How to Add The Charge Scheme to Your Existing Company Car Scheme: A Step-by-Step HR Guide
Source: Shutterstock
Most HR teams that enquire about adding EV charging to their benefits package ask the same question first: Does this mean changing what we already have?
It doesn't. That's the most important thing to understand about implementing EV charging salary sacrifice through The Charge Scheme.
The car scheme your employees are on stays exactly as it is. The leasing provider, the contract terms, the payroll process: none of it changes. The Charge Scheme bolts directly onto your existing arrangement, adding EV charging as a salary sacrifice benefit without requiring a new supplier relationship, a new payroll integration from scratch, or any disruption to the benefits your team already uses.
The result is a complete EV benefit package. Employees save on the car through salary sacrifice. They save on every charge, at home, at work, and across 76,000+ public charge points, through The Charge Scheme. The two work together, and the gap that's existed between the car benefit and the charging cost is closed.
This guide sets out the four-step process for adding The Charge Scheme to your existing scheme: configuration and payroll mapping, employee communications, card and app rollout, and ongoing reporting. Each step is designed to be as low-friction as possible for HR teams, and the whole process can be completed in as little as two weeks from sign-off.
Why a "Bolt-On" Approach is Best for HR
The phrase "bolt-on benefit" carries a specific meaning here. The Charge Scheme isn't a replacement for your existing EV salary sacrifice or company car arrangement. It doesn't require employees to re-enrol, restart their car contracts, or engage with a new provider for their vehicle. It simply extends salary sacrifice to cover something it hasn't covered until now: the electricity that powers the car.
This matters for HR teams because the barrier to adding new benefits is rarely enthusiasm: it's implementation risk. The prospect of re-procuring a car scheme, renegotiating contracts, or rebuilding payroll integrations is enough to stall decisions that would otherwise be straightforward. The bolt-on model removes that risk entirely. For teams that have explored EV leasing with a charging bolt-on as a combined offering, The Charge Scheme follows the same principle: extend what's already in place rather than replace it.
Does The Charge Scheme Work With All Salary Sacrifice Providers?
Yes, The Charge Scheme is compatible with:
Any EV salary sacrifice provider
Any personal lease arrangement
Any privately owned electric vehicle
Employees don't need to have their car through The Electric Car Scheme to access the charging benefit. If your workforce uses a mix of providers, they can all be enrolled in The Charge Scheme simultaneously without any of their underlying car arrangements changing.
This is also relevant for HR equity and the charging divide. Employees who secured their EV through a different route, whether a personal contract, a previous scheme, or a car they purchased outright, can access the same charging savings as those on your current salary sacrifice scheme.
How Much Does The Charge Scheme Cost To Set Up?
The Charge Scheme operates through gross salary deductions, which reduce the employee's taxable pay, and in doing so, it also reduces their National Insurance contributions.
The benefit is self-funding. This means:
No setup fee
No monthly cost to the business
A measurable NIC saving for every participating employee
For a workforce with significant EV adoption, that adds up. Removing the friction around charging costs also has an indirect commercial value. Employees considering an EV through a salary sacrifice scheme often cite charging cost and complexity as reasons to hesitate. An all-inclusive benefit covering both car and charging removes one of the main objections to uptake.
If you're building the internal case for why 2026 is the year to implement an EV charging benefit, the NIC saving is often the figure that moves the conversation forward.
Key Takeaways
The Charge Scheme bolts onto any existing car or salary sacrifice arrangement without disruption.
It's provider-agnostic; all EV drivers can enrol regardless of their car setup.
Employer NIC contributions fall because the benefit is paid from gross salary.
There's no setup cost; the scheme is self-funded through payroll deductions.
Step 1: Configuration and Payroll Mapping
The first step in the implementation process is configuration: connecting The Charge Scheme to your payroll so that employee charging costs can be deducted from gross salary each month.
The Charge Scheme integrates with all major UK payroll providers. The technical setup is handled by The Charge Scheme's onboarding team, not by your internal IT or payroll function. Your payroll team's involvement is limited to confirming the deduction structure and ensuring the monthly figure is processed correctly, work that's comparable in scope to any other salary sacrifice benefit already on your payroll.
What Does The Configuration Cover?
During setup, The Charge Scheme team maps the charging benefit to your existing payroll process. This covers:
Deduction type and timing
Charging costs are treated as a salary sacrifice deduction, processed before income tax and National Insurance are applied, in the same payroll run as your existing deductions
Employee data
Your HR or payroll team provides the employee roster for enrolment; no individual employee financial data is required at this stage
Reporting structure
The dashboard and reporting outputs are configured to match your preferred format, whether that's individual employee-level data or an aggregated view across your workforce
For HR teams already running salary sacrifice EV charging alongside a vehicle scheme, the payroll mapping follows the same logic as the existing car deductions. For teams new to charging as a benefit, The Charge Scheme's onboarding support covers every step of the initial setup.
