EVs Smart Charge Points Regulations

What the Great Britain smart-charge-point regulations require, which chargers they cover and what compliance does and does not tell a buyer.

The EVs (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 control which private EV charge points can be sold in Great Britain. They require covered products to offer basic smart control, remain usable through certain service changes and meet device-level security and information requirements.

As at 22 July 2026, these remain the current Great Britain regulations. They apply to the seller and the product at the point of sale. They do not, by themselves, certify that a particular installation is electrically safe, suitable for the property or compatible with every tariff and charging service.

Where the regulations apply

The regulations extend to England, Scotland and Wales. They do not extend to Northern Ireland.

They cover charge points intended for private charging of cars or vans, including domestic and workplace units. A smart charging cable can also be a charge point for this purpose.

The rules do not cover:

public charge points
rapid charge points, defined in these regulations as units rated at 50 kW or more
ordinary charging cables with no smart-charge-point function
products sold for use outside Great Britain
a private second-hand sale by an individual acting outside a trade or business

The main requirements have applied to covered sales since 30 June 2022. Schedule 1 security requirements have applied since 30 December 2022. Hiring, lending, leasing, giving away and a replacement supplied under warranty can count as a sale for these rules.

What smart functionality means

A covered charge point must be able to send and receive information over a communications network. It must be capable of responding to a signal by changing when charging happens or the rate at which electricity flows, and of using that capability to provide demand-side response services. The owner must have at least one user interface through which to operate it.

This establishes a minimum device capability. It does not guarantee that every charger works with every energy tariff, vehicle, app, charge-point operator or third-party control platform. Those integrations still need to be checked separately.

Changing supplier and losing connectivity

The charge point must retain its smart functionality if its owner changes electricity supplier. That protection is deliberately framed around the supplier change. It does not require one charge-point operator to take over another operator’s app or cloud platform, and it does not guarantee that tariff-specific automation will transfer to a new supplier.

The charge point must also remain capable of charging a vehicle if it loses its connection to the communications network. This protects the basic ability to charge during a broadband, mobile-data or cloud connection problem. The regulations do not say that every online feature must continue to operate while the connection is unavailable.

Default charging hours

A covered unit normally arrives with default charging hours outside the regulations’ defined weekday peak periods. On first use, the owner must be able to accept those hours, remove them or set different default hours. The owner must also be able to change or remove them later.

For Regulation 10, the fixed peak periods are:

8am to 11am on weekdays
4pm to 10pm on weekdays

These are statutory default-control periods, not a claim about the cheapest hours on a particular electricity tariff. A tariff’s rates and charging window can be different.

The default-hours rule has a specific exception where the charge point is sold with a demand-side response agreement, configured for it and the agreement is recorded in the statement of compliance.

The randomised delay

When charging would start, or its rate would increase or decrease, the unit normally applies a random delay. This spreads many chargers’ responses instead of allowing all of them to react to the same schedule or signal at once.

Regulation 11 sets a default maximum delay of 600 seconds. The charge point must be capable of a maximum of up to 1,800 seconds and of having that maximum changed remotely. The owner can cancel the delay. It is also omitted in the circumstances defined by the regulation, including where an equivalent delay has already been applied or the charger is providing a remotely controlled response service.

The figures are requirements of the 2021 regulations, not estimates of how long every charging session will be held. The actual delay is randomly selected and can be shorter than the maximum.

Energy-use information

For each use, the charge point must measure or calculate the electricity imported or exported and how long the flow lasted. The owner must be able to view this by individual use, by month and across the preceding 12 months.

The charger must also measure or calculate power once every second while in use and make that information available over its communications network. The regulations require the figures to be within 10% of the actual value and prevent systematic inaccuracy.

This is a smart-charge-point information requirement. It does not turn the charger into the electricity meter used for supplier billing or settlement.

Device security

Schedule 1 sets security requirements for the product. In summary, a covered charge point must:

avoid shared default passwords where passwords are used
support secure software updates and check periodically for security updates
verify an update’s origin and contents before applying it
protect stored credentials and avoid hard-coded security credentials
encrypt communications sent from the charger
validate incoming data and handle invalid data safely
let the owner delete personal data without undue difficulty
protect its physical boundary and interfaces against tampering
keep a dated security log

The owner must be given a contact for reporting security concerns, guidance on secure setup and instructions for deleting personal data. The information supplied at sale must also state the period, if any, for which software updates will be provided.

That final wording matters. The regulations require the support period to be disclosed, but do not promise a universal minimum support term or guarantee that a manufacturer’s cloud service will run for the life of the hardware. A buyer can therefore compare the declared update period, offline controls and what happens if the app or back-end service closes.

Evidence supplied at sale

A covered charge point must be accompanied by a statement of compliance. It identifies the model or type, states that the product complies and that the seller is responsible for compliance, gives the seller’s name and address and is signed and dated.

There must also be a technical file for the model. It covers the design, manufacture and operation, explains how the requirements are met and includes relevant test reports and the software version at sale. The buyer does not have to receive the complete file automatically, but the seller must supply a copy if the buyer requests it.

The seller must keep a register of relevant charge points sold during the preceding ten years. This is a seller duty, not an extra document that the homeowner has to maintain.

What compliance does not cover

Smart-charge-point compliance is product-sale compliance. It is not a substitute for the electrical design, installation, testing and notification rules applying at the property.

Separately check matters such as:

the available electricity supply and service-head arrangement
circuit design, protective devices and EV-specific shock protection
load limiting or dynamic load balancing
earthing and open-PEN protection where applicable
Building Regulations notification requirements
DNO notification or approval
cable route, parking access and physical siting

The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles also publishes minimum technical specifications for products used through its grant schemes. Those specifications can add grant conditions, including product, installation and warranty requirements. They should not be presented as extra terms of the Smart Charge Points Regulations for every privately funded charger.

Product compliance information

The exact model’s statement of compliance records:

the declared software-update period
whether basic charging works without the cloud service
which controls remain available locally
compatibility with the proposed vehicle and tariff
whether changing supplier affects any tariff-specific automation
who operates the app or back-end and what support is promised
the separate electrical installation design and certification

A compliant statement answers whether the seller declares the model compliant with these regulations. It does not answer every question about long-term service, installation quality or ecosystem compatibility.

Smart charging schedules
EV tariff charge windows
OCPP charger control
EV chargepoint commissioning
Dynamic load balancing and CT clamps
IET Code of Practice for EV charging
BS 7671 IET Wiring Regulations
GDPR and energy data