Workplace Charging: Introducing Charge Point Tariffs

Business Objectives

As energy prices have risen, we have seen a growing trend of clients coming back to us to discuss introducing tariffs for using their Mer charging points in the workplace.

Scott Duncan, Associate Consultant at Mer, says: “We are seeing more workplaces move away from giving employees free EV charging at work, simply because electricity prices are getting higher at a time when a company’s other overheads are also growing.

“There is a realisation that free charging is an extra perk for some employees. This is great if you are trying to encourage workers to switch to EVs. But equally, you wouldn’t give free petrol or diesel to workers driving legacy cars, so you might not want to give EV drivers free ‘fuel’, either.”

Scott believes that the starting point has to be understanding your corporate objectives.

“Companies are increasingly buying EVs as company vehicles or offering salary sacrifice schemes to incentivise take-up of electric vehicles (EVs), he says. “Additional charging infrastructure goes hand in hand with this. If one of your business goals is to incentivise adoption of EVs by employees, then charging for EV charging at work might actually be counterproductive.

“However, we are seeing a move away from free to subsidised charging in the workplace, as companies are looking to speed up their return on investment (ROI) from charging infrastructure. For AC fast charging, which is the most common solution for workplaces, it can be a considerable number of years before you realise that ROI. So, it certainly is not a money-maker, but it could help to cover ongoing back office software and service and maintenance costs.

“Around 40 percent of us live in properties that are unsuitable for off-street charging, and the Government recently removed the home charging grant. On that basis, there will always be some employees happy to pay to charge at work, providing you apply a fair tariff.”

Understanding Costs

Once you decide to introduce a tariff for charging, the first step is understanding your baseline costs. This will be the price per kilowatt as laid out in your electricity tariff, plus the transaction fees applied by your charging network operator.

“Electricity tariffs can vary significantly,” says Scott. “If you are tied into an expensive tariff, it is unlikely that you will be able to benefit from setting an EV charging rate that includes a profit margin. There are often other charging options available to users so if you set your tariffs too high then they will simply be disincentivised to use your chargers unless they have no other alternative.”

When setting a charging tariff, think about whether you want to make a profit or simply mitigate rising energy costs by providing a subsidised rate. “For most workplaces, employees will live within commutable distance so perhaps only travel up to 10 miles to work. Many of them might well have a charge point at home, so the price of workplace charging is unlikely to be able to compete with the cost of home charging, unless it is subsidised.”

“One of the key pieces of advice we always give to our customers is to set some guidelines – or charging etiquette – for the workplace to encourage people to move their cars once charged. Setting up a internal booking system is one way to keep control.”