Kooyong is small: 842 residents and 381 private dwellings at the 2021 Census, on the south side of the Gardiners Creek valley between Toorak and Malvern. Most people know it for the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Road, whose stadium opened in 1927 and hosted the Australian Open until the tournament moved to the National Tennis Centre in 1988. Fewer know that the suburb’s housing was substantially complete by the end of the 1920s.
Car ownership runs higher here than in neighbouring Malvern or Armadale. The Census counted 1.9 vehicles per dwelling on average, and 17% of households had three or more. Put those facts together and the EV charger installation Kooyong owners ask about usually means more than one car, a garage at the back of a deep block and a heritage streetscape out the front.
Kooyong is covered from DUKE’s South Yarra premises at 128 Toorak Rd, roughly 4 km away as the crow flies. The work is done by our A-grade electricians under DUKE Electrical Group’s registration as a Victorian electrical contractor, REC 35838. Energy Safe Victoria sets out what a registered electrical contractor is and what the registration requires of the business.
EV charger installation Kooyong: the long run to the garage
In a typical Kooyong house of the 1910s or 1920s, the switchboard sits at the front and the garage stands at the far end of the driveway. Everything in between is the job. A 32 A single-phase circuit usually starts at 6 mm² cable, but distance changes that: once the length of the run goes into the AS/NZS 3008.1.1 sizing calculation, a long run often goes up a size, sometimes to 10 mm². Three-phase runs need more conductors again.
The route matters as much as the cable. Underground conduit beneath a lawn or path is tidy and permanent, but it means lifting brick paving or opening garden beds, and on established blocks we plan the trench around tree roots rather than through them. If the garage already has its own small switchboard, we check whether the cable feeding it has the capacity for a charger before relying on it.
Our firm opinion: if you are digging a trench to the garage anyway, put a spare conduit in it. It costs little at the time and saves lifting the same paving twice when the next car arrives. Here is what we settle before any digging starts:
- Route: under paths and lawn in conduit, clear of roots and garden beds.
- Cable size: chosen for the actual distance, not a rule of thumb.
- Capacity: maximum demand checked for every car you plan to own, not just the first.
- Spare conduit: an extra pipe in the same trench for the next charger.
Our guide to choosing and installing a home EV charger picks up once the route is settled.
Inside the Kooyong Precinct (HO181)
Kooyong’s main heritage precinct takes in ten streets: Avenel Road, Elizabeth Street, Glenferrie Road, Mernda Road, Monaro Road, Moralla Road, Norford Grove, Sutton Street, Talbot Crescent and Toorak Road. Its current statement of significance came in with Amendment C320ston, which was gazetted on 11 June 2026. The precinct records the subdivisions of 1902 to 1925, and its houses read like a catalogue of interwar styles: Old English, Streamline Moderne and Arts and Crafts, among earlier Federation and Edwardian homes.
The statement names houses such as 1 and 31 Avenel Road and several on Talbot Crescent as significant, and describes the rest of the precinct as largely contributory, with some non-contributory infill. It also values how these houses present to the street, down to their verandahs, chimneys and consistent setbacks, so anything bolted to a street-facing wall deserves a second thought. The same amendment also covers individually listed Kooyong places such as Grenfell House at 9 Mernda Road and a residence at 719 Toorak Road.
Council’s guidance for services and equipment on heritage places is to keep them concealed behind the front of the house, out of the street’s view, and its EV policy asks owners to check with the statutory planners where a charger would be visible. The planning scheme makes that a formal step: Clause 43.01 requires a permit in the Heritage Overlay wherever a charging station would be in view of a street (other than a lane) or a public park. A charger inside a rear garage sidesteps the question entirely. Where a permit is needed, it goes through VicSmart, the fast-track process for straightforward applications, which also covers external alterations to houses graded non-contributory.
Two networks share postcode 3144
Kooyong shares its postcode with Malvern, and with it a quirk: the distributors’ postcode lookup shows CitiPower and United Energy side by side for Kooyong, so the answer depends on the address. Vicmap’s distributor boundaries put most of the suburb’s area on United Energy and a smaller part on CitiPower. The quickest check is the National Metering Identifier printed on your bill: under AEMO’s allocation list, an NMI beginning 6102, 6103 or VAAA is CitiPower’s, while one beginning 6407, 6408 or VEEE belongs to United Energy. We confirm it at the site visit regardless.
