With the projected growth of electric car ownership in coming years, the Government is offering grants to support businesses who introduce charging infrastructure at their place of work.
Provided by the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) is a voucher-based grant that offers support to companies with the up-front costs of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle charge-points.
The grant is available to eligible businesses, charities and public sector organisations and is limited to the 75 per cent of purchase and installation costs, up to £500 for each socket, for a maximum of 20 sockets across all sites for each applicant.
In order to apply for vouchers, businesses have to complete a form, which can be found here.
If a business completes and passes eligibility checks they will be issued with a unique identification voucher code via email within five days, which can then be given to any OLEV-authorised WCS installer.
Unfortunately, any infrastructure installed before a voucher has been issued will not be eligible and claims via the scheme must take place within four months of the date of issue. Any grant claim linked to expired vouchers will not be approved.
Businesses can apply for subsequent vouchers for additional charge-points and sites after an initial installation, as long as their cumulative total does not exceed 20 sockets.
Under the rules of the scheme, applicants will have to maintain the charge-point for a minimum of three years and ensure measures are in place to provide usage data to OLEV.
Under the requirements of the scheme, all charge-points will have a minimum three-year warranty on parts and installation from the charge-point manufacturer.
The Government is currently in the process of legislating a tax exemption in relation to employees who charge their own electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles at work, which will have the effect that the value of the electricity used will not be taxed as a benefit-in-kind.
Link: Grant schemes for electric vehicle charging infrastructure
