New NEC Electrical Code Update for 2026
Oh, you guys are going to hate this one. So if you’re at all in the space of doing general contracting or building, or if you’re just a person who likes electric vehicles and are thinking about getting an EV or have one, you’re going to hate this new law. This new rule is coming out in the NEC electrical code in 2026. Every three years, the NEC comes out with new code for contractors, and we’re a licensed general contractor, so we see these codes. What they’re going to start requiring next year is on all EV charging household plugs that you have, usually in your garage, they’re going to require what’s called the GFI ground fault interrupter (GFCI) ground fault circuit interrupter.

Understanding the GFCI Requirement
You’re familiar with these plugs, like in your bathroom or your kitchen, where you have that little button. If the breaker trips, you push the button, and it resets. The purpose of that is so that in a wet environment—bathroom, kitchen, or outdoors, where there could be water on the ground or in a garage or outside the house—if you accidentally touch an outlet or touch something that’s not grounded and you’re standing in water, you’re not going to get shocked. That’s what it’s there for—to protect you from getting electrocuted.

New GFCI Rules for EV Charging Plugs
Up until now, EV charging plugs didn’t have to have a GFCI. It was not considered a requirement, even though most of them are in a garage, and garages need this. Well, the new NEC code is going to start requiring them. Now, when you plug in your EV and set it to charge overnight, EVs are 240-volt circuits—two 12s that are connected together—that have a large fluctuation in voltage. A GFCI is designed to detect small fluctuations in voltage as low as 5 volts, and if that circuit fluctuates naturally, it’s going to kick off that breaker, just like it would in your kitchen when you’re using a blender and the microwave at the same time, and it pops your breaker.

Issues with GFCI in EV Charging
So now you get up in the morning to go to work, and your EV has no battery because it never charged overnight since the circuit popped. The worst part is for EV plugs—the reset button is not allowed to be on the plug. It’s going to have to be on the circuit breaker box or the service entrance panel. If your breaker is in the garage, no big deal. But what if your circuit breaker box is in the basement? You have to go down to the basement, reset it, then go back up to see if it worked, and then hope it doesn’t trip again.

Implications for EV Owners and Builders
This is kind of a big deal for people with EVs that have a dedicated hardwired plug-in or if you’re planning to get one. So if you’re at all in the market for getting an EV, or you might want to do so in the future, you should consider installing that charging circuit in your garage now so you don’t have to conform to this new NEC code next year. Otherwise, it could be kicking your car off the charge without you knowing it, and you’re not really going to get a notice.

Why This Rule Might Need an Exception
There should be an exception for this because when you do EV charging, that EV charger is actually not electrified until it senses that it’s connected to a car. In the old days, if you stuck a paperclip in an outlet, you’d get shocked. But you could stick all the paperclips you want in an EV charger, and it’s not going to start electrifying until it recognizes that it’s connected to a car.

Challenges for Multi-Charger Setups
This is a big change in the construction industry. It’s a big change for EV owners, especially if you have more than one electric vehicle charger on the same circuit. If you’re a car dealership and you have four chargers on the same circuit, the fluctuations on that circuit could be immense, which is going to cause them to trip. Until they make an exception for this or change their mind about doing this EV charging rule, this could be a big problem for people expecting their car to be ready for work in the morning—only to find they have no electricity in their battery and are either stuck at home or forced to go somewhere else to charge before heading to work.