Malvern went electric early. Between 1910 and 1915 the Prahran and Malvern Tramways Trust opened electric tram lines along High Street, Glenferrie Road, Wattletree Road and Malvern Road, and in 1927 a purpose-built motor garage went up at 1140 Malvern Road to serve a suburb where private car ownership was growing fast. That garage is now protected under the Heritage Overlay. Nearly a century later, the car in a Malvern driveway is increasingly one that plugs in.
Malvern households also run more cars than their inner-city neighbours. At the 2021 Census, 34.4% of households had two vehicles and 12.3% had three or more, and 45.8% of homes were separate houses. That mix of older houses and several cars per driveway shapes the EV charger installation Malvern families need: one charger is rarely the end of the conversation.
Malvern jobs are run out of DUKE’s premises at 128 Toorak Rd in South Yarra, about 4 km to the west. We are a division of DUKE Electrical Group; every job is done by A-grade electricians and covered by our contractor registration, REC 35838.
EV charger installation Malvern: which network are you on?
Postcode 3144 straddles two electricity networks. Look Malvern up in the CitiPower and Powercor distributor locator and two answers come back, CitiPower and United Energy, so it depends on your street rather than your suburb. CitiPower is the inner-city network; United Energy runs across Melbourne’s south-east. Malvern sits on the seam.
For a standard home charger the difference is mostly paperwork, but it is real paperwork. United Energy’s EV charging guidance requires a registered electrical contractor for wall and fast charger installs, plus registration of the charger on United Energy’s myEnergy portal. CitiPower’s EV page lists no equivalent registration step for home chargers, but any change to the supply itself goes through its eConnect portal. Bigger jobs diverge further:
| What changes | CitiPower streets | United Energy streets |
|---|---|---|
| Home wall charger | Installed by a registered contractor | Installed by a registered contractor and registered on myEnergy |
| Single to three-phase | Alteration lodged through eConnect; CitiPower quotes three to eight weeks for most | Alteration lodged through myEnergy |
| Very large supplies | Large EV charging loads may need CitiPower’s network upgrade process | Premises needing 170 A or more are typically negotiated connections |
We confirm the network at the first visit and handle the applications on whichever side of the line you fall, so you never have to work out which portal applies.
Two cars, one supply: planning for the second EV
A second EV changes the maths. Two cars charging at 7 kW each draw around 64 A between them on a single-phase supply, on top of whatever the house is already using in the evening. Whether that fits depends on your main fuse, your consumer mains and the existing load, so we calculate maximum demand under the Wiring Rules before recommending anything.
There are three common answers:
- Load management. A smart charger, or a pair of chargers sharing one current limit, watches the household load and slows charging when the oven, heating or pool pump starts.
- Scheduling. If one car only needs a top-up, staggering the two sessions overnight often removes the problem entirely.
- A supply upgrade. Three-phase power spreads the load and suits households with two long-distance drivers or other large loads.
Once an installation’s calculated maximum demand goes past 100 A per phase, or whenever the distributor asks, the Victorian Service and Installation Rules call for a device that caps it, which is one more reason to plan the second charger before the second car arrives. Two 22 kW chargers in one garage may look impressive on a quote, but on most nights they deliver nothing a pair of well-managed 7 kW units would not. Our pages on three-phase supply upgrades for EV charging and home charger installation across Melbourne cover both routes in more detail.
Malvern’s heritage review is now in the planning scheme
The first of Stonnington’s suburb-by-suburb heritage reviews has finished its journey. Amendment C316ston, the Malvern Heritage Review, was approved on 29 May 2026 and gazetted on 25 June 2026. It added new individual places and precincts to the Heritage Overlay and revised the controls for a number of existing ones.
Three of the new precincts show the range. Winter Street (HO691) covers Victorian houses on modest allotments with bluestone gutters, laid out on the 1880s and 1890s Winter Estate. Dixon Street (HO688) holds eleven Victorian houses from the early 1890s Stanhope Estate subdivision. Northbrook Avenue (HO689) is a 1930s group of substantial interwar houses on Northbrook Avenue and two neighbouring High Street lots. Armadale’s precincts changed a fortnight earlier under a separate amendment, covered on our Armadale EV charger installation page.
The motor garage at 1140 Malvern Road
One of the individual places added has an obvious link to this page. The former motor garage at 1140 Malvern Road was built in 1927, with large display windows either side of a central doorway and detailing that nods to the Egyptian Revival style. Its heritage statement describes it as illustrative of the growth of private transport between the wars, when car ownership was rising quickly. Malvern has reorganised itself around a new kind of car before.
