Short answer: most standard single-phase installs land between $750 and $1,600 for the electrical work, plus the charger itself. But the range is wide for real reasons, and the biggest variable is one nobody mentions in an ad. Your switchboard.
What you're actually paying for
An EV charger install has three separate costs, and quotes that quote one number without explaining the split are usually hiding something.
1. The charger unit — $900 to $2,200
A basic 7kW smart charger sits around $900–$1,200. Solar-diverting units like the myenergi Zappi run $1,400–$1,800. Tesla's Wall Connector is around $850–$1,100. Three-phase units add roughly $300–$600 over their single-phase equivalents.
2. The electrical work — $750 to $1,600
This covers the dedicated circuit, protection, cable run, mounting, commissioning and your Certificate of Electrical Safety. A garage on the same wall as the switchboard is at the cheap end. A charger on the far side of the house, through a roof space or under a suspended floor, is at the top — the longer, harder run takes more cable and more hours.
3. Switchboard work — $0 to $2,200
This is the one that surprises people. An EV charger is one of the largest continuous loads in a home. If your board has no spare capacity, no RCD protection, or is still running ceramic fuses, it will usually need an upgrade or new compliant protection before a charger can be connected — we confirm this at assessment. A significant share of the older Peninsula homes we quote need board work first.
Why "from $750" is honest but incomplete
Our own pricing starts at $750, and that's a real number for a straightforward install. Modern board with capacity, charger going on a wall near it. What it doesn't include is the charger itself or board upgrades if you need them. Any installer quoting a single all-in price sight-unseen is either guessing or planning to vary it later.
That's why we ask for two photos before quoting: your switchboard, and where the car parks. Those two pictures answer 90% of the pricing questions, and we come back with a fixed number the same business day.
Costs people forget
- Load management, if your supply is tight, a charger that throttles when the oven's on can avoid a $1,500 supply upgrade. Worth asking about.
- Three-phase supply, if you don't have it and want fast charging, adding it is a distributor job costing thousands. Check whether you already have it first; plenty of larger homes do and don't know.
- Solar integration, diverting surplus solar into the car needs the right charger and a CT clamp at the meter. Cheap to include at install, expensive to retrofit.
- Long cable runs. Every extra metre of heavy cable costs. Charger on the closest practical wall saves real money.
What about rebates?
Victorian incentives for EV charging and electrification change regularly, and eligibility depends on the equipment and sometimes your solar setup. Ask what's current when you book, we'll factor anything you qualify for into the quote rather than making you chase it afterwards.
Is it worth it versus a normal powerpoint?
You can trickle-charge from a standard 10A outlet at roughly 10–15km of range per hour. A 7kW wall charger does about 40km per hour. For most drivers that's the difference between "plugged in all weekend" and "topped up overnight." It's also safer, a dedicated circuit with proper protection beats running near-maximum load through a general power circuit for eight hours at a time.
Getting an accurate number
Send a photo of your switchboard and where you park, tell us the car, and we'll give you a fixed quote the same business day, the price you're quoted is the price you pay.
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