everything. It doesn't — the route follows who owns the car park and who parks.
| Car park | Primary funding route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Workplace / office / fleet depot | Workplace Charging Scheme + 100% FYA | Dedicated staff/fleet bays — the WCS's exact eligibility. |
| Hotel (staff/guest, private) | WCS + FYA | Small accommodation businesses face no restriction on who parks, so guest bays can qualify. The official page does not define the term; check you fit. |
| Retail / supermarket / shopping centre | Commercial CPO funding or owner-operated + FYA | Customer-only parking is excluded from WCS for a business (staff bays can qualify); a fully-funded operator or the tax route. |
| Public / council | LEVI Fund via the council; WCS for designated bays | Public authorities face no user restriction under WCS; public chargers must meet the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023. |
| Park & ride / transport hub | LEVI / transport-decarbonisation funding | Usually council or transport-authority owned. |
The checker above applies the Workplace Charging Scheme rules to your site, rather than listing every scheme as if you qualify for all of them.
What is genuinely time-limited
The Workplace Charging Scheme’s £500/socket rate and the 100% first-year tax allowance both run to 31 March 2027. That is a real window, not a sales countdown — it simply means the numbers are at their best now, so it is worth getting the feasibility and any grant application under way rather than leaving it.
Grant & funding questions
What grants can a car park get in 2026?
It depends on the site. Workplace/staff bays can claim the Workplace Charging Scheme — up to £500 per socket (75% of cost, max 40 sockets, £20,000 cap), confirmed to 31 March 2027 — but a business can only use it for bays used by its staff or fleet (customer-only parking is ineligible), while public authorities, charities and small accommodation businesses face no restriction on who uses the bays. Public and council car parks also look to the LEVI Fund via their local authority. Schools get up to £2,000 per socket. The old staff-and-fleets infrastructure grant closed in 2026, so ignore content that still quotes it. On a serious owner-operated scheme the 100% First-Year Allowance on new charge-point equipment (to 31 March 2027 for companies) is usually worth more than the grant.
What happens at the end of a funded charging contract?
Read the lease. Funded deals typically run 15-25 years and cover who owns the kit at expiry, break clauses, make-good/removal, and whether the charging equipment constrains future redevelopment of the site. We review these terms so you don't sign away site value — the detail the operator's own sales page won't dwell on.
Tell us about your car park
Free to send. No obligation.
- 1. Tell us about your car park — bays, dwell time and postcode.
- 2. We reply by email. We publish guidance and are not an installer, so we cannot promise a quote or a survey.
- 3. You decide whether to go ahead. No obligation.