EV charging is now an FM risk issue: what UK businesses and estates teams should check now
What has happened?
Workplace EV charging is growing rapidly across the UK.
Commercial offices, logistics sites, public-sector estates and mixed-use developments are increasingly installing EV charging infrastructure to support fleet transition, employee charging and sustainability targets. But alongside that growth, fire services and insurers are warning that lithium-ion battery risks are increasing too.
Last week, reporting based on UK fire-service data said firefighters attended 1,760 lithium-ion battery fires in 2025, averaging roughly one every five hours. The figures covered electric vehicles, ebikes, escooters, vapes and other battery-powered equipment.
At the same time, fire-safety specialists, insurers and risk advisors are increasingly warning that EV charging infrastructure changes how buildings and parking environments should be managed operationally.
For FM teams, this is not an anti-EV story.
It is a resilience, safety and operational-planning story.
Why this matters for FM and workplace operations
EV charging changes how sites behave operationally.
Charging infrastructure introduces:
- higher electrical load
- cable management challenges
- new fire-risk considerations
- ventilation requirements
- emergency response planning needs
- battery-related hazards
Industry guidance increasingly warns that traditional fire strategies may not fully address lithium-ion battery behaviour during charging incidents.
This matters directly to:
- offices and commercial buildings
- logistics depots
- public-sector estates
- hospitals and universities
- mixed-use developments
- retail parks
- fleet operators
- multi-storey car parks
Importantly, the challenge is not only installation.
It is long-term operational control.
What different organisations should take from this
Small businesses
For smaller businesses, the focus should be on safe installation, maintenance and basic operational rules.
Industry guidance says workplace chargers should be installed and maintained by qualified professionals, inspected regularly and supported by clear emergency procedures.
Medium and large organisations
Larger organisations face wider estate-management challenges.
Different sites may have different charger layouts, electrical capacity and fire-risk exposure. FM teams increasingly need visibility over charging locations, cable routing, ventilation, inspections and emergency response planning.
Multinationals
For multinational organisations, EV charging now sits inside broader ESG, fleet-transition and operational-resilience discussions.
As charging infrastructure expands, insurers and risk advisors are increasingly expecting clearer evidence that fire strategy, electrical systems and operational controls are evolving alongside sustainability programmes.
Public sector buyers
Public-sector estates face additional complexity because many sites support high footfall, public access and essential services.
Schools, hospitals, transport hubs and civic estates increasingly need structured planning around charger placement, evacuation routes, maintenance and emergency response.
Contractors and service providers
For contractors, especially FM, cleaning, waste and security providers, EV infrastructure changes daily site operations too.
Cable management, parking control, charging-bay safety, incident escalation and out-of-hours monitoring all become more important as charging density increases.
What sites should check now
There are five practical questions organisations should now ask:
- Has EV charging been formally included within fire-risk assessments?
- Are charging bays positioned safely away from escape routes and high-risk areas?
- Are inspection, maintenance and emergency isolation procedures clearly defined?
- Do contractors and staff understand what to do if a charging fault or battery incident occurs?
- Could the organisation evidence safe operational controls to insurers, buyers or regulators?
These are no longer future-planning questions.
They are operational resilience questions happening now.
Where TPMG FM fits
This is where structured FM becomes increasingly important.
TPMG FM helps organisations create safer, more controlled operational environments through better site management, contractor coordination, compliance visibility and day-to-day operational oversight.
As workplaces become more electrified, good FM increasingly means understanding how sustainability and operational safety must work together.
