What is home charging for business vehicles?

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Home charging for business vehicles refers to a driver charging a company provided electric vehicle at their home, typically overnight, using a dedicated home charger or a domestic socket.

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For the driver, this is usually the simplest and most attractive way to charge an EV.

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• The vehicle is parked at home anyway
• Charging happens while the driver sleeps or does other things
• There is no waiting time
• The vehicle starts the day fully charged

From a cost perspective, home electricity is typically cheaper than public charging and often cheaper than workplace charging once infrastructure and maintenance are considered.

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From a time perspective, the effort required is minimal. Plug in when you get home. Unplug in the morning. No queues. No apps. No detours.

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This combination of low cost and high convenience is why home charging has become the backbone of many electric fleets, particularly for company cars, vans and light commercial vehicles.

Why fleets encourage home charging?

Fleets encourage home charging for a simple reason. It is efficient.

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Lower energy cost

Electricity at home is usually priced at a lower rate than public charging. Even with rising energy prices and complex tariffs, home charging remains one of the most cost effective ways to fuel an electric vehicle.

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For businesses, this translates into:

• Lower cost per mile
• More predictable energy spend
• Reduced exposure to volatile public charging prices

Better driver productivity

Home charging removes friction from the driver’s day.

• No need to plan charging stops
• No wasted time waiting at chargers
• No range anxiety at the start of the day

Drivers start each day with a full battery, which improves route planning and reduces operational risk.

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Reduced infrastructure burden

Building and maintaining workplace charging infrastructure is expensive and complex.

• Grid upgrades
• Planning permission
• Maintenance
• Load management
• Site constraints

Home charging shifts much of this complexity away from the business and onto an environment that is already designed to deliver electricity reliably.

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Faster fleet electrification

Home charging allows fleets to electrify more quickly because they are not constrained by depot or workplace capacity.

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As long as a driver has suitable off street parking, an EV can be deployed without waiting months for infrastructure upgrades.

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For many fleets, this is the difference between pilot programmes and full scale rollout.

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The real costs of home EV charging

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While the energy itself is cheap, home charging is not free. Businesses need to address a fundamental question early on.

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Who pays for, and who owns, the charger?

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There are several common approaches, each with different financial and operational implications.

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The driver buys the charger and keeps it

In this model:

• The driver pays for the charger
• The driver pays for installation
• The driver owns the asset

This keeps costs off the business balance sheet and is simple from an asset management perspective.

However:

• It creates an upfront cost for the driver
• It may disadvantage lower paid employees
• It can slow EV adoption
• It raises fairness concerns

The driver gets convenience and a long term asset, but they are funding infrastructure that primarily benefits the business.

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The business buys the charger and keeps it

In this model:

• The business pays for the charger
• The business pays for installation
• The business owns the asset

This is attractive from a fairness and control perspective, but it introduces complexity.

If the driver:

• Leaves the company
• Moves house
• No longer needs the vehicle

The business may need to remove the charger or write off the asset.

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Removal and reinstatement can be costly and not all properties allow for easy removal without damage.

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The business buys the charger and the driver keeps it

This has become a popular middle ground.

• The business funds the charger and installation
• The driver keeps the charger
• The cost is justified over a minimum period of employment

If the driver remains with the business for a reasonable period, the cost per month is low and the benefit to the business is high.

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Many fleets model this over 12 to 36 months. When viewed this way, the charger becomes an enabler of lower ongoing energy costs rather than a standalone expense.

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Typical costs for home chargers

As a guide:

• Charger hardware typically costs £700 to £1,200 including VAT
• Installation costs range from £300 to £500 depending on complexity
• Some properties require additional electrical work
• Some sites are unsuitable for installation altogether

Not every driver can have a home charger, which introduces further complexity and fairness considerations later.

Specialist providers such as Indra and JumpTech have built services to help businesses manage eligibility checks, installation workflows and ongoing support.

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Typical home charger models used by fleets

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There is no single best charger for all fleets. Different businesses prioritise different things such as cost, smart functionality, leasing compatibility or installation experience.

