Car Dealerships & Showrooms: Solar panels for pubs

Why car dealerships and showrooms are made for solar

A dealership runs a high daytime electricity load and, in the EV era, an obligation to generate and to charge, which together make it an unusually strong solar site. Large glazed showrooms need lighting and climate control through opening hours, workshop equipment (ramps, compressors, diagnostic kit and the body shop) draws hard during the working day, and forecourt lighting carries on into the evening. EV-franchise manufacturers increasingly mandate on-site renewables and customer charging as a brand standard, so for many dealers solar is no longer optional but a corporate-identity requirement written into the franchise agreement. The same self-consumption logic that makes solar panels for pubs pay applies here, with the bonus that demonstrator and customer EV charging absorbs daytime generation at full self-consumption value, the most valuable kWh on the system. A typical install pays back in around five and a half years and then runs largely cost-free for the decades that follow.

Dealerships also have the surfaces to host meaningful capacity: big flat showroom and workshop roofs suit rooftop PV, and forecourt canopies and car parks suit solar carports that double as customer charging. Energy is one of the largest controllable costs on a site that lights vast glazed areas all day, and pairing solar with the charging the franchise already requires turns a brand obligation into a funded, cost-cutting upgrade rather than a pure compliance expense. For a dealer being told by the manufacturer to install chargers anyway, doing it alongside solar is simply the stronger version of a project that is happening regardless. There is a customer-facing dimension too: a forecourt array and visible charging signal to EV buyers that the dealership lives the technology it sells, which is exactly the credibility the manufacturer is trying to build into the brand. A site that generates its own power and charges its own demonstrators is a more convincing place to sell an electric car than one that does not.

What a typical install looks like and how it is sized

Dealership systems are usually designed in the 50 to 400 kW range, roughly 92 to 740 panels over about 400 to 2,800 square metres of showroom and workshop roof, generating in the region of 46,000 to 370,000 kWh a year and saving between 11 and 85 tonnes of CO2 annually. A single-franchise showroom sits toward the lower end and a large multi-franchise site with a busy aftersales workshop toward the upper.

Sizing is driven by the daytime showroom, workshop and forecourt load plus the charging demand from demonstrators, staff and customers, which is built in deliberately because it lifts self-consumption and is only going to grow as the franchise's EV mix increases. A showroom that lights large glazed elevations all day carries a heavier baseload than its footprint suggests, and the workshop adds spikes whenever ramps, compressors and the body shop run, so the two are best modelled together rather than averaged. Where roof area is the constraint, a forecourt canopy or a car-park solar carport adds capacity while creating visible, EV-ready charging at the entrance, which the manufacturer often wants in any case for its brand presentation. At least twelve months of half-hourly data should be pulled and EV-charging growth modelled before the design is settled, so the system is sized for the electrified forecourt the franchise is heading towards rather than the load it carries today, with headroom left for the charging mix to keep rising over the system's life as more of the model range and more customer cars switch to electric.

Costs, payback and tax relief

A dealership project typically runs between £45,000 and £350,000 with a simple payback near 5.5 years and largely free electricity for the rest of the system's life, with a single-franchise showroom toward the lower end and a large multi-franchise site with a busy aftersales workshop toward the upper. The biggest financial lever is tax. The 100% Annual Investment Allowance lets most dealer businesses write off the qualifying cost against profit in year one, worth up to a quarter of the project value back as tax for a corporation-tax payer. Solar is a special-rate asset, so the AIA or the 50% First-Year Allowance applies, not full expensing, and a single site is generally well within the £1m cap and fully expensed in the first year.

The Smart Export Guarantee pays for any surplus at a supplier-set rate that is worth shopping around, though daytime charging and the showroom load mean much of the generation is self-consumed and export is a modest part of the case. Where a group would rather not commit capital across several sites at once, a power purchase agreement provides the solar with zero capex and day-one savings, while asset finance spreads the cost over seven to fifteen years and is usually cash-positive from year one, freeing the budget for stock and the customer experience the franchise also expects you to invest in. Our cost guide works through the numbers for different site sizes, including the way the combined solar-and-charging business case outperforms either project taken alone.

Funding routes in detail

Most single-site dealerships sit within the £1m AIA cap and are fully expensed in year one under Plant and Machinery Capital Allowances, with the 50% First-Year Allowance available for group rollouts above the cap. The Smart Export Guarantee covers exported power at a supplier-set rate, which at the time of writing ranges from around 3 to 6p per kWh at some smaller suppliers to around 12 to 13p on the better fixed tariffs.

