Two quite different businesses get called “an EV charging business”, and almost everything about them differs: the money you need, the licences, who pays you and what you own at the end. Before anything else, work out which one you are starting.
Installing chargers, or operating them?
An EV charger installation business installs equipment other people own. You are paid per install, by a homeowner, a business, a leasing company or a manufacturer. Startup cost is a van, tools, training and insurance. You need electrical qualifications, and you can be trading in months.
A charge point operation owns the chargers and sells the energy through them. You are paid per kWh, by drivers. Startup cost includes the hardware, the grid connection, the civils, the land agreement and a back office that can take payments and handle roaming. You do not need to be an electrician, because you will be paying installers. Payback is measured in years and it turns on utilisation, which is to say on site selection.
People often search for one and mean the other. The rest of this guide covers the installation business, because that is the one you can start with a qualification and a van. If you are looking at operating a network, the questions are about site acquisition, utilisation and back office, and our guide for charge point operators is the better starting point.
What you need before you can trade
EV charger installation is electrical work, so the entry requirement is that you are an electrician first. There is no route that skips this.
Electrical competence
You need to be a qualified electrician with current experience of inspection and testing, working to BS 7671. Everything else builds on that.
EV specific training
The recognised qualification is City & Guilds 2919-01, the Level 3 Award in Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Installation. It is written for experienced electricians rather than new entrants, it expects you to already be able to demonstrate inspection and testing experience, and it is assessed by a practical plus an open book online exam. Manufacturers and grant schemes will ask whether you hold it.
A competent person scheme
Registering with a competent person scheme such as NICEIC, NAPIT, ELECSA or STROMA lets you self-certify notifiable work rather than paying building control a fee and waiting on each job. Given that nearly every charger install involves a new circuit, and a new circuit is notifiable, this is not really optional if you intend to do this at volume. Our guide to the Part P building regulations covers what is notifiable and what is not.
Insurance and the business itself
Public liability at the level your customers and any network you join will ask for, and employers’ liability the moment you take on anyone. Register the business, and register for CIS if you will be paid by or paying other contractors, which is common the moment you start subcontracting or taking subcontracted work.
The paperwork on every single job
This is the part that surprises people who have come from general electrical work. A charger install carries more notification than a socket does, and it goes to more than one body.
- Part P notification. A dedicated charger circuit is a new circuit, and a new circuit is notifiable to building control in England. Through a competent person scheme you self-certify and the scheme notifies for you. See what is notifiable under Part P.
- DNO notification. The Distribution Network Operator owns the local network and decides what the connection may draw, and it is a separate body from the customer’s supplier. Domestic EV chargers are notified through ENA Connect Direct, the industry platform that routes the application to the right operator. See how DNO applications work.
- The load assessment behind it. Before you promise a 7 kW charger you need to know the existing supply will carry it, because the answer decides whether you fit load management, apply for an upgrade, or walk away. Our free maximum demand calculator does that assessment with diversity applied.
- Certification. A new circuit gets a BS 7671 Electrical Installation Certificate. That is separate from the Part P notification and separate again from the DNO, and you need all three.
- Generation, if the job includes it. If you are also fitting solar or a battery, that is generation and it brings its own threshold. Below it you connect and notify, above it you apply and wait. See G98 and G99 applications. EV chargers on their own are load, not generation, so G98 and G99 do not apply to them.
Becoming an OZEV authorised installer
Several UK chargepoint grants exist, and only an authorised installer can offer them and submit the claim. That makes authorisation a commercial advantage rather than a compliance chore, because it decides whether a grant eligible customer can use you at all.
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles currently runs five schemes:
- Chargepoint grant for renters and flat owners
- Chargepoint grant for households with on-street parking
- Chargepoint grant for residential landlords
- Workplace Charging Scheme
- Workplace Charging Scheme for state-funded education institutions
You apply through the authorised installer application on GOV.UK and OZEV writes to confirm authorisation. Two conditions then bind you: you may install only chargepoint models on the approved list, and you must test that what you installed works and meets safety requirements. Grant values and eligibility change, so read the current figures on the GOV.UK installer guidance rather than trusting any number you read on a blog, including this one, which is why we have not quoted one.