Some commonly used models include:

• Indra; Known for specialising in business and fleet installations, particularly around eligibility checks and onboarding flows.
• Waev; A cost effective option that is well rated and attractive for price sensitive deployments.
• Easee; Widely used and technically advanced. Often seen as a strong all rounder with smart features and load balancing.
• Pod Point; One of the earliest market entrants. Widely deployed and familiar to many drivers.
• Ohme; Popular with leasing companies due to tariff integration and user experience.
• Zaptec; A solid choice with a focus on smart functionality and scalability.
• Humax; A newer entrant backed by a large parent company, bringing credibility and manufacturing scale.
• CordEV; Often positioned as a smart fleet partner with integrated services.

The specific charger model matters less than the data it can provide and how that data is used later in the reimbursement process.

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Who pays for the electricity?

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Without a complex and rarely used two meter setup, the answer is simple.

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The driver pays for the electricity. But is this fair and correct. The business needs to find a way to reimburse this home energy use.

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The energy flows through the driver’s home meter and appears on their personal energy bill.

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This immediately raises important questions for the business.

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• How does the driver get paid back?
• How do you separate business and personal use?
• What happens if multiple vehicles are charged at the same property?
• What if the driver uses the vehicle for both work and personal miles?

At this point, home charging stops being a simple infrastructure question and becomes a reimbursement problem.

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Where the problem starts for businesses

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For drivers, home reimbursement is often the most emotionally charged part of fleet electrification.

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If reimbursement is slow, inaccurate or unfair, drivers can feel like they are subsidising the business.

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Key pain points include:

Paying to work

If drivers are not reimbursed accurately, they may feel they are paying out of pocket to do their job. This creates friction, resentment and resistance to EV adoption.

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Lack of off street parking

Not all drivers can install a home charger. Those without driveways may rely on public charging, which is often more expensive and less convenient.

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If reimbursement policies do not account for this, perceptions of unfairness quickly emerge.

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Multiple chargers or vehicles

Some households may have:

• More than one EV
• More than one driver
• A mix of business and personal vehicles

Separating usage becomes complex without robust data and clear processes.

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Mixed personal and business mileage

Most company car drivers use their vehicles for both personal and business trips.

This creates a need to:

• Identify which charging relates to business use
• Avoid reimbursing personal energy
• Maintain compliance and auditability

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Why home charging creates a reimbursement challenge

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When you combine all of the above, the complexity becomes clear.

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To reimburse home charging properly, a business needs access to multiple pieces of data:

• The driver’s home energy tariff
• The cost per kWh at different times
• The amount of energy used
• When the energy was used
• Confirmation that the vehicle charged was the business vehicle
• Confirmation that the energy relates to business use
• Line manager approval to prevent fraud
• A process to pay the driver accurately and on time

Each of these steps introduces friction, risk and administrative overhead.

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Individually they are manageable. Together they form a system problem.

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Why this gets harder as fleets scale

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For a fleet of five vehicles, it is entirely possible to manage home charging reimbursement on a spreadsheet.

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Drivers submit figures. Finance reviews them. Payments are made manually.

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At fifty vehicles, cracks start to appear.

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At five hundred vehicles, the approach collapses.

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Common scaling issues include:

• Inconsistent data
• Manual errors
• Delayed payments
• Driver disputes
• Finance team overload
• Lack of audit trails
• Fraud introduced as drivers cheat the system
• Difficulty adapting to tariff changes

What was once a simple admin task becomes a material operational risk.

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This is why home charging, while cheap and convenient, cannot be treated as a side issue. It needs structure, policy and systems that reflect its importance to fleet operations.

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Setting the foundation

Home charging is one of the greatest enablers of electric fleets. It lowers costs, improves driver experience and accelerates electrification.

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But it shifts energy spend into the home, where traditional fleet processes were never designed to operate.

Understanding this shift is critical. Once you do, the need for accurate, fair and scalable reimbursement becomes obvious.

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That is where the real work begins.

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