Schneider Electric, the industrial and electrical equipment giant behind the breaker panels in millions of American homes, launched its newest home EV charger on August 25, 2026. The product is called Schneider Charge, it costs $695, and the feature getting the attention is not the charger itself but what comes bundled with it: load management that would otherwise be a separate purchase. Schneider already sells the simpler EVlink Home line in the US, but Schneider Charge is its first residential charger built around SmartAmp, the load-management system described below.
What it is
Schneider Charge is a Level 2 charger rated up to 11.5 kW at 48 amps, the same ceiling as most premