Six in ten Bentleigh East households had two or more cars at the 2021 Census, and almost seven in ten homes were separate houses. Put those together and you can see why the EV charger installation Bentleigh East families ask us about so often involves a second car, a long run to a garage or carport, or solar panels on the roof. Our electricians drive up from DUKE’s Beaumaris premises at 125 Charman Rd, roughly 6 km south, and work under REC 35838.
A suburb of houses, driveways and second cars
Glen Eira’s history of the municipality traces Bentleigh East back to market gardens and describes parts of it as most evocative of settlement after the Second World War. By our reading of the state planning maps, close to four fifths of the suburb sits in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone, where new homes are generally limited to two storeys.
The Census detail fills in the rest. Bentleigh East had 30,159 residents in 2021, and very few households went without a car: only 4.6 per cent had none, 44.1 per cent had two and 15.7 per cent had three or more. Flats and apartments made up just 16.5 per cent of occupied homes.
A typical job here pairs a switchboard near the front door with a carport or garage along the side or out the back. The details are what differ: how far the cable has to travel, whether a big tree stands in the way, and whether one charger will really be enough once the second car arrives. Whether you’re near Bailey Reserve on East Boundary Road, Virginia Park or the streets off Bignell Road and Mackie Road, that last question is worth asking early.
Heritage controls barely touch the suburb. Only four places are individually listed, among them St John’s Anglican Church at 624 Centre Road and the Yarra Yarra Golf Club clubhouse on Warrigal Road, so a Bentleigh East charger is rarely a planning question. The Centre Road shops have their own design controls, added in 2024, but those govern the commercial strip rather than the houses behind it.
EV charger installation Bentleigh East for two cars on one supply
A second EV doesn’t automatically mean a bigger supply. It means doing the sums properly. We work out the house’s maximum demand under the Wiring Rules, add the chargers, and only then decide which of three paths makes sense.
One charger, shared
Many two-EV households can run on one 7 kW charger, swapping cars on alternate nights. United Energy’s guidance pegs a dedicated wall unit for households doing 200 to 500 km weekly, so add up what both cars travel and compare.
Two chargers with load management
A load manager measures the whole house in real time and shares the spare capacity between two chargers, trimming them when the heating, oven and dryer are running. Victoria’s Service and Installation Rules make a demand-limiting device compulsory where the distributor asks for one or where calculated demand passes 100 A per phase, so on bigger houses this often ends up being the tidy answer anyway.
A supply upgrade
Some homes, United Energy says, may need their power supply upgraded before they can cope with EV charging. Switching a house to three-phase means an application to United Energy, which we lodge before ordering any equipment; our three-phase upgrade work for EV charging covers your side of the meter. United Energy’s home EV charging guide also makes clear that wall chargers must be logged on its myEnergy portal, a step we take care of.
Our honest view: for most two-EV families in Bentleigh East, load management is the right first step, and a three-phase upgrade is worth it only when the numbers clearly say so.
Trenching past big trees
On a bigger block there can be a mature tree between the house and the garage, and Glen Eira protects the big ones. Under its Canopy Tree Protection Local Law, a permit is needed to carry out works, including trenching, digging and excavating, within the tree protection zone of a canopy tree on private land. A canopy tree includes a tree taller than five metres with a trunk circumference of 140 cm or more, measured 140 cm up the trunk, and palms taller than eight metres. The tree protection zone is worked out under the Australian Standard for protecting trees on development sites, AS 4970.
Council’s page on tree removal, pruning and tree protection zones explains when a permit applies. In practice we plan the cable route around the tree first: surface conduit along a fence or wall, a trench that stays outside the protection zone, or a route through the house. A few extra metres of conduit beats a permit application nearly every time.
Not sure whether your tree counts? Measure around the trunk about 140 cm up from the ground, or around the stump at ground level. If either is close to 140 cm, treat the tree as protected and tell us before anyone picks up a spade.
Solar panels and daytime charging
Glen Eira says around 13 per cent of its homes have solar panels, and the number grows each year. Solar Victoria makes three points in its advice on preparing a home for an EV: rooftop solar can cut, or even remove, what you pay and emit to charge; a smart charger can be told to run while the panels are producing; and solar that charges the car can’t also run the house that evening.
That last point matters for commuters whose cars are away all day. If the car is home on weekdays, daytime solar charging works well. If it isn’t, a timer set for the cheapest overnight rate on your tariff may do more good. Adding panels at the same time? Victoria’s emergency backstop rules now apply to every new or upgraded solar system, so the inverter has to be an approved model and stay online. We set the charger and inverter up to cooperate as part of our solar-aware EV charger installs.
Carports, cables and choosing the hardware
If your car lives under a carport rather than in a closed garage, the charger lives outdoors too. That’s fine for units rated for outdoor use, and we mount them out of the worst of the weather and away from where a reversing car could clip them.
The other choice is cable or socket. Some chargers come with the lead and plug permanently attached, which the trade calls tethered; untethered units have just a socket, and you connect your own lead each time. Tethered is quicker for daily use. Untethered looks tidier on a carport post and leaves nothing hanging when the car is out. Either way, we confirm the unit is approved for Australian use and compatible with your car before it goes on the wall.
East Village and the newer builds off East Boundary Road
The biggest change coming to the suburb is East Village, former industrial land in the north of Bentleigh East, off East Boundary Road near North Road. Council’s 2018 structure plan for the precinct, which led to a planning scheme amendment in 2021, set out around 3,000 new dwellings, a new public school and a town centre.
New apartment buildings there are covered by the National Construction Code’s EV provisions, which call for car park switchboards reserved for EV charging and a control system able to schedule and manage it. Owners in those buildings start well ahead of older blocks, and the owners corporation side is something our apartment EV charging team handles. For new townhouses and houses, ask for conduit to the garage, a board with spare space and a supply sized for at least one 7 kW charger before the walls are lined.
Council is heading the same way with its own buildings. It received a federal grant in 2025 to take gas out of GESAC, the Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre at Bailey Reserve, which will join the Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool as an all-electric facility.
Frequently asked questions for Bentleigh East households
Can two chargers share one single-phase supply?
Often, yes. A load manager hands the two chargers whatever capacity the house isn’t using at that moment, keeping the total inside the supply’s limit. A maximum demand calculation comes first, so you know before you buy.
Can we get a government rebate on the charger?
Not from the Victorian Government at present. When we checked on 12 October 2026, Solar Victoria’s incentives covered solar panels and hot water, with nothing offered for home EV chargers.
Do we need a permit to trench near a large tree?
If the trench enters the tree protection zone of a canopy tree, Glen Eira’s local law requires a permit. We’d normally route around it rather than apply.
Does the car we buy change the charger we need?
It can. A car’s own onboard charger sets its AC ceiling, so one that tops out at 7 kW gains nothing from a 22 kW wall unit. Tell us the make and model and we’ll size the charger to suit.
Will our solar panels charge the car?
When the car is plugged in during daylight and the charger is set to follow solar output, yes. Overnight charging still comes from the grid unless you also have a home battery.
We’re buying into East Village. What should we ask the builder?
Ask how the building’s EV distribution board is metered, whether load management is included and how a charger in your bay will be billed. For a townhouse, ask for conduit to the garage and spare board space.
Whether it’s a second charger for a post-war house or a first one for a new townhouse, we’ll start with the switchboard and the cable route. Next door, our guide to EV chargers in Bentleigh deals with its heritage streets. Send the details through our enquiry page or call 1300 003 853 (Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm).