Solar EV Charger Installation Cost NSW 2026 - Get Free Quotes

What a Solar-Integrated EV Charger Costs in NSW

A wall-mounted 7kW single-phase EV charger installed at a New South Wales home generally runs $1,500 to $2,500 supplied and fitted, and a 22kW three-phase unit $2,000 to $3,500. Adding solar integration, meaning a smart charger configured to draw from your own generation, not the grid, adds roughly $500 to $1,200 depending on the hardware and how the system communicates. The full range of work is set out under EV charger installation. Those figures assume a straightforward job where the switchboard has capacity, the cable run is short and the wall is accessible. The variables that move the price are almost all about the electrical infrastructure, not the charger, which is why two quotes on the same charger model can differ by well over a thousand dollars. A switchboard upgrade is the most common addition at $800 to $2,500, and where three-phase supply has to be brought in, that runs $2,500 to $6,000 on its own.

Long cable runs from the board to a garage or carport add $500 to $2,000, and a load management device to stop the charger overloading the supply adds $400 to $1,200. Switchboard upgrade costs breaks that down separately. Solar integration is where this page differs from a plain charger installation. Pairing a charger with rooftop solar changes the economics of both, because an EV is by far the largest flexible load most households will ever own and solar generation is at its cheapest exactly when most cars are parked at home on weekends. Figures are indicative New South Wales rates for 2026 and assume ordinary residential work. Strata properties, apartment carparks, older homes needing rewiring and sites requiring network approval each carry additional cost and are dealt with further down.

Charger Types and What You Actually Need

Charging equipment falls into three practical categories for a household, and the most expensive is rarely the right answer. A portable trickle charger plugged into a standard 10 amp outlet delivers roughly 2 to 2.4kW, which adds perhaps 10 to 15 kilometres of range an hour, and for a household driving 40 kilometres a day it is genuinely sufficient overnight. Fitting one is covered by portable EV charger installation. The catch with trickle charging is the outlet, not the charger.

A standard power point on a shared circuit was never designed for a continuous six to twelve hour draw, and the correct approach is a dedicated 15 amp circuit and outlet rather than an extension lead into an existing socket. A 7kW single-phase wallbox is the mainstream choice for Australian homes and adds roughly 40 kilometres of range an hour, which means a typical daily commute replenishes in an hour or two and an empty battery fills overnight. It runs from a dedicated 32 amp circuit and suits the vast majority of single-phase homes. A 22kW three-phase wallbox triples that rate and is only worth it where three-phase supply already exists and the vehicle can actually accept it.

Many EVs sold in Australia have single-phase onboard chargers limited to 7kW or 11kW, so a 22kW unit on such a car delivers no more than the cheaper one. Higher-power units are priced as three-phase EV charger installation. The practical advice is to size the charger to the car, the supply and the driving pattern, not to the specification sheet. Overspecifying costs money at installation, may trigger a supply upgrade that was otherwise unnecessary, and delivers nothing if the vehicle cannot use it.

How Solar Integration Actually Works

A charger described as solar compatible can mean several quite different things, and the distinction matters because it determines whether you are charging on your own generation or on grid power. The cheapest arrangement is a timer, where the charger simply runs during daylight hours and hopes generation is available. Configuring that properly is EV charger solar integration. Genuine solar diversion is different. The charger monitors the household's net import and export through a current transformer clamp or a link to the inverter, and modulates its output so it consumes only what the system is exporting, ramping up as a cloud passes and down again as the house draws load elsewhere. That modulation is the technically interesting part.

Most EVs cannot charge below roughly 6 amps, which is about 1.4kW on single phase, so a true solar-only mode needs at least that much surplus before it can begin, and systems handle the shortfall differently by either waiting, topping up from the grid, or drawing from a battery. Most owners end up using a blended mode, not pure solar. A typical configuration charges from surplus solar when available and tops up from the grid during off-peak or free-window hours to guarantee a minimum state of charge by morning, which is more useful than a purist approach that leaves the car short on a cloudy week. System size matters more than charger choice for solar charging. A 6.6kW array in New South Wales might generate 25 to 28 kilowatt-hours on a good day, and the household still needs to run, so the genuinely surplus energy available for a car is often half that. Sizing an array to suit is covered by residential solar installation costs.