Set Up Timeline: What Should I Expect?
From sign-off to employee rollout, the full setup process can be completed in as little as two weeks. This includes:
Payroll mapping and deduction configuration
Employee data upload and account creation
Card production and dispatch
Communications preparation for internal launch
There are no extended procurement timelines, no IT change requests, and no waiting periods tied to contract negotiations.
Key Takeaways
Payroll integration is handled by The Charge Scheme's team, not your IT department.
The deduction structure follows standard salary sacrifice logic; no new payroll processes are required.
Employee data requirements are minimal; no individual financial data is needed at setup.
The full configuration can be completed in as little as two weeks from sign-off.
Step 2: Employee Communication and Launch
Once the payroll mapping is in place, the next step is communicating the benefit to staff. How well you do this directly affects uptake, and uptake determines how much value employees actually get from the benefit you've just added.
Having an HR checklist for EV salary sacrifice communications ready before launch, covering what the benefit is, who's eligible, what the savings are, and how to enrol, is the most reliable way to avoid a slow start.
The Charge Scheme provides HR teams with dedicated launch communications support, including email templates, digital posters, and a launch webinar. Each employer also receives a dedicated customer success manager who can work with them to build a bespoke rollout plan. The most effective communications, though, are those that lead with what the benefit means in practice rather than how it works technically.
Lead with the Financial Savings
Employees deciding whether to enrol respond most to a clear, specific financial case. The salary sacrifice saving varies by tax bracket:
Basic rate taxpayers save approximately 32% on every charge
Higher-rate taxpayers save approximately 42% on every charge
Additional rate taxpayers save up to 50% on every charge
On a year's worth of public charging, that represents a meaningful sum, and it's worth quantifying in your internal communications. For context, a higher-rate taxpayer using public rapid chargers regularly could save several hundred pounds annually on charging costs alone, on top of the savings they're already making on their vehicle.
The hidden costs of personal EV charging are easy to overlook until employees see the numbers set out clearly. Framing the benefit this way, with concrete savings rather than abstract percentages, tends to be far more persuasive.
Address the Questions Employees Will Ask
Before launch, anticipate the questions your workforce is likely to raise. The most common are:
Does it work with my current car? Yes, any electric vehicle and any provider.
Do I have to change my existing car scheme? No.
How much admin is involved? One mileage reading per month, taking around 10 seconds.
Will I be taxed on the charging benefit? No Benefit-in-Kind tax applies to employer-provided charging when structured correctly.
Building these answers into your launch communications reduces the volume of individual queries to HR and accelerates enrolment.
A well-structured FAQ document, delivered alongside the initial announcement, is usually sufficient. For HR teams looking for a model to follow, the 5 reasons charging salary sacrifice works as an HR benefit is a useful internal reference when drafting your communications.
Phased Rollout
If you'd prefer to launch to a subset of employees before a full rollout, for example, a specific department, site, or employee group, The Charge Scheme supports a phased approach.
This allows you to:
Test the payroll process end-to-end before scaling
Gather employee feedback and refine your internal messaging
Identify any site-specific questions or edge cases before the wider launch
Many HR teams find that a structured pilot is the best way to launch an EV charging benefit at scale: surface the edge cases with 10 to 20 employees first, then extend with confidence.
Key Takeaways
Lead communications with specific savings figures, not technical descriptions of how the scheme works.
Anticipating common employee questions before launch significantly reduces HR query volume.
Phased rollout to a pilot group is supported and recommended for larger or complex workforces.
The Charge Scheme provides template communications materials to support the internal launch.
Step 3: Rolling Out the Card and App
Once employees are enrolled, they receive two things: a physical RFID card and access to The Charge Scheme app. Understanding how these two elements work together helps HR teams explain the experience clearly to staff.
The Card
The Charge Scheme EV charging card is an RFID-enabled card that gives access to 76,000+ UK charge points, including BP Pulse, Shell Recharge, IONITY, and Tesla Superchargers. Employees tap it at a public charger to authenticate and start a session.
No app is required at the charger itself, and no mobile signal is needed. The card works offline.
