1. Daytime charging is the cheap slot
This is the argument that belongs to offices and to almost nobody else.
Under the Ministry of Power's 2024 guidelines the tariff for EV charging is single-part and capped at the Average Cost of Supply until 31 March 2028. Within that cap, distribution companies are directed to bill 0.7 × ACoS during solar hours and 1.3 × ACoS outside them.
That is the lowest regulated price for EV electricity available to any property type.
A hotel charges overnight and pays the higher rate. A housing society charges overnight and pays the higher rate. An office charges at 10 AM. If the building has rooftop solar the case compounds — you consume your own generation at the moment it peaks, instead of exporting it.
2. Eight hours changes the hardware question
A 7.4 kW AC charger delivers about 7.4 kWh per hour. Someone who parks at 9:30 and leaves at 18:30 is connected for nine hours — roughly 65 kWh. That is a full charge for essentially any electric car sold in India, from a commute that will rarely have used half of it.
So the conclusion matches the hotel one for a different reason: you do not need DC fast charging. A 30–60 kW DC installation runs to ₹12–30 lakh once civil work, transformer capacity and approvals are counted, and in an office it would sit idle most of the day. Nobody needs twenty-minute charging when the car is not moving until evening.
DC earns its place only in a visitor bay at a building with real turnover, or for a pool-car fleet that has to turn around between trips.
3. More cars than bays
This is the problem offices actually hit, and it arrives sooner than anyone plans for. Ten bays and forty EV drivers is not a hardware problem; it is an allocation problem.
- Rotation beats reservation. Nine hours is far more than most commutes need, so one bay can serve two cars a day with a midday swap.
- Charge, then move. A finished car sitting in a charging bay is the single biggest source of complaints. Some sites solve it socially, some with an idle fee.
- Meter the driver, not the bay. RFID identifies who charged rather than where, so one bay can bill four different people across a week.
- Wire for more bays than you install. Adding a unit to existing conduit is cheap. Re-running cable across a basement is not.
4. The load clash nobody plans for
Offices have an electrical problem hotels do not: charging peaks at exactly the same time as the building does. Air conditioning, lifts, lighting and every workstation are at maximum between 10 AM and 5 PM, and that is precisely when the cars are plugged in.
Each 7.4 kW charger draws around 32 A continuously. Ten of them is 74 kW added to your afternoon peak, which for many buildings means a sanctioned load review and possibly a higher demand charge.
The way out is dynamic load management. The chargers are given a ceiling and share it, throttling as the building's demand rises and opening up as it falls. Because the cars are parked for nine hours, throttling costs the driver nothing: a car charging at 4 kW instead of 7.4 kW still gains 36 kWh over a working day, more than a typical commute uses in a week.
A survey measures your existing peak against your sanctioned load before anyone specifies a bay count. That measurement is the whole project.
5. Who pays, and how
Four arrangements are common, and choosing between them is usually an HR question rather than an engineering one:
- Free, as a benefit. Simple, popular, and cheap while EV drivers are a minority. Less cheap when they are not.
- Employee pays per kWh. RFID identifies the driver, the session is metered, and it settles monthly or through payroll.
- Free up to a cap. A monthly kWh allowance, paid beyond it. Keeps the benefit while capping the bill.
- Landlord-operated. In a multi-tenant building, charging is run by the building and recovered through CAM charges.
That last one raises the question every tenant should settle before spending anything: who owns the parking, and what happens to the installation at the end of the lease? Get it in writing before the cable goes in.
6. What the rules say about offices
The Ministry of Power's Guidelines for Installation and Operation of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure, 2024 (17 September 2024) name office buildings explicitly among the semi-restricted locations in scope. That gives you:
- A separate metered connection on a dedicated EV tariff, if you would rather not run charging off the commercial supply and inflate your demand charges.
- A connection timeline the licensee must meet — three days in metropolitan areas, seven in other municipal areas, fifteen in rural areas, once the application is complete.
- Single-window online application, which DISCOMs are required to provide.
- No licence. Operating charging infrastructure is a de-licensed activity.
7. What it costs
We quote after the survey, because the number is set by your cable run, your board and your bay count. Here is the market context to check any quotation against, ours included:
7.4 kW AC wallbox hardware — ₹25,000 to ₹50,000
Installation labour and materials — ₹8,000 to ₹25,000
A workplace setup of two to three AC bays — ₹5 lakh to ₹12 lakh
One or two DC fast chargers, 30–60 kW — ₹12 lakh to ₹30 lakh
Copper armoured cable, 6 sq mm — ₹180 to ₹290 per metre
Basement car parks sit toward the upper end, because runs are long and routing crosses fire compartments. A surface car park with a board nearby is the cheapest installation in this business.
8. Before you speak to anyone
- Your sanctioned load and your measured afternoon peak against it.
- Who owns the parking — you, the landlord, or a shared facility — and what the lease says about fixed installations.
- How many employees drive EVs today, and the trend over the last year.
- Distance from the nearest distribution board to the bays you have in mind.
- Whether charging is a benefit or a billed service.
9. Questions we get asked
Is charging at the office cheaper than at home?
For the property, yes. The 2024 guidelines direct DISCOMs to bill EV charging at 0.7 times the Average Cost of Supply during solar hours against 1.3 times outside them, and an office charges almost entirely inside that cheaper window. No overnight location can do that.
How many chargers do we need?
Fewer than the number of EV drivers. A nine-hour session delivers far more than a normal commute consumes, so one bay can serve two cars a day with a midday swap. Put the electrical provision in for growth and add units as demand appears.
Will charging blow our maximum demand?
It can, because charging peaks with the building's own peak. Dynamic load management gives the chargers a ceiling and makes them share it, throttling when the building is busy. With nine-hour dwell times, throttling is invisible to the driver.
We lease our office. Can we still install?
Usually, but the lease governs it. Establish who owns the parking, whether fixed installations are permitted, and what happens to the equipment at the end of the term before committing.
Can we bill employees for what they use?
Yes. RFID identifies the driver rather than the bay, so sessions can be metered per person and settled monthly, through payroll, or against a free monthly allowance.
Book a free site survey
We look at your electrical capacity, parking layout, charger location, cable routing, access requirements and room to expand — then quote against what is actually there. There is no charge for the survey.
Sources for the figures on this page: