Can I claim the WCS for public car-park bays?

No. The WCS is restricted to off-street staff and fleet parking. Public-access bays at retail, hospitality and visitor car parks are excluded — they are commercially funded.

Is there any grant for public-access rapid DC bays?

Not as a standalone OZEV scheme in 2026. The Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund supports council-led on-street and destination charging via local authorities, but it is not a direct grant a private operator applies for. Most retail and hospitality car-park projects are capex or charging-as-a-service.

What is the typical payback on a public-access rapid bay?

At a public price around 79p/kWh, around 40% utilisation, average session 30 kW: gross revenue of roughly £62,000–£80,000 per bay per year before electricity cost. Payback is typically modelled at 3–5 years; tariff differential and uptime drive the spread.

Do public bays need to accept contactless payment?

Yes — the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 require public-access charge points of 8 kW or above to offer contactless payment or an open payment system, and to publish pricing and 99%+ rapid-charger uptime.

Should I buy the hardware or use charging-as-a-service?

Capex gives you the revenue and the asset, charging-as-a-service gives you no upfront cost and a revenue share. The right answer depends on your cost of capital, your forecast utilisation, and whether EV charging is core to your business or a tenant amenity.

Public Car Park EV Charging Installers UK — 1132 Verified OZEV-Authorised Providers

Public Car Park EV Charging Installers UK

For retail, hospitality and council operators of public-access car parks. 1132 OZEV-authorised commercial EV charging installers on the official GOV.UK list, filtered to those offering commercial work — independent, free, and rebuilt weekly.

Public car-park EV charging is commercial EV's commercial frontier: the sockets are revenue-generating, so the project has to underwrite itself rather than rely on the grant maths that fund workplace and depot installs. The 1132 installers on this page are all OZEV-authorised for commercial work on the public GOV.UK list — although OZEV does not publish a public-access sub-tag, so the sensible next step is to ask each shortlisted installer for two recent public car-park projects with utilisation data.

Typical public car-park scope

Destination AC, 7–22 kW — for retail, hospitality and leisure sites where dwell time is 1–3 hours. Cheaper per socket, but revenue is constrained by the dwell.
Rapid DC, 50–100 kW — for trunk-road and high-turnover retail. Hardware £14,000–£35,000 installed per unit, plus DNO. Throughput is the business model.
Ultra-rapid DC, 150 kW+ — for premium sites and forecourt-style hubs. £35,000–£80,000 per unit installed; usually needs HV and a transformer compound.
Contactless payment and OCPI roaming — public-access bays in the UK must accept contactless or open-payment systems under the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023; OCPI roaming lets your bays appear in third-party apps and broadens the revenue catchment.

Why grants mostly don't apply

The Workplace Charging Scheme requires off-street staff or fleet parking — public visitor parking is explicitly excluded. The Depot Charging Scheme funds depots, not public bays. So most public car-park projects are commercially funded: capex, or a charging-as-a-service contract where the operator funds the hardware and shares revenue.

That changes the conversation. You are not optimising for "lowest net capex after grant" — you are optimising for utilisation, uptime and payment friction. The installer's value-add shifts to siting (where on the site does dwell time and visibility intersect?), payment-and-app integration, and uptime SLA.

Questions to ask every public car-park installer

Have you commissioned a public car-park site at this throughput before? What utilisation did it hit by month 12?
Is the proposal capex or charging-as-a-service? What is the revenue share and term?
How are contactless payment and OCPI roaming handled, and at what ongoing cost?
What uptime do you contract to, and what is the on-site response SLA for a faulty rapid unit?
Who owns the data — me or the back-office provider — and what happens to it if I switch CPMS in year three?

For worked retail numbers and revenue commentary, see the commercial EV charger installation costs guide.

The installers

1132 OZEV-authorised commercial installers shown. Featured partners are labelled and shown first; nothing else affects order.

Top regions for public car park ev charging installers uk

South East — 203 OZEV-authorised commercial installers
Scotland — 132 OZEV-authorised commercial installers
North West — 128 OZEV-authorised commercial installers
London — 110 OZEV-authorised commercial installers
West Midlands — 106 OZEV-authorised commercial installers

Frequently asked questions

Can I claim the WCS for public car-park bays?: No. The WCS is restricted to off-street staff and fleet parking. Public-access bays at retail, hospitality and visitor car parks are excluded — they are commercially funded.
Is there any grant for public-access rapid DC bays?: Not as a standalone OZEV scheme in 2026. The Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund supports council-led on-street and destination charging via local authorities, but it is not a direct grant a private operator applies for. Most retail and hospitality car-park projects are capex or charging-as-a-service.
What is the typical payback on a public-access rapid bay?: At a public price around 79p/kWh, around 40% utilisation, average session 30 kW: gross revenue of roughly £62,000–£80,000 per bay per year before electricity cost. Payback is typically modelled at 3–5 years; tariff differential and uptime drive the spread.
Do public bays need to accept contactless payment?: Yes — the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 require public-access charge points of 8 kW or above to offer contactless payment or an open payment system, and to publish pricing and 99%+ rapid-charger uptime.
Should I buy the hardware or use charging-as-a-service?: Capex gives you the revenue and the asset, charging-as-a-service gives you no upfront cost and a revenue share. The right answer depends on your cost of capital, your forecast utilisation, and whether EV charging is core to your business or a tenant amenity.

Related industries

Same commercial OZEV pool, viewed through a sector lens — pick the page that matches who you are buying for.