There is no honest single figure: the chargers are usually the smallest line in a depot budget. Most of the money goes into the electricity supply — the utility connection or upgrade, and the site works that distribute that power to the bays. Both are priced from your site, fleet demand and utility network, so a total quoted before a site survey and a utility conversation is a guess, not an estimate.
Key Takeaways
- Depot electrification cost is an anatomy, not a product price: supply first, site works second, chargers third.
- DOE public-installation figures are labelled context for scale; they do not price a depot.
- Phasing — shared infrastructure once, points in stages — is the budget-shaping decision.
- A quote is only readable once you know whether the utility upgrade is inside it.
The Anatomy: Where the Money Goes
| Cost layer | What it covers | What drives the size of the line |
|---|---|---|
| Utility connection or upgrade | Increased supply capacity, utility works, metering | Simultaneous load, distance to network capacity, utility lead time |
| Site electrical works | Switchgear, distribution, trenching, bay wiring, protection | Distance from supply point to bays, ground conditions, points wired at once |
| Chargers and installation | Hardware and fitting | Point count and power class — often the smallest build layer |
| Design and approvals | Load assessment, drawings, permits, inspection | Site complexity and local requirements |
| Software and operations | Access control, session records, scheduling, maintenance | Whether the fleet needs per-vehicle records and managed charging from day one |
The first two layers share one cause: a depot is a new industrial load. A yard of vehicles plugging in on return is a step change most buildings were never wired for, which is why U.S. DOE guidance treats procurement and installation as one planning exercise. How much power your fleet needs at once is worked out in our fleet depot charging guide.
Why the Public-Station Figures Cannot Price Your Depot
The numbers most often quoted come from U.S. DOE-cited costs for public charging: about $3,500 equipment plus $2,500 installation per public Level 2 connector, and $38,000–$90,000 equipment plus $20,000–$60,000 installation for DC fast charging. Read them as what they are — U.S. public-installation context, useful for scale, not depot pricing. A public site builds a standalone installation behind every few connectors; a depot shares one connection and one set of groundworks across many points. Applying public per-connector figures to a depot misprices both ways: it overstates the hardware share and understates the supply works.
The Phasing Lever: Build for the Growth Curve
The one decision that reshapes the budget is phasing. The expensive layers — connection capacity, switchgear, trenching routes — are cheapest built once, with headroom; the cheap layer, charging points, can be added as vehicles arrive. So oversize the buried and shared infrastructure for the fleet you expect, then fit points in stages. Decide it before the first quote: it changes what the quote should describe. Our guide to commercial charging station installation costs breaks down the shared works.
Questions That Make a Quote Readable
- Is the utility upgrade inside this number, or outside it? A quote excluding the connection is not comparable to one including it.
- What capacity does this design give me? Ask for simultaneous charging capacity, not just a point count.
- Which parts are shared, and which scale per point? That split is your phasing plan.
- What is excluded? Groundworks surprises, out-of-hours working and software subscriptions are classic exclusions.
- What does the utility need from me, and when? Connection lead time can govern the whole programme.
Hardware Within the Budget
Depot hardware is the line you can price exactly, from stated facts. The EV-AC03201T is a floor-standing dual-connector AC station — two Type 2 connectors sharing up to 43 kW (22 kW per connector), OCPP 1.6J, RFID, IP54 — and the EV-ACT3204PE is a 22 kW three-phase wallbox with tethered Type 2 cable, RFID and app, IP66. Both are priced on request via our commercial EV charging page — but get the supply design quoted first: it decides how many points the site can feed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is usually the biggest cost in a depot project?
On most built depots, the supply side: the connection or upgrade plus the site works. That is a pattern, not a promise — a site with spare capacity can invert it. Your survey decides.
Can I phase the project to spread the cost?
Yes: build the connection and shared works once, with headroom, then add points as the fleet grows. Capacity never built in cannot be phased cheaply later.
How much does the electricity itself add?
Running cost is a separate budget. For context, the U.S. average commercial price was 14.53 cents/kWh (EIA, July 2026); your own tariff document is the figure to use.
Related Reading
- How Much Does It Cost to Install a Commercial EV Charging Station?
- How Much Do Commercial EV Chargers Cost?
- Fleet Depot Charging: How to Size AC Chargers for Vans and Light Commercial Vehicles
- How to Plan a Workplace EV Charging Program