Key facts HR teams should know when communicating with staff:
Cards are dispatched once an employee is enrolled and arrive within 3 to 5 working days
Activation is completed through the app using enrolment credentials; no IT support is required
The card covers public charging across major UK networks without requiring separate network memberships
Charging costs are handled automatically through payroll, not from a personal bank account
the app
The app serves three functions:
Live availability of compatible charge points near the employee's location
A full session history and cost summary, so employees can see exactly what they've charged and what's been deducted each month
The monthly mileage submission, which takes around 10 seconds and is the only admin the employee needs to complete
From the employer's perspective, the app also feeds into the reporting dashboard, giving HR and payroll teams visibility of monthly usage and deduction totals across all enrolled employees.
Home And Workplace Charging
The Charge Scheme covers more than public charging. Employees who charge at home or at an employer-installed charge point have those costs included in their monthly deduction, calculated automatically from the mileage submission. There are no receipts to save, no expense forms to complete, and no manual tracking required.
Key Takeaways
Cards arrive within 3 to 5 working days; employees activate independently through the app.
The card works offline at 76,000+ charge points; no mobile signal is needed.
The app tracks sessions, costs, and handles the 10-second monthly mileage submission.
Home and workplace charging costs are included automatically; no receipts are required.
Step 4: Monthly Reporting and Automation
Once the scheme is live and employees are enrolled, the ongoing workload for HR is minimal. This is by design. The Charge Scheme's operational model is built around automation, with the monthly cycle managed almost entirely by the system once the initial configuration is in place.
What Is The Monthly Process?
Each month, the process runs as follows:
Employees submit a single mileage reading through the app. This takes approximately 10 seconds and is the only action required of them.
The system calculates their total charging cost for the month, covering home, workplace, and public charging, based on the mileage data and recorded charging sessions.
The calculated deduction is provided to your payroll team as a single line item per employee, processed as a salary sacrifice deduction before tax.
Employees see the deduction on their payslip, alongside their existing car scheme deduction if applicable.
There's no manual reconciliation, no receipt collection, and no expense claim process. For HR teams currently managing business mileage reimbursement alongside their car benefit, the contrast in admin burden is significant.
Reporting And Visibility
HR and payroll teams have access to a centralised reporting dashboard.
The key outputs include:
Monthly deduction totals and employee-level usage data
Scheme participation rates and enrolment status
kWh charged and estimated CO2 displacement data, useful for sustainability and Net Zero reporting
Exportable reports in standard formats for payroll processing and internal benefit reviews
For organisations with Net Zero commitments, this data provides measurable evidence of progress rather than policy aspiration. Reporting on workplace green benefits, including kWh charged, CO2 displaced, and scheme participation rates, is increasingly expected as part of ESG and sustainability disclosures, and The Charge Scheme dashboard makes that straightforward.
It's also useful for finance and payroll teams who need clean, consistent records of salary sacrifice deductions across the workforce.
What Doesn't Change
Once the scheme is running, your payroll process remains the same. The Charge Scheme deduction follows the same payroll cycle as your existing salary sacrifice benefits, and the payroll automation that handles the monthly calculation means there are no additional sign-off requirements, no mid-month adjustments, and no manual exceptions to process in normal circumstances.
For HR and fleet managers who've been cautious about adding new benefits because of the ongoing admin commitment, this is the part of the implementation worth emphasising: once it's set up, it doesn't create new work.
Key Takeaways
Employees submit one mileage reading per month; the system calculates all costs automatically.
HR receives a single deduction figure per employee for payroll processing each month.
The reporting dashboard provides usage, cost, and sustainability data in exportable formats.
The monthly payroll cycle is unchanged; the scheme processes alongside existing deductions.
Adding Charging To Your Benefits Package: Without Adding Complexity
The gap between a salary sacrifice car scheme and a complete EV benefit has always been the charging cost. Employees make the financial case for going electric through salary sacrifice, then find themselves paying for every charge from their take-home pay, at post-tax rates, with no systematic way to reduce that cost.
The Charge Scheme closes that gap. It doesn't require HR teams to renegotiate supplier contracts, rebuild payroll integrations, or take on meaningful new administrative work. It's a genuine bolt-on: two weeks from decision to launch, a payroll process that runs automatically from that point forward, and a benefit that covers every charge an employee makes, wherever they plug in.
For employees, the saving is 20 to 50% on every kWh, depending on their tax bracket. For the employer, the NIC reduction means the scheme contributes positively to the payroll from day one.
For HR and rewards teams evaluating the business case, there's dedicated guidance on how The Charge Scheme works for HR teams, along with the full overview of how the scheme works for employees. The question isn't whether the scheme is worth the effort. It's worth recognising there's very little effort involved.
Frequently Asked Questions About Adding The Charge Scheme To your Benefits Package
-
No. The Charge Scheme is entirely provider-agnostic. It integrates with any existing EV salary sacrifice arrangement, personal lease, or privately owned electric vehicle. Your current leasing or fleet agreements remain in place, and employees don't need to change their car contracts to access the charging benefit.
