Why does it take up to ten minutes for the charging to start?
You’ve just plugged your vehicle to charge, the chargers lit up green and everything is correctly set up but you notice the vehicle isn’t actually charging! Don’t worry your unit isn’t faulty. This intentional pause is actually a mandatory safety feature built into all modern British home chargers.
Here is everything you need to know about the UK random charging delay and how to bypass it.
1. What are the UK Smart Charging Regulations?
In June 2022, the UK government introduced The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations. Under these laws, all new private (home and workplace) EV chargers sold in Great Britain must feature a randomised delay of up to 10 minutes (600 seconds) every time a charge session begins.
Why does the 10 minute EV charger delay exist?
Grid Protection: As EV adoption grows, millions of drivers tend to set their cars to start charging at the exact same moment, typically when cheaper, off-peak overnight electricity tariffs kick in (often midnight or 12:30am).
Preventing Power Surges: If every EV home charger in the country activated at the exact same second, the instantaneous surge in demand could overload local electricity substations and the national grid.
Power Outage Recovery: The delay also applies when power is restored after a blackout or a loss of internet connection, ensuring the grid isn’t hit with a massive wall of demand all at once.
By forcing a random delay of anywhere between 1 second and 10 minutes, the grid effectively staggers the energy demand, smoothing out the peak load.
2. EV-IQ Charger Green Light Status Meanings
The EV-IQ charger uses its LED status lights (The EV-IQ logo on the front of the charger) to tell you exactly what it is doing during this regulatory countdown:
Solid Green Logo: The charger is powered up, connected and has actively entered its randomised delay window.
3. How to Bypass the EV-IQ Randomised Delay
Yes, you can skip the wait. While the regulations state the delay must be there by default, they also specify that drivers must be allowed to override it if they need an immediate charge.
If you are using the companion app (Electric Miles) simply look for a “Boost” button. Pressing this button will instantly initiate charging.
Note on Default Charging Hours: Under the same regulations, smart chargers come pre-configured with default charging hours designed to avoid national peak times (typically 8:00am – 11:00am and 16:00pm – 22:00pm weekdays). If your car won’t charge during the day, it is likely following this default eco-schedule, which you can easily adjust or override in your app or car settings.