EV charger differences between the UK and EU markets

We first discuss product certification because CB and CE certifications were common when the UK was part of Europe. So, can CE certification still be used in the UK after Brexit? The answer is yes. UKCA (UK Conformity Assessment Mark) is a UK product certification that will replace the CE mark after Brexit. From 1 January 2021, products planned to be placed in the UK (England, Wales, and Scotland) market will require this certification. However, In early August 2023, the UK government announced that the CE mark would be recognized indefinitely beyond the 2024 deadline. After 31 December 2024, manufacturers can launch products on the UK market that bear only the CE mark. Similar to the EU Declaration of Conformity, there will also be a UKCA Declaration of Compliance for the UK market in the future, which will refer to the corresponding UK law and cite British Standards (BS) as the normative basis rather than EU directives/regulations. Standards with the suffix BS indicate that they are standards adopted by the British National Standards Body as the British Standards Organization.

The second difference lies in the PEN detection function. PEN ground detection detects the power system's protective ground and working ground. PEN refers to a conductor that combines protective earth (PE) and neutral wire (Neutral, N). This grounding method is used in TN-C and TN-C-S systems. In the UK, household electrical systems usually use the TN-C-S system, also known as Protective Multiple Earthing (PME). In this type of system, the PEN conductor combines the protective earth (PE) and the neutral conductor (N). When the incoming PEN line is broken due to a line fault, and the PEN line is left hanging without additional grounding, and at the same time the distribution box RCD is not functioning properly, the voltage of the protective earth (PE) will be equal to the voltage of the live line (L). Without this protection, the casing of a charging electric vehicle will carry a voltage equal to the live line (L). If there are no other electrical appliances except the electric vehicle charger, a leakage current exceeding 30mA can prevent a person from letting go, posing a safety hazard. If other electrical appliances are around, the leakage current can easily exceed 100mA, which can be fatal. Therefore, to avoid frequent PEN detection with instruments, ChargWell can add a PEN detection module inside the charging pile to ensure that there will be no safety accidents. 

If you know more about the differences between the EV chargers in the UK and EU markets, please let us know so we can discuss them further. Thank you in advance!