EV charger installation in Sydney — the plain-English setup guide

Baseline: a 7 kW single-phase wall charger mounted within 5 m of the switchboard, no board upgrade required — $1,400–$2,200 including a mid-tier unit like a Wallbox Pulsar Plus or Ocular LTE.

Common Sydney reality: 6–15 m cable run, external mounting, and a new RCBO circuit — $1,900–$2,800.

Three-phase 22 kW install (large-battery EV, dual-car household, or heat-pump-heavy home): $2,800–$4,500 depending on switchboard readiness.

Strata: cost depends on cabling route from the meter room, whether the OC agrees to a shared meter, and how many bays are wired at once. Wiring 3–5 bays together drops the per-bay cost by 30–40%.

A 7 kW single-phase charger delivers roughly 40 km of range per hour. Overnight (10 hours) that is 400 km — comfortably enough for 95% of Sydney households. It is also the cheapest to install and works on any single-phase supply.

A 22 kW three-phase charger delivers roughly 120 km of range per hour. Worth it if you (a) drive a large-battery EV every day, (b) share the charger between two cars, (c) need to fast-charge in a 2–3 hour evening window, or (d) already have three-phase for ducted AC or a workshop.

Load balancing matters more than raw kW. On any Sydney home with ducted AC, induction cooking, and a heat-pump hot water system, a good charger backs off when the house is drawing hard — that lets a 7 kW charger keep working without tripping the main.

The three switchboard questions we check first: does it have RCD protection on every circuit, does it have a spare way for a dedicated EV circuit, and is the main supply already close to its rating during peak hours?

If your board fails any of these, budget for a partial or full switchboard upgrade at the same time. Doing both in one visit saves $400–$700 vs coming back later.

Load management (a CT clamp on the mains that talks to the charger) is the single best cost-saver on older Sydney homes. Instead of paying Ausgrid for a supply upgrade, the charger simply throttles when the rest of the house is drawing hard. Costs $180–$350 to add.