It's also worth noting that The Charge Scheme is distinct from an EV salary sacrifice car scheme; if you're unclear on the difference between EV salary sacrifice and charging salary sacrifice, the distinction is covered in detail in this guide.
-
From sign-off to employee rollout, the full setup process can be completed in as little as two weeks. This includes payroll configuration, employee data upload, card production, and communications preparation.
The Charge Scheme's onboarding team handles the technical integration; your internal team's involvement is limited to confirming the payroll deduction structure and supplying the employee roster.
-
Once the scheme is live, the monthly HR workload is minimal. Your payroll team receives a single deduction figure per employee to process in the standard salary sacrifice payroll run. There's no manual reconciliation, no receipt management, and no expense claim process.
The system generates a monthly report showing deduction totals and usage data, which can be exported directly into your payroll workflow.
-
Charging costs are deducted from employees' gross salary before income tax, and National Insurance is calculated, using the same mechanism as any existing salary sacrifice benefit. The Charge Scheme integrates with all major UK payroll providers, and the deduction is delivered as a single monthly figure per employee, ready for processing in your standard payroll run.
HMRC's salary sacrifice guidance confirms that charging costs structured this way qualify for the same tax treatment as other approved salary sacrifice benefits; no new payroll software is required.
-
Zero-cost implementation is one of the scheme's defining features for employers.
There's no setup fee and no ongoing monthly cost; the benefit is entirely self-funded through employees' gross salary deductions. Additionally, because salary sacrifice reduces employees' taxable pay, employers also benefit from a reduction in National Insurance contributions on participating employees' deductions. The scheme generates a net saving for the business, not an additional expense.
-
Yes. A phased rollout is fully supported.
Many employers choose to pilot the scheme with a specific department, site, or employee group before extending it to the wider workforce. This approach allows HR teams to gather feedback, refine internal communications, and confirm payroll processing before a full launch.
The Charge Scheme's onboarding team can structure the initial enrolment around your preferred pilot group.
-
The Charge Scheme provides employees with direct support through the app and a dedicated help function.
For HR teams, a dedicated customer success manager is assigned from the outset, with launch materials including email templates, digital posters, and a webinar available to handle common questions before they reach your inbox.
The Bigger Picture: EV Ownership Still Makes Financial Sense
The arrival of eVED is not a reason to reconsider going electric. It is a reason to be more deliberate about managing the costs within your control. Each tax change since 2025 has narrowed the gap between EVs and combustion engine cars on paper, but none has eliminated it.
At current fuel prices, an EV driven on home electricity still costs roughly half as much per mile as a petrol equivalent, even with eVED included. For company car drivers, the BiK differential alone continues to produce savings that dwarf the new charge. What eVED changes is the importance of actively managing charging costs rather than treating them as a fixed background expense.
Salary sacrifice charging is the most direct mechanism available to offset that exposure. Every month in place before April 2028 is a month of savings banked against a cost that has not yet arrived. For HR teams, it addresses a gap employees are increasingly aware of, at no additional employer cost, and sits naturally within any strategy to future-proof benefits ahead of the 2030 ZEV mandate.
Last updated: 31/03/2026
Our pricing: is based on data collected from The Charge Scheme Calculator. All final pricing is inclusive of VAT. All deals are subject to credit approval and availability. All deals are subject to excess mileage and damage charges. Prices are calculated based on the following tax saving assumptions; England & Wales, 40% tax rate. The Charge Scheme is a product of The Electric Car Scheme™ – a trusted, trademarked brand dedicated to making electric driving more affordable. All rights reserved. The Electric Car Scheme is the trading style of The Electric Car Scheme Limited (company number 12646157, ICO number ZB030706, VAT number 439430195) and The Electric Car Scheme Holdings Limited (company number 13295877, ICO number ZB252629). Head office & registered address: The Shipping Building, 254 Blyth Road, Hayes, UB3 1HA. The Electric Car Scheme Limited provides services for the administration of salary sacrifice employee benefits. The Electric Car Scheme Holdings Limited is a member of the BVRLA (10608) is authorised and regulated by the FCA under FRN 968270, is an Appointed Representative of Marshall Management Services Ltd under FRN 667174, and is a credit broker and not a lender.
Copyright and Image Usage: All images used on this website are either licensed for commercial use or used with express permission from the copyright holders, in compliance with UK and EU copyright law. We are committed to respecting intellectual property rights and maintaining full compliance with applicable regulations. If you have any questions or concerns regarding image usage or copyright matters, please contact us at marketing@electriccarscheme.com and we will address them promptly.