The network matters most when the job grows. On United Energy, chargers are registered through myEnergy and supply upgrades are applied for there, and United Energy’s page on new and upgraded supplies treats premises that need 170 amps or more as typical candidates for a negotiated connection. On CitiPower, supply alterations go through eConnect. The Victorian Service and Installation Rules add that, for equipment that could disturb the network, no expense should be incurred until an application has been made to the distributor and its advice received. We treat a multi-charger garage the same way: the network’s answer comes before anyone orders hardware.
Three cars, one supply
With 17% of Kooyong households running three or more vehicles, the question is less whether the supply can feed one charger than whether it can feed several at once. A single-phase supply asked to run three 7 kW chargers together would need close to 100 A for the charging alone, before the house switches on a single light.
The answer is normally some mix of these:
- Dynamic load management, which shares a fixed current limit between chargers and backs off when household loads rise.
- Phase balancing on a three-phase supply, spreading chargers across phases rather than stacking them on one.
- A supply capacity upgrade. EV chargers appear by name in the Victorian Service and Installation Rules as an example of new equipment that can trigger one, and the rules set out how the new service cable route is handled.
Agreeing the charging rules
When we commission a load-managed set-up, we agree the rules with you: which car charges first, the minimum level each car should reach overnight, and when the others can top up. The car with the longest drive the next morning usually gets priority, and a weekend-only car can wait until the early hours.
In our view, a well-configured, load-managed pair with a third car on a schedule beats three full-power units fighting over the same fuse. The supply side is covered on our pages about three-phase power for multi-car charging and switchboard capacity upgrades for EV charging.
Kooyong flats and shared car parks
Not every Kooyong household has a garage of its own. Flats made up 42.4% of occupied dwellings in 2021, and in a block the car park is usually common property controlled by the owners corporation. A charger there needs the owners corporation’s approval, and the Owners Corporations Act 2006 lets an owners corporation, by special resolution, provide a service to owners and require those who use it to pay for it. That is a tidy way to handle shared charging in a small block. Committees can see how it is usually set up on our apartment block and strata charging page.
Charging away from home
Do not wait for Kooyong Village to get a public charger. In Council’s Electric Vehicle Charging Plan it sits 33rd of 34 activity centres for public charging, pencilled in for 2030. Of the two council-run chargers the plan lists, the nearer is the 50 kW DC unit further south at 290 Glenferrie Road, Malvern. For a household with a garage, charging at home is the routine and public charging is the exception.
Frequently asked questions on charging at Kooyong homes
Can a charger go on a significant-graded house in the Kooyong Precinct?
Grading affects how much change council will accept to what the street sees. A charger inside a rear garage, or on a wall hidden from the street, leaves the heritage presentation alone and needs no heritage permit. If it would be visible from a street or public park, Clause 43.01 calls for a VicSmart permit whatever the grading, so we sort that out before installation.
Can you run power to a detached garage at the back of the block?
Yes. We run a dedicated circuit in underground conduit or along a boundary, sized for the distance, and plan the route around trees, paving and garden beds. Adding a spare conduit at the same time is cheap insurance.
Which network supplies my Kooyong house?
It could be either network, because CitiPower and United Energy both serve postcode 3144. Check the first four characters of the NMI on your electricity bill, or leave it to us to confirm at the site visit. It changes the paperwork more than the charger itself.
Can three EVs charge overnight without a supply upgrade?
Sometimes. Dynamic load management and staggered schedules let several cars share a fixed limit. Whether that is enough depends on your supply and household load; a maximum demand calculation settles it before you spend anything on chargers. If the numbers do not work, we will say so and talk through the supply options.
Can you install a charger our car dealer supplied?
Yes. We install customer-supplied chargers, after checking the unit suits your car, your supply and Australian requirements. United Energy’s safety advice is to buy only charging equipment designed for your car and approved for use in Australia.
Whether your garage is at the end of a long drive off Monaro Road or you are planning for a third EV, we will map the route, the load and the network side before you commit. Use our EV charger installation contact page to request a quote, or call 1300 003 853; we take calls from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday. For the suburbs on either side, see EV chargers in neighbouring Toorak and EV chargers in neighbouring Malvern.