The standout route for a dealership is the Workplace Charging Scheme, which directly funds the staff, demonstrator and customer chargepoints the franchise often requires, covering up to 75% of purchase and installation cost, five hundred pounds per socket and up to twenty thousand pounds per applicant from April 2026, capped at forty sockets. Because the manufacturer is frequently mandating chargers anyway, the WCS offsets a cost the dealer was going to carry regardless, and because daytime charging self-consumes solar, the combined solar-and-charging business case is stronger than either project alone. The scheme closes permanently on 31 March 2027, so apply well before then. The EV works must be carried out by an OZEV-approved installer, and the grant applications are best prepared alongside the solar design so the two parts arrive as one funded project.

Compliance and sector considerations

Manufacturer corporate-identity standards may dictate panel placement and EV-charger provision, so the design should follow those CI rules from the outset rather than retrofitting around them and risking a clash with the brand presentation the franchise inspects. Workshop areas carry COSHH and DSEAR considerations (paint, fuel and solvents) that require careful electrical zoning during the install, and the array and its cabling need to be planned to respect those zones.

A G99 application is required above 16 A per phase (3.68 kW on a single phase), though larger sites often hold an existing HV connection that simplifies integration and shortens the connection timeline. Rooftop PV on commercial buildings is generally permitted development within size limits under Class J of Part 14 of the GPDO, which excludes listed buildings and scheduled monuments; a conservation area does not remove it for a roof, though it is worth asking the council whether an Article 4 direction applies. Forecourt canopies and car-park carports, by contrast, require planning permission. Ask an installer which of the usual certifications it holds: MCS for SEG eligibility, NICEIC or NAPIT, RECC and TrustMark, the OZEV-approved installer status needed for Workplace Charging Scheme works, the BS EN ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 standards that franchisor procurement often demands, with CDM 2015 on larger installs.

How to approach this kind of project

A sound proposal is modelled from half-hourly meter data, sized for self-consumption against the showroom, workshop and forecourt load and deliberately building in EV-charging growth so the most valuable kWh stay on site. The design follows the manufacturer CI standard from the start, and the workshop electrical works are zoned around the COSHH and DSEAR areas so the install is compliant from day one. The G99 grid application is best submitted early, alongside the structural survey, and where there is an existing HV connection, integrating to it can shorten the programme.

The roof should be surveyed, and checked for asbestos, before a quote is given so the price does not move later, and the PV and the chargepoints should be designed as one project so the Workplace Charging Scheme grant is captured rather than left on the table. Designing both together also means the charging infrastructure is sized to draw on the array at midday rather than competing with the showroom load, which is the difference between charging that costs you and charging that pays for itself. It is worth asking for an insurance-backed workmanship warranty and 24/7 remote monitoring with underperformance alerts, and for the works to be scheduled around sales and service trading so the showroom stays open and the workshop keeps turning jobs. For dealer groups, one repeatable template can be applied across sites with portfolio pricing and a single dashboard, the same standardised-rollout approach that suits multi-site retail and managed pub estates, with the design proven once to the manufacturer CI standard and then repeated across the group.

An illustrative example

As an illustrative worked example, and not a real dealership: take an EV-franchise dealership with a large glazed showroom, a busy aftersales workshop and a forecourt, facing a manufacturer corporate-identity requirement for on-site renewables and customer charging. An array of around 220 kW across the showroom and workshop roofs would generate in the region of 200,000 kWh a year, designed to the CI standard with the panel placement and charger provision specified by the manufacturer. Demonstrator and customer charging would absorb daytime generation at full self-consumption value, the chargepoints could be part-funded via the Workplace Charging Scheme, the qualifying cost could be written off under the Annual Investment Allowance, and the combined project would pay back in close to five and a half years. Sales staff could point EV buyers to the forecourt array and on-site charging as proof the dealership runs on the technology it sells. The figures are illustrative and depend on your site, tariff, franchise standard and roof, but they show how meeting a brand requirement and cutting the bill can be the same project.

For high-volume retail with constant refrigeration see supermarket and convenience-store solar, and for landlord-controlled schemes see shopping-centre and retail-park solar. When you are ready, read the cost guide and funding routes, then send an enquiry or browse the solar FAQs.