Depot Charging Scheme Round 2: What to Prepare Before It Opens

The government’s listing for the Depot Charging Scheme says the next application window is expected to open on 28 October 2026 and close on 29 January 2027, and that applications are assessed first come, first served. It also says the terms and grant rates for this phase are still to be confirmed. That combination — a fixed queue and unknown terms — is the argument for preparing now. This post sets out what the listing does say, what it leaves open, and what a depot operator can usefully do in the fortnight before it opens.

What the listing settles

• The scheme part-funds the installation of charging infrastructure at fleet depots to support zero emission HGVs, vans and coaches, as part of a £170 million multi-year programme from April 2026 up to 2030, with £66 million available in two windows.
• Window 1 (25 March to 30 June 2026) offered to fund 70% of charge point and civil costs, up to £1 million across all sites.
• Only one application per organisation is allowed, but it can cover any number of sites.
• Expenditure counts only if it is carried out after the Grant Funding Agreement has been signed.
• Applicants consent to monitoring, including site visits, to commercial vehicles being the primary users of the funded infrastructure, and not to apply for or obtain similar Government funding for any part of the funded activities.

The full eligibility list is on the Depot Charging Scheme page.

What the listing leaves open

• The rate and cap for window 2. “Terms and grant rates for this phase are still to be confirmed.” Budget on the basis that 70% may not be repeated.
• Which costs count. The only cost categories named are charge point and civil costs. Grid connection, supply upgrades, solar panels and batteries are not mentioned.
• The dates. The summary gives 28 October 2026 to 29 January 2027, but the page header shows a closing date of 27 October 2026, 12:00pm, and does not explain the difference.
• What “first come, first served” means in practice. The listing does not say whether a window can close early when funds are exhausted; window 1’s dates did include that proviso, with at least three working days’ notice promised on the page.

A preparation checklist for a depot operator

1. Collect the eligibility evidence. Proof that the organisation and its fleet have operated in the UK for at least a year; the lease or title for each depot; the plan to run battery electric vans, HGVs or coaches; and a named senior leader who has approved the proposal.
2. Write down the charging need. The application asks you to quantify the impact of the electric vehicles on the depot’s charging needs. Start from the rota: how many vehicles, how far each drives, when each is parked, and therefore how much energy the depot must deliver and how much power it needs. As a worked illustration, twenty vans driving 18,000 miles a year at 0.40 kWh a mile need about 552 kWh a working night — an average of about 46 kW over twelve hours, against 140 kW if every 7 kW socket ran at once.
3. Get the supply position. Twelve months of half-hourly meter data and the agreed capacity show how much headroom the depot has. If the answer is “not enough”, the network operator’s quote and lead time become the longest item in the programme — see the grid connection guide.
4. Ask for costs in a split the funder can use. Ask each bidder to price the charge points, the civil works and everything else (grid work, generation, storage) as separate lines. If the scheme turns out to fund only charge point and civil costs, the split shows exactly what the grant could cover.
5. Hold back orders. Because eligible spend begins at the signed agreement, buying or installing chargers first would forfeit the grant on them. Surveys, design and the network operator’s application can proceed.
6. Decide what you will do if the rate falls. If window 2 funds a lower share, does the project still stand? The cost calculator shows what the vehicles’ energy costs from public chargers, from the depot’s own supply and from a depot array, which tells you what the project saves with or without a grant.

Where solar fits, and where it does not

The listing does not describe solar generation as an eligible cost, so a depot planning an array alongside its chargers should not assume the grant reaches it. The depot’s solar share depends on when the vans are parked: modelled for a 100 kW array and twenty vans, daytime-parked vans took 31% of their energy from solar with solar-following charging, and overnight-parked vans took 2%. The fleet depot charging guide sets the figures out; the allowances that apply to an array and to new chargepoints are in the capital allowances guide.

Questions to put to the scheme administrator

• Does window 2 cover grid connection or supply upgrades, and are solar and storage in or out?
• Is the 70% rate and the £1 million cap repeated, and does the cap apply across both windows?
• Can an organisation that applied in window 1 apply again, given the limit of one application per organisation?
• Which date is the closing date — the one in the page header or the one in the summary?
• How does “similar Government funding” treat the Workplace Charging Scheme for chargers at the same depot?

None of these is answered in the listing, and a depot’s plan could turn on any of them. The listing offers a sign-up for updates; use it.

Source: GOV.UK Find a Grant, “Depot Charging Scheme”, read on 14 October 2026. Model figures: PVGIS hourly series 2005–2023; assumptions on the calculator page. Not advice on any application.