Update: Last-Ditch Appeal Stops Dumb New Electric Code From Ruining EV Charging

Update: In June 2025, the National Fire Protection Association approved the 2026 National Electric Code with a new requirement to use ground-fault circuit-interrupting breakers on all electric-vehicle charging equipment, including hardwired installations. A GFCI breaker can interfere with the built-in protections of an EV charger, causing the circuit breaker to unnecessarily trip and interrupt charging.

That addition to the NEC didn’t last long. In August, the NFPA Standards Council made the rare decision to override the code-making panel based on an appeal that had support from Honda, GM, Ford, Rivian, ChargePoint, Emporia, and the auto-industry standards organization SAE International, among others.

While the Standards Council acknowledged the technical concerns with requiring GFCI breakers for EV charging equipment, it ultimately dismissed the change to section 625.54 based on procedural grounds. The GFCI requirement had been written into code based on a public comment that lacked the necessary technical justification for the change. The person who made that public comment later said on a podcast that he had made the proposal as a joke, and he ultimately submitted a second public comment asking the code-making panel to reverse its actions.

Due to the NFPA Standards Council’s actions, the 2026 NEC will not require GFCI protection for hardwired electric-vehicle charging equipment. Our original story is below.

The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) publishes a new National Electric Code every three years, and we almost never notice or care. But the next one, NFPA 70 2026, has the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) electric-vehicle charging subcommittee, OEMs, and companies in the EV Supply Equipment (EVSE, or charger) biz mightily concerned. That’s because it proposes to require the same exact ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection that makes you push that little button on your bathroom outlet every time the curling iron won’t heat up. Only now, that reset button will often be down in an electric panel, maybe locked in a room where you can’t reset it. If EV drivers can’t reliably plug in and expect their cars to charge overnight at home or while at work, those cars will become far less practical.

Why GFCI?

We’ve all probably felt a jolt of electrical current at some point in our lives. If so, your body basically completed a circuit between a live wire or outlet and the ground. Just 40 milliamps of AC current (or 300–500 mA of DC at high voltage) can cause cardiac fibrillation.

What a ground-fault circuit-interrupter (GFCI) does is constantly monitor the current flowing back and forth on a circuit’s “hot” and “neutral” (often black and white) wires. Any difference detected is presumed to be a person grounding some electricity and causes the circuit to break. In North America, those 120-volt kitchen, bath, and outdoor GFCIs get tripped by just 5 mA (in Europe, the trigger is 30 mA). Fun fact: Sometimes the simple presence of water on the cable or connector can bleed enough current to trip these circuits (ever had Christmas lights suddenly blink out in the rain or heavy dew?).

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The Case for 5 vs 30 Milliamps

Touching a live wire typically makes one involuntarily flinch—quite possibly hard enough to knock one off a ladder if, for example, that jolt occurs while hanging your cheap Christmas lights. When the circuit switches off at 5 mA, the lights go off after just a tiny jolt and you hopefully remain on the ladder. Given the assortment of old, poorly maintained consumer stuff that can be plugged in to a 120-volt plug, the 5-mA limit makes pretty good sense at this voltage level.

The Case Against 5 mA

In 2020, the national code started requiring GFCI protection on 240-volt plug receptacles, still with the same CCID5 (4–6 mA) trip threshold. Well, bigger equipment of the sort that plugs into these NEMA 6-20, 14-50, etc. outlets draws more power and naturally experiences larger current fluctuations. These can cause “nuisance trips.” But because these 240-volt outlets are often located behind heavy equipment, the reset button is not permitted to be on the outlet face. It must be in an accessible location, though that is likely to be at the distribution panel, possibly in a locked room somewhere.

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As a work-around, EVSE manufacturers started directing users away from plug-in to direct hard-wired installations. But the 2026 NEC is shifting to require GFCI protection even for hard-wired equipment. And a 5-mA trip is way too low for a circuit that may supply more than one Level 2 charger. Keep in mind, these are the most common chargers, a step up from simply plugging into a 120-volt wall outlet but short of Level 3 DC fast chargers typically found in public charging stations, that are installed at homes, businesses, and car dealerships.

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EV Chargers Provide Their Own Protection

The national code doesn’t care what you’re plugging in, but vehicle chargers deserve their own carve-out. That’s because no current ever flows until the charger has verified a solid ground connection from car to charger and from charger to electrical panel. They also include their own GFPE (Ground Fault Protection of Equipment), which is intended to protect equipment and is permitted to trip at values larger than 5mA, often in the 15–20mA range. That’s why this new code REALLY needs to set a higher supply-side cutout (like what is allowed for marine vehicle shore power, which is up to 30mA). Because even if the Special Purpose GFCI with its 15–20mA trip level were allowed, it would be a 50/50 chance that any fault would trip the electrical-supply breaker or the device’s internal breaker. But while the device is programmed to automatically reset and try again, the panel requires a manual reset. There is one EV-charger carve-out: Bi-directional chargers are exempt.

Timeline To Trouble

This problematic application of 5 mA trip to most 240-volt EV-charging equipment was added into this regulation late, during a second draft of the 2026 NEC, and now the only way to head it off is for interested parties (SAE, OEMs, and EVSE manufacturers) to register their notice of motion in February for consideration in March. This isn’t a government regulation, so it’s utterly unaffected by the change in federal administration. These are functionary folks with minimal experience of EV charging, so the arguments must aim to convince the NFPA committee members of Code-Making Panel 12 that implementing this code as is could grossly embarrass the Agency. (Understanding that any such embarrassment will only arise after buildings and projects are completed under the new code.)

A Precedent for Embarrassment?

In 2007, some faulty repair work done on an air-conditioning compressor resulted in the metal enclosure of the condenser being electrified. A 12-year-old boy hopping over a fence contacted both the enclosure and the fence and was fatally electrocuted. This prompted a code change to the 2020 NEC to require GFCI protection—with a 5-mA trip threshold—for HVAC units. Some time later, during a hot spell in Texas, numerous spurious circuit trips made it impossible to cool enough buildings that this line item was crossed out of the code in a number of states.

What You Can Do

Sadly, not much. Contacting your state or local legislators won’t help, as they’re not directly involved. Cross your fingers and say a little prayer for the industry cognoscenti to make a convincing case.

This story was originally published January 22, 2025. It has been republished with updated information.