The Solar Sharer Offer and Why It Changes EV Charging in NSW

A federal reform that began on 1 July 2026 has altered the arithmetic of home EV charging in New South Wales more than any hardware decision. The Solar Sharer Offer requires electricity retailers with more than 1,000 customers in Default Market Offer areas to make available at least one residential plan including a three hour block of free electricity each day. Details are published at nsw.gov.au and through the federal energy portal. In New South Wales the free window runs from 11am to 2pm, with a daily cap of 24 kilowatt-hours of free usage.

Twenty four kilowatt-hours is a meaningful amount for a vehicle, representing well over 100 kilometres of range in most electric cars, and it arrives at exactly the time rooftop solar is at its strongest. Three conditions apply and each is worth checking. You need a smart meter, because the offer depends on the retailer knowing precisely when power was used. You must opt in, since the plan does not apply automatically. And you do not need rooftop solar at all, which makes it relevant to renters and apartment dwellers as well as owners. The important qualification is that free does not automatically mean cheaper.

Retailers set the rates outside the window and the daily supply charge themselves, and several increased supply charges noticeably when launching these plans, so a household that is out all day and cannot use the window may pay more overall. For an EV owner the calculation is unusually favourable, because a car parked at home between 11am and 2pm is precisely the flexible load the scheme was designed to attract. Households working from home, retirees and two-car families where one vehicle stays home can shift most of their charging into that window. Comparing plans on the regulator's price comparison service rather than a retailer's example household is the sensible step, and consumer guidance sits with the ACCC.

Tariffs, Timing and Getting the Charging Schedule Right

The tariff you are on matters as much as the hardware you install, and an EV is the household load most able to exploit a good one. Time-of-use tariffs price electricity differently through the day, with an expensive evening peak, a cheaper shoulder and a low overnight off-peak, and a car that charges automatically at the right hour captures that difference without anyone thinking about it. Plugging in at six in the evening and letting the car charge immediately is the worst possible timing on a time-of-use plan, because it lands squarely in the peak. The fix costs nothing, since almost every EV and every smart charger allows a start time to be scheduled, and setting it to begin after the off-peak period starts is a two minute job that saves money every night. Scheduling from the car and scheduling from the charger both work, and doing both simultaneously is where people run into trouble. Conflicting schedules are a common cause of a car that mysteriously did not charge overnight, so pick one and leave the other set to charge immediately.

For households with solar the schedule becomes a daily balance, not a fixed setting. The useful configuration charges from surplus generation through the day, then applies a backstop overnight that tops the battery to a set percentage if the day produced too little, which guarantees the car is usable each morning without wasting grid power on sunny days. Monitoring is what turns this from guesswork into management. Seeing how many kilowatt-hours came from solar against the grid, and at what times, is what tells you whether the configuration is actually working, and solar monitoring and optimisation is where that data comes from.

Where the Money Goes on an Installation

The charger itself is usually the smaller part of the invoice, which surprises people comparing hardware prices online. A quality wallbox runs several hundred to around two thousand dollars depending on features, and the installation around it frequently costs as much again. Cable run length is the first variable and it is easy to underestimate. Running a circuit from a switchboard at the front of a house to a garage at the rear can mean twenty metres or more of heavy cable, often through a roof space or under a floor, and on a double brick home the labour climbs further. Switchboard capacity is the second and the most common cause of a quote being higher than expected. Adding a 32 amp continuous load to a board that is already full, or that still carries ceramic rewireable fuses, means an upgrade before the charger can be connected safely.

Switchboard upgrades covers what that involves. Supply capacity is the third and it is the one that can genuinely stop a project. Where the existing single-phase service cannot accommodate the additional load, the options are a supply upgrade, a three-phase connection or a load management device that throttles the charger when the house is drawing heavily. That third option is load management installation. Mounting and weather protection round it out. A charger on an exposed external wall needs a suitable ingress rating and ideally some shelter, and a pedestal mount where there is no suitable wall adds several hundred dollars including the footing.

Older Homes and What They Bring to the Job

New South Wales has a large stock of housing built well before anyone contemplated a 32 amp continuous load in the garage, and those properties account for most of the surprises in EV charger quoting. Knowing what is likely behind the meter box explains why two quotes on the same charger can sit thousands apart. Switchboards are the first and most consequential. Ceramic rewireable fuses, no residual current device protection and a board with no spare ways are all common in homes from before the 1980s, and none of them can simply have a charger circuit added. The upgrade is not an upsell, it is the point at which the installation becomes lawful.

