EV charger inspection,
from schedule to sign-off.

What does an EV charger inspection cover?

The wiring, the grounding, the mounting and the clearances, all checked against the approved drawings.

An inspector is answering one question: does what is in the ground and on the pad match the set the jurisdiction stamped, and does it meet the code year that jurisdiction has adopted. In practice that means conduit type and burial depth, conductor sizing, grounding and bonding, the disconnecting means, working clearance around the equipment, the mounting or foundation, and the accessible route to the stall.

Article 625 of the National Electrical Code is the section written for electric vehicle supply equipment, and most of what an inspector asks traces back to it. Check local and state requirements.

How many inspections does an EV charger project need?

At least two on most jobs. Rough-in and final.

Rough-in happens while the trench is open and the conduit is exposed, because once concrete is poured nobody can see what is underneath it. Final happens after the equipment is set and terminated. Some jurisdictions add a separate footing or foundation inspection, and a few want the fire marshal to look at DCFC equipment before anything else.

How many you get is a question about your jurisdiction and your scope rather than about EV charging generally. We confirm the stages before the first trench is dug, not after. Check local and state requirements.

What testing has to be done before the EV charger inspection?

Continuity, grounding, insulation resistance, ground-fault protection and torque.

Before an inspector is called, the circuits get verified: continuity end to end, grounding and bonding confirmed, insulation resistance measured, ground-fault protection function tested, and terminations torqued to the manufacturer specification and marked. The readings are recorded circuit by circuit so the inspector sees results rather than watching a first attempt.

This is not the same thing as commissioning. Activation, claiming the chargers into your network account, happens before there is power. Commissioning, a real session on every port, is the last step, after the utility energizes the site. Both are described on the installation page.

What happens at activation

Who inspects EV chargers?

The authority having jurisdiction, which is usually your local building or electrical department.

The authority having jurisdiction, usually shortened to AHJ, is whoever is legally empowered to enforce the code at your address. On most commercial EV projects that is a city or county electrical or building inspector. On some sites it is a state office, a fire marshal, or a third-party agency the jurisdiction has contracted to do its inspections.

Which one it is changes by address, sometimes between two sites in the same metro area. Establishing that is the first thing this phase does, because it decides everything else about how the phase runs.

How long does an EV charger inspection take to schedule?

It depends on the inspector queue, not on the size of your project.

Some jurisdictions take next-day requests. Others work a fixed schedule with a lead time. The size of the job rarely moves it; the queue in that office does. What is inside anyone's control is being genuinely ready when the inspector arrives, because a failed inspection puts you back in the same queue behind everybody else.

These are typical phases, not commitments. Your project manager gives you the picture for your jurisdiction once the scope is settled.

Do you attend the inspection?

Yes. Someone from our side meets the inspector on site.

We book the inspection with the authority having jurisdiction and have someone there when it happens. That matters more than it sounds. An inspector with a question about a termination or a clearance can get the answer standing at the equipment, and the conversation usually ends there. The alternative is a correction notice, a second trip and another slot in the queue.

Anything written up gets corrected and re-submitted by us rather than handed back to your team. Check local and state requirements.

What happens if an EV charger inspection fails?

You get a correction notice, the work gets fixed, and it goes back in for re-inspection.

A failed inspection is a list, not a verdict. The inspector writes up what does not comply, the work is corrected, and the job is re-inspected. Some jurisdictions charge a re-inspection fee. The real cost is usually the calendar rather than the fee, because you rejoin the queue, and if the utility was waiting on that sign-off, energization slips with it.

We handle the corrections and book the re-inspection. None of that routes back to your team.

What are the most common EV charger inspection failures?

Work covered before it was seen, and details that changed in the field.

The recurring ones: a trench closed or concrete poured before the rough-in, a conductor or conduit size that does not match the stamped set, grounding and bonding left incomplete, missing or unreadable labeling on the disconnect, not enough working clearance around the equipment, and an accessible route that was never drawn properly in the first place.

Almost none of these are workmanship problems. They are sequence and paperwork problems, which is exactly why this phase is worth owning rather than improvising.

Can the chargers be used as soon as the inspection passes?

No. The utility still has to energize the site.

The sign-off is what lets the utility move, not what turns the chargers on. Once the record is signed the site goes to the utility for energization, and until they flip the switch there is nothing to plug into. Activation, claiming the chargers into your network account, will already have happened. Commissioning, a real session on every port, follows once the utility energizes the site.

This is the most common surprise late in an EV project. A site that has passed its inspection can still be a way off its first session.

See energization