Electric vans and cars: how to count charging at home, work and on the road

Charging for electric cars and vans you own or lease is Scope 2. Count it from the vehicle's miles with the government's per-mile factor, 0.04322 kg CO2e for an average electric car in 2026, or from the kWh you paid for. If a vehicle charges on your own site's meter, that electricity is already in your bills, so don't count its miles again.

Updated 14 October 2026 by the Carbon Recycling team. Figures use the official UK government conversion factors and are checked against the current gov.uk guidance.

Which scope does EV charging go in?

Vehicle	Where it charges	How to count it
Company or leased EV	Your own office, depot or shop	Already in your electricity bills (Scope 2). Don't add the miles.
Company or leased EV	The driver's home, paid for by you	Miles × the EV factor (Scope 2), or the kWh you reimburse × the grid factor
Company or leased EV	Public chargers	Miles × the EV factor (Scope 2), or the kWh on the receipts × the grid factor
Employee's own EV on business	Anywhere	Business miles × the grey fleet factor (Scope 3, business travel)

The simplest approach for most firms: use miles for every vehicle, then take out the miles that were charged on your own meters. Mixing miles and kWh for the same trips is how double counting creeps in.

The 2026 factors per mile

Government factors for an average-sized vehicle, kg CO2e per mile, excluding well-to-tank:

Vehicle	Scope 1 (fuel)	Scope 2 (charging)	Scope 3 (grid losses)
Battery electric car	none	0.04322	0.00429
Plug-in hybrid car	0.14418	0.01405	0.00139
Petrol car	0.25993	none	none
Diesel car	0.27786	none	none
Battery electric van	none	0.06856	0.0068
Diesel van	0.41386	none	none

The electric factors already allow for charging losses, and they fall each year as the grid gets cleaner. If you know the kWh instead, the 2026 grid electricity factor is 0.13096 kg CO2e per kWh.

A worked example

A firm runs 2 electric vans, each covering 18,000 miles a year. The drivers charge at home, with the firm paying, and on public chargers:

36,000 miles × 0.06856 = 2,468 kg CO2e, Scope 2
36,000 miles × 0.0068 = 245 kg CO2e, Scope 3 (grid losses)
Total: 2.71 tonnes

The same miles in average diesel vans would be 14.90 tonnes of Scope 1, so the switch cut this part of the footprint by about 82%. That is the kind of dated, measured action a Carbon Reduction Plan should show.

Things that trip people up

Counting depot charging twice. If the vans plug in at your depot overnight, the electricity is on your bill. Leave those miles out.
Putting EVs in Scope 1. Scope 1 is fuel burned in your vehicles. A battery electric vehicle burns none, so its emissions are Scope 2.
Forgetting the petrol in a plug-in hybrid. Use the plug-in hybrid factor, which gives a Scope 1 and a Scope 2 line from the same miles. Better still, if you have fuel cards, count the litres of petrol and the charging kWh directly.
Treating staff-owned EVs as company vehicles. An employee's own car is always grey fleet, Scope 3, however it's powered.

Electric vehicles and SECR

SECR asks for energy in kWh as well as emissions. The government publishes separate kWh-per-mile figures for the electricity used by electric vehicles, so you can report fleet energy even when all you have is mileage.

How Carbon Recycling helps

Add each vehicle's miles with its fuel type and Carbon Recycling splits plug-in hybrids into their Scope 1 and Scope 2 parts, puts grid losses in Scope 3, and applies the right year's government factors. Your report shows the switch to electric as a real, dated reduction.

Frequently asked questions

Is electric vehicle charging Scope 1 or Scope 2?

Scope 2, for vehicles you own or lease. The government's tables put the electricity used by company electric cars and vans in Scope 2, and the grid losses in Scope 3. A battery electric vehicle has no Scope 1 emissions because nothing comes out of the exhaust.

What about charging at our own office or depot?

That electricity is already in your site's electricity bills, so it's already in your Scope 2. Don't add the vehicle's miles as well, or you will count the same electricity twice.

How do I count staff charging company cars at home?

Use the vehicle's miles and the government's per-mile factor, 0.04322 kg CO2e for an average electric car in 2026. If you reimburse home charging by the kWh, you can use those kWh with the grid electricity factor instead, but not both.

What if an employee uses their own electric car for business?

Then it's grey fleet: Scope 3 category 6, business travel, the same as any employee-owned car. Use the business miles from their mileage claims.

How do plug-in hybrids work?

They have both. The government splits each mile into a petrol part, which is Scope 1, and an electricity part, which is Scope 2. Using the plug-in hybrid factor gives you both lines from the same miles.

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