Figures are set out in switchboard upgrade costs. Supply capacity is the second and it is invisible without checking. Older homes were connected with a service sized for lighting, a stove and a hot water system, and while that has usually proved adequate as appliances multiplied, adding a vehicle charger is a step change, not an increment. Wiring condition matters where the charger circuit has to pass through the existing installation. Rubber-insulated cable from the mid twentieth century degrades and becomes brittle, and where an electrician finds it during the job the conversation shifts from a charger to a rewire. At that point electrical rewiring becomes the relevant job.

Detached garages are the third recurring issue and they are common on older blocks. Running a sub-main to a separate structure is a different job from a circuit within the house, potentially involving trenching, and where an existing sub-main was sized for a light and a power point it will not carry a charger. The practical step is to have the installation assessed, not guessed at. An inspection establishes the board, the supply, the wiring and the route in one visit and turns a provisional figure into a real one. An electrical safety inspection establishes all of it at once.

Licensing, Standards and Compliance

EV charger installation is electrical work and must be carried out by a licensed electrician in New South Wales. Licensing is administered through NSW Fair Trading, and the licence should be verified, not assumed, particularly where a charger has been supplied by a vehicle dealer and installation subcontracted to an unfamiliar operator. The governing technical document is AS/NZS 3000, the Wiring Rules, published by Standards Australia, which sets requirements for electric vehicle charging installations including circuit protection, cable sizing for continuous load and residual current device protection. An EV circuit is treated as a continuous load rather than an intermittent one, which affects how the cable and protection are sized. Where solar is involved, two further standards apply. AS/NZS 5033 covers the installation of photovoltaic arrays and AS/NZS 4777.1 governs the grid connection of inverter energy systems, and compliance with both is what allows a system to be connected to the network at all.

Inverters are handled by solar inverter installation and replacement. Solar installation carries an accreditation requirement separate from the electrical licence. Since 2024 the accreditation scheme operator appointed by the Clean Energy Regulator has been Solar Accreditation Australia, which replaced the Clean Energy Council in that role, and only accredited designers and installers can create the small-scale technology certificates that make up the federal solar rebate. That distinction catches people out when combining solar and EV work. An excellent electrician may be perfectly licensed to install your charger and not accredited to install or modify a solar array, which is why some jobs involve two trades or a business holding both. Certificates of compliance for electrical work should be provided in either case, and safety obligations on site are administered by SafeWork NSW.

Bidirectional Charging and Planning Ahead

Vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid charging turn a parked car into a household battery, and while the technology is still emerging in Australia the decisions you make at installation affect whether you can adopt it later without starting again. An electric vehicle carries a battery several times larger than a home storage unit, which makes the concept genuinely compelling, not merely novel. Two things have to align for it to work, and both are still narrowing the field. The vehicle must support bidirectional discharge, which many models sold in Australia do not, and the charging equipment must be capable of it and approved for grid connection, which is a smaller list again. The practical implication for someone installing today is about cabling and space, not hardware.

Running a slightly larger conduit, leaving room on the switchboard and positioning the charger where a larger future unit could sit costs very little now and saves a second installation later. Three-phase supply is the other forward-looking decision worth weighing. Where a supply upgrade is being contemplated anyway, doing it once while the trenching and switchboard work is open is considerably cheaper than revisiting it in five years, and it opens options beyond vehicle charging. None of this argues for waiting. Charging equipment has a service life measured in years, not decades, standard charging delivers the overwhelming majority of the benefit today, and a well-installed circuit will serve whatever comes next. Later changes are covered by EV charger upgrades.

Network Approval and Connection Requirements

New South Wales is served by three distribution networks, being Ausgrid across Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter, Endeavour Energy through Sydney's greater west, the Illawarra and the Southern Highlands, and Essential Energy across regional New South Wales. Each sets its own requirements for connecting significant loads, and general energy information is published by Energy NSW. A charger above a certain rating generally requires notification to or approval from the network before connection, and the thresholds differ between the three. Your electrician should know the requirement for your network, and a quote that makes no mention of it on a larger installation is worth questioning.

The reason networks care is straightforward. A street of single-phase homes all adding 7kW loads that switch on simultaneously at six in the evening presents a genuine constraint on local infrastructure, which is why load management and off-peak charging incentives exist. Approval is usually a formality on a standard single-phase wallbox and more involved on three-phase or multiple-charger installations. Where an upgrade to the service or the street infrastructure is required, the timeline extends considerably and the cost can be considerable, which is a reason to establish the position early rather than after committing to hardware. Smart meter installation is a related step that frequently gets overlooked. Time-of-use tariffs, the Solar Sharer Offer and most solar feed-in arrangements all require an interval meter, and where a property still has an accumulation meter the retailer arranges the exchange, not your electrician.