What it means for a charger
For charging, the working rules are simple. Keep the charger behind the front of the house and out of street view where you can. Inside the Heritage Overlay, Clause 43.01 turns visibility into a legal test: if passers-by could see the charger from a street (lanes aside) or from a public park, it needs a planning permit, though it is a VicSmart application, and Council’s EV policy also points owners to its Statutory Planning Unit. Building a new garage, carport or crossover inside a Heritage Overlay requires a permit too, so if your charging plan relies on one of those, council comes before the electrician.
Interwar flats and maisonettes
Malvern’s heritage statements note that the interwar years brought a substantial number of residential flats and maisonettes to the suburb, as costly Victorian and Federation estates were subdivided. Flats still make up 30.8% of Malvern’s homes. Picture a typical interwar block with each flat’s meter on a shared panel and the garages or car spaces at the back of the site.
That layout gives an owners corporation two choices. The charger can be supplied from the owner’s own meter, which means a long cable run across common property to their space, or from the common supply with a sub-meter so the owner pays for what they use. The first suits a single charger in a small block; the second scales better once a few neighbours want one. Both touch common property, so both need the owners corporation’s approval, and some will need a special resolution. Our page on EV charging for apartments and strata explains how we help committees weigh those options.
How a Malvern installation runs
Most jobs follow the same six stages. The only step that is particular to Malvern is confirming which network supplies your address.
- Site visit. We look at the parking spot, the switchboard, the incoming supply and the likely cable route.
- Network check. We confirm CitiPower or United Energy and lodge anything the network requires, including the myEnergy registration on United Energy streets.
- Board work. If the load check calls for more capacity or better protection, it happens first.
- Installation. A dedicated circuit and the charger go in at the agreed position.
- Testing and certification. The six mandatory tests, then your Certificate of Electrical Safety.
- Handover. We set up the app, charging schedules and any load limits with you.
You can confirm any electrician’s licence or contractor’s registration yourself on Energy Safe Victoria’s public register.
Public charging along Glenferrie Road
Home charging does the heavy lifting, but it helps to know the backup. The council’s Electric Vehicle Charging Plan names a council-managed 50 kW DC charger at 290 Glenferrie Road and further 50 kW DC chargers at Malvern Central. In the same plan’s ranking of activity centres for opportunistic public charging, the Glenferrie Road and Malvern Central centre comes sixth. The strip runs from Dandenong Road up to the Malvern Town Hall, so most of the suburb is a short drive from it.
Smaller centres wait longer: the plan pencils in Malvern Village for 2028 and the shops at High Street and Tooronga Road for 2030. For a household waiting on a supply upgrade or a strata vote, a 50 kW DC stop on Glenferrie Road is a practical stopgap in the meantime.
Frequently asked questions on Malvern networks, cars and heritage
How can I tell whether my Malvern home is on CitiPower or United Energy?
Find the National Metering Identifier (NMI) on your electricity bill. AEMO’s NMI allocation list gives CitiPower the blocks starting 6102, 6103 and VAAA, and United Energy those starting 6407, 6408 and VEEE. We confirm it on site either way.
Will two EVs charge overnight on one single-phase supply in Malvern?
Often, yes, with load management or staggered schedules. It depends on your main fuse, consumer mains and evening load, which we work out with a maximum demand calculation before recommending chargers.
Does the 2026 Malvern heritage amendment stop me installing a charger?
No. It changes which houses sit in a Heritage Overlay, not whether you can charge an EV. If your house is in the overlay and the charger would be seen from a street (lanes excepted) or a public park, a VicSmart planning permit comes first; tucked out of view, it needs no heritage permit.
Is it worth waiting for more public chargers instead of installing one at home?
If you have off-street parking, we would not wait. A home charger is the most convenient way to start each day with a full battery, and public DC charging on Glenferrie Road works best as a backup.
Is three-phase power required for a 7 kW charger?
No. A 7 kW charger runs on single-phase supply. Both networks list three-phase supply as a requirement for 22 kW home units, and the extra speed only arrives if your car accepts the higher rate.
If your Malvern driveway is about to gain a second EV, or your block’s committee wants a plan for the car park, phone us on 1300 003 853 (we answer from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday) or use our EV charger quote request page. For streets east of Tooronga Road, see our Malvern East EV charger installation page.