Where the work actually comes from
The business plan question that matters is not “how do I market myself”, it is “whose pipeline am I on”. Direct-to-homeowner work is the hardest and lowest margin channel in this trade, and most established installers get the bulk of their volume from somewhere else:
- Manufacturer approved installer lists. Most charger manufacturers run one, and being on it brings leads and usually requires their product training.
- Energy suppliers, leasing companies and dealers. They sell the customer a car or a tariff, promise an install with it, and subcontract the install to a network of installers.
- Wholesalers and retailers selling chargers who need someone to fit them.
- Commercial and workplace work, which is larger per job, more predictable, and where the Workplace Charging Scheme makes authorisation pay for itself.
Every one of those channels vets you before they send you anything. They will ask for your qualifications, your scheme registration, your insurance certificates and your OZEV authorisation, and they will ask again when each expires. Having that pack ready and current is the difference between joining a network in a week and joining it in two months.
What to charge, and what it actually costs you
The trap in year one is pricing off the parts and your own hourly rate, then discovering that the survey, the notifications, the return visit and the chasing were the job. Price the whole job, not the time on site. Our job costing calculator works out what a job actually costs once overhead and unpaid admin are in, and the CIS calculator covers the deduction if you subcontract or are subcontracted, which most installers eventually are.
The bit that catches people out
The electrical work is the part you are trained for and it is rarely what limits the business. What limits it is that every job carries a survey, a load assessment, a DNO notification, a Part P notification, a certificate, photographic evidence and an invoice, and by the time you are doing eight a week that is a second job done in the evenings. People leave this trade over the admin far more often than over the wiring.
That is the problem installHUB exists for. One record per job holds the survey, the quote, the appointment, the evidence from site and the invoice, and the DNO notification is submitted through ENA Connect Direct from the survey answers rather than re-keyed into a separate portal, with the response tracked against the job. It does not file your Part P notification, which goes through your competent person scheme, and it does not claim your OZEV grants. It keeps the job in one place so the paperwork stops being the reason you stop growing.
See how it works for EV and renewables installers, or look at pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be an electrician to start an EV charger installation business?
Yes. Installing a charger is electrical work under BS 7671 and normally involves a new circuit, so you need to be a qualified electrician with inspection and testing experience before the EV specific training makes sense. You do not need to be an electrician to operate a charging network, because you would be paying installers to do the work.
What qualification do I need to install EV chargers in the UK?
City & Guilds 2919-01, the Level 3 Award in Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Installation. It assumes you are already an experienced electrician who can demonstrate inspection and testing experience, and is assessed by a practical assessment and an open book online exam.
Is an EV charger installation notifiable under Part P?
Almost always, because a charger usually needs a dedicated new circuit and a new circuit is notifiable to building control in England wherever it is in the dwelling. That is separate from notifying the Distribution Network Operator, which is a different obligation to a different body.
Do I have to be an OZEV authorised installer?
Not to trade, but only an authorised installer can offer the OZEV chargepoint grants and submit the claim. If you intend to serve renters, flat owners, landlords or workplaces, authorisation decides whether those customers can use you at all.
How much does it cost to start an EV charger installation business?
The controllable costs are training, scheme registration, insurance, tools and a van, assuming you are already a qualified electrician. We have not put a figure on it because the honest answer depends on whether you have the van and the qualification already, and any single number would be wrong for most readers.
Is starting a charging station business the same thing?
No. Operating charge points means owning the hardware and selling energy through it, which brings grid connection, civils, land agreements, payment handling and roaming, and returns depend on utilisation rather than on jobs completed. It is a capital business rather than a trade.