Running Costs and Payback

The arithmetic that makes home EV charging compelling is worth setting out plainly. An average electric car uses roughly 15 to 18 kilowatt-hours per 100 kilometres, so a household driving 15,000 kilometres a year consumes somewhere around 2,300 to 2,700 kilowatt-hours annually for transport. Charged entirely on a standard flat retail tariff that energy costs a few hundred dollars more than charging on off-peak, and charged on genuine solar surplus it costs nothing beyond the opportunity cost of the feed-in tariff you would otherwise have received. That gap is the entire argument for solar integration.

Feed-in tariffs have fallen sizeable as rooftop solar has proliferated, which strengthens the case instead of weakening it. When exported energy earns only a few cents a kilowatt-hour, using it yourself to displace petrol is worth far more than selling it. Prevailing rates are compared in solar feed-in tariffs. Payback on the solar integration component specifically is usually quick where the household can actually charge during the day.

Where the car leaves at seven and returns at six, a smart charger delivers far less benefit and a simple off-peak timer may achieve most of the saving for a fraction of the cost. A battery changes the picture again by storing midday generation for evening charging, which suits households whose cars are away all day. It is a considerably larger investment and the arithmetic depends heavily on your usage pattern, not on a general rule. Solar battery storage costs sets out the investment involved.

Rebates, Incentives and What Is Actually Available

The federal small-scale renewable energy scheme remains the main financial support for rooftop solar and operates through small-scale technology certificates, which are created at installation and assigned to the installer in exchange for a discount on the invoice. The scheme is administered by the Clean Energy Regulator and the value of the certificates declines each year toward the scheme's end. Because the certificates are almost always assigned to the installer, the rebate appears as a discount on the quote, not as a payment to you. That means comparing quotes on the final installed price is the correct approach, and a quote advertising a large rebate but a similar bottom line is offering nothing extra. Battery incentives have changed the landscape more recently. A federal program launched in 2025 provides a discount on eligible battery installations, again delivered through certificates and applied at the point of sale, and it has made pairing a battery with solar and an EV charger considerably more attractive than it was.

New South Wales electric vehicle purchase incentives, including the earlier rebate and stamp duty concession, have ended. Current state programs focus more on charging infrastructure and fleet uptake than on individual purchase subsidies, and Energy NSW is the place to check what applies at the time you are buying. Be sceptical of a quote advertising a specific rebate figure without explaining the mechanism. Certificate values move with the market, eligibility depends on accreditation and product listings, and the legislation behind these schemes is available through NSW legislation for anyone wanting the underlying detail.

Upgrading an Existing Solar System for an EV

Adding an electric vehicle to a household with existing solar frequently reveals that the array was sized for the old consumption pattern. A system installed to cover a home using 15 kilowatt-hours a day is undersized once a car adds another 8 to 10, and the result is that the car simply pulls from the grid once the surplus runs out. Expanding an existing array is usually possible and the constraint is generally the inverter, not the roof. Inverters are rated for a maximum array size and a maximum export, so adding panels beyond that capacity means an inverter replacement or the addition of a second one. Expansion is priced in solar system upgrade costs.

Export limits imposed by the network are the other constraint and they vary by distributor and by location. Where export is capped, additional generation that cannot be exported is only valuable if it is consumed on site, which is precisely what an EV does, so the calculation favours expansion more than it would for a household without a car. Panel degradation and older technology are worth factoring into the decision. A system installed a decade ago may use panels producing meaningfully less than a current equivalent for the same roof area, so replacing instead of expanding sometimes delivers more capacity in the same space.

Solar panel upgrades compares replacing against expanding. Where the roof genuinely has no more room, a battery is the alternative that makes the existing array work harder. It stores midday surplus for evening charging, which suits households whose cars are away during the day, and it pairs naturally with the free midday window. Adding one later is standalone battery installation.

