Which charger to choose
A charger's spec sheet differs mainly in cable type, offline capability, scheduling route and price. The comparison table lines them up for you.
Compare chargers →You have ordered an electric car. Now you need a charger, an installer and a tariff, and you have weeks to get it right.
A reference for UK households working out costs, specifications and property checks for a home charge point before the car arrives.
Work through the checks before you book a survey Enter your figures and see your charger payback against public chargingThe six things to settle before delivery
Each card covers one decision you can work through now, from the charger itself to what you'll pay when you're charging away from home.
Is your property ready
Your earthing arrangement and consumer unit rating decide what's possible. Check what you can verify yourself before the electrician arrives.
Check your home's readiness →What installation really costs
A quote covers more than the charger itself: cable runs, consumer-unit work, groundworks and the notifications your network operator and council require.
Which tariff fits your charging
Off-peak EV tariffs work through either the charger or the car. Knowing which one holds the schedule saves a wasted call.
See how scheduling works →Whether a grant applies
OZEV's chargepoint grants depend on the property type and the installation method. Eligibility rules carry conditions worth checking.
What public charging costs
Public charging prices vary by charger type and network, and your rights to contactless payment and a published price per kWh apply wherever you charge.
OZEV's chargepoint grants are in their final year
A grant from OZEV can bring down what you pay to have a charger fitted, provided your household and your installation meet its conditions. It is not available to everyone, and the amount on offer depends on which scheme you fall under.
When the scheme closes
OZEV's chargepoint grants are in their final year, running to 31 March 2027, according to OZEV's own guidance, read 29 September 2026. After that date the schemes close, and the saving they offer closes with them.
Checking where you stand
The conditions attached to each scheme have narrowed over the years, and they no longer cover every homeowner with a driveway. Whether you qualify, and how much a grant is worth to you, comes down to details specific to your property.
Some of those details, such as the earthing distance rule that applies to cross-pavement installations, are things an installer only confirms once they have looked at your home. Before requesting installation quotes, it is worth checking your home's readiness yourself first. The before the survey guide sets out what you can check from your own consumer unit and parking arrangement, and the before the survey checklist sorts those checks from the ones that are a question for the electrician.
Settle this before you agree a price with an installer. A grant changes the net cost of the job, and a quote should reflect it once you know where you stand.
Grants, tariffs and VAT rates change through the year
A grant amount, an off-peak window or a VAT position can shift after you've chosen your charger.
Costs, specs and checks: what each one actually covers
A home charge point is one box on a wall, but deciding on one really means answering three separate questions: what it will cost you, whether its specification does what you need, and what your own property allows for. Keeping those apart makes the decision easier, because each one is answered by a different kind of evidence.
What it costs
The cost side covers two different things people often lump together: the price of having the unit fitted, and the price of running it afterwards. The installed price depends on the charger itself, the cable run, any work the consumer unit needs and whether the earthing arrangement adds extra groundwork. The running cost depends on your electricity tariff and how much of your charging happens at home.
Working out whether a charger pays for itself means putting your own mileage and tariff against the installed price. A comparison of home charge points on their list price is a starting point.
What the specification needs to do
Chargers differ on a short list of features that actually affect day-to-day use: whether the cable is built in (tethered) or you supply your own (socketed), whether the unit works if your broadband drops, which device holds the off-peak schedule, and what power it delivers. None of these is universally better. They match or don't match how you park, how you charge and which tariff you're on.
A charger rated for more power than your supply can give it will not charge any faster. The limit that actually governs your charging speed sits further back, at your consumer unit and your main fuse.
What the property allows
Some of this you can find out by looking: where you park relative to your consumer unit, roughly how long the cable run would be, and whether your current fuse box looks modern or dated. Other parts need a qualified person on site, because they involve things you can't read off the front of a box: the earthing arrangement feeding your home, whether your supply is shared with a neighbouring property, and the actual rating of your main fuse.
Before you ask an installer for a quote, it's worth checking what you can establish yourself. The before-the-survey checklist works through parking position, consumer unit rating, cable run, phase, earthing type and looped-supply status, and sorts each one into what you now know and what the electrician still needs to confirm.
Treating those two groups separately is the point. Knowing which questions you can answer yourself, and which ones wait for the electrician's visit, is what turns a vague worry about readiness into a short, specific list.