Apartments, Strata and Rental Properties

Installing an EV charger in an apartment building is a different exercise from installing one at a house, and the difficulty is rarely technical. Carparks are almost always common property, which means the owners corporation has to approve the installation and the electrical supply arrangements before anything happens. Buildings are handled through strata EV charger installation. New South Wales strata law has been amended in recent years to make sustainability infrastructure easier to approve, and by-laws that unreasonably prohibit such installations are harder to sustain than they once were. That does not remove the need for approval, and the practical path is a written proposal to the committee, not a unilateral installation. Metering is the technical crux in a strata building.

A charger connected to a lot's own supply needs a cable run from the lot switchboard to the parking space, while one connected to common property supply needs a means of billing the individual user, and the second arrangement is where most schemes stall. Buildings taking a longer view often install shared infrastructure with a load management system across multiple bays, which spreads the available supply instead of requiring a capacity upgrade for every charger. That approach costs more initially and avoids the situation where the fifth owner to apply is told there is no capacity left. For renters, an EV charger is a fixture installed on someone else's property and needs the lessor's written agreement. Portable options that plug into an existing dedicated outlet avoid the issue entirely, which is frequently the pragmatic answer in a rental. Tenancy guidance is published at nsw.gov.au.

Choosing the Hardware

Charger selection matters less than installation quality, and the features that genuinely differentiate units are fewer than the marketing suggests. Tethered chargers come with a permanently attached cable and untethered units have a socket you plug your own cable into. Tethered is more convenient day to day, untethered is tidier and more flexible across different vehicles and connector types, and neither is meaningfully better. Smart functionality is where the price differences sit.

Scheduling, app control, energy monitoring, solar diversion and load management are all genuinely useful on a home charger, while remote firmware updates and open protocol support matter most where the installation may later join a managed network. Whole-of-home visibility comes from home energy monitoring installation. Weather rating deserves attention on any outdoor installation. A unit mounted on a wall exposed to driving rain and afternoon sun in a New South Wales summer needs both an suitable ingress protection rating and an operating temperature range that reflects where it will actually live. Warranty and local support matter more than a small price difference. A charger from a manufacturer without an Australian presence can be difficult to get serviced, and an installer who will not name the brand they intend to supply is worth pressing before signing anything.

Sydney and Regional NSW

Sydney carries the highest installation rates, driven by labour costs and by the access difficulties common in the older suburbs. Double brick construction, no roof space above a garage, and switchboards positioned at the opposite end of the house from the parking all add hours to what looks like a simple job. Housing age is the practical variable across the metropolitan area. Homes built before the 1980s frequently have switchboards without capacity for an additional high-current circuit, and a proportion still carry rewireable fuses and no residual current device protection, which brings a board upgrade into scope before the charger can proceed. Newcastle, Wollongong and the Central Coast generally price below Sydney for equivalent work, with easier access on most properties and established local electricians.

Three-phase supply is somewhat more common in newer estates across all three, which simplifies higher-power installations. Regional New South Wales is served by Essential Energy and the considerations shift. Rural properties frequently have longer service runs and different supply arrangements, solar uptake is high, and the distance between properties means travel forms a larger part of a quote. Standalone systems fall under off-grid solar installation. The driving pattern argument is stronger outside the cities rather than weaker. Longer daily distances make the fuel saving larger in absolute terms, and detached housing with roof space and off-street parking makes both solar and home charging straightforward in a way apartment living does not.

Safety, Maintenance and Living With It

An EV charger is one of the highest sustained electrical loads in a house and the safety considerations follow from that, not from anything exotic. A correctly installed circuit with proper protection is safe, and the failure modes that matter almost all trace back to installation shortcuts or to using equipment outside its design. Extension leads and power boards are the clearest example and they should never be used for vehicle charging. A trickle charger drawing 10 amps continuously for eight hours through a domestic extension lead generates heat in a way brief appliance use does not, and a dedicated outlet on its own circuit is the correct arrangement. Residual current device protection on the charging circuit is mandatory under the wiring rules and worth understanding and not simply accepting.

EV charging introduces the possibility of direct current fault currents that a standard device may not detect, which is why the protection specified for these circuits differs from an ordinary power circuit. Maintenance is minimal and mostly visual. Checking the cable and connector for damage, keeping the connector off the ground where it can collect grit and water, and looking for discolouration or heat marking around the plug and socket takes moments and catches the things that matter. Outdoor installations want an annual look at the enclosure seals and the mounting, particularly on a wall exposed to weather. Where a fault does occur, resist the temptation to investigate inside the unit, since it sits on a high-current circuit and the work is licensed for good reason. Faults are handled through EV charger repairs and maintenance, and site safety obligations are administered by SafeWork NSW.

What to Look Out For

Confirm the electrician's licence number and check it before work starts, and where solar work is involved ask separately whether the business holds current accreditation through the scheme operator appointed by the Clean Energy Regulator. The two are different credentials and one does not imply the other. Ask whether the quote includes a switchboard assessment or assumes the existing board is adequate. A quote that does not mention the board on an older home has either inspected it or assumed it, and the difference between those two is potentially a couple of thousand dollars. Get the cable route and length specified, not left open. Cable is a significant material cost on a long run and the route determines the labour, so a quote naming the path and the distance can be compared with another while a lump sum cannot.

Establish whether network approval is required for your charger and network, and who is responsible for obtaining it. Discovering that approval was needed after installation is a genuinely difficult position to be in. On solar integration, ask precisely how the charger will know what the solar system is doing. A current transformer clamp on the main, a direct link to the inverter and a cloud integration are three different arrangements with different reliability, and simply calling a charger solar compatible does not answer the question. Request the certificate of compliance for the electrical work on completion. It is the record that the installation was performed lawfully and tested, it matters at sale and on an insurance claim, and it is the reference point if a fault arises later.

Common Mistakes That Cost Money

A handful of avoidable errors account for most of the disappointment with home EV charging, and every one of them is cheaper to prevent than to unwind afterwards. Buying the charger before getting a quote is the most common. A unit bought online at a good price can turn out to be unsuitable for your supply, unsupported by local installers, or lacking the certification an electrician needs to connect it, and the saving evaporates. Specifying more power than the vehicle can accept is the second, and it frequently cascades. A 22kW charger on a car limited to 7kW delivers nothing extra, and the three-phase supply it needed may have triggered an upgrade costing thousands that was never required.

Assuming solar compatible means solar diversion is the third, and it only becomes apparent months later when the bills do not fall as expected. Ask precisely how the charger senses what the solar system is doing before agreeing to anything described that way. Ignoring the switchboard until the installer arrives is the fourth and it is the source of most revised quotes. Photographing the board and sending it with the enquiry takes a minute and gets you an accurate figure first time. Leaving the car set to charge immediately is the last and the most quietly expensive. A vehicle plugged in at six each evening on a time-of-use tariff charges through the peak every night, and the fix is a scheduled start time that costs nothing at all.

Getting Comparable Quotes

Three quotes only help if all three price the same installation, and EV charger quotes vary far more in what they assume about your switchboard and cable run than in the charger itself. Photograph your switchboard and send it with the enquiry. It takes a moment, it is the single most useful piece of information an electrician can have before attending, and it prevents the common situation where a quote is revised upward on the day. State whether you have single-phase or three-phase supply, and say if you are not sure instead of guessing. Three-phase is visible at the meter as three fuses or a three-pole main switch, and the answer determines which chargers are even candidates.

Say what vehicle you have or intend to buy, including its maximum AC charging rate. That single number determines whether a more powerful charger is worth anything to you, and a good installer will tell you when a cheaper unit does the same job. Describe where you want the charger and how far that is from the board, including whether the route is through a roof space, under a floor or across a brick wall. Distance and access drive the labour more than anything else in the quote. Ask for the charger, the circuit and cable, any switchboard work, network approval and the solar integration as separate lines. That structure exposes immediately where one quote has allowed for a board upgrade and another has not, which is usually the whole difference between them.

Making the Decision

On an EV charger the cheapest quote is frequently the one that assumed your switchboard is fine, so compare the electrical scope before the totals. A quote a thousand dollars higher that includes a board upgrade may be the accurate one, not the expensive one. Where quotes differ widely, ask each what they assumed about supply capacity and cable run. An electrician who asked for a photograph of the board and the distance to the parking space is quoting your house, and one who quoted from a charger model alone is quoting an average. Match the equipment to how you will actually live with it, not to the specification.

A household charging overnight on off-peak gains little from a 22kW unit, while one working from home with a large array gains a great deal from proper solar diversion. Consider the Solar Sharer window before finalising a tariff. A household able to charge between 11am and 2pm has an option that did not exist before July 2026, and it interacts with solar instead of replacing it, since the free window covers the days when your own generation is poor. Get the agreed scope in writing before any deposit, covering the charger make and model, the circuit rating and cable route, any switchboard or supply work, the network approval responsibility, how solar integration is achieved, and the compliance certificate to be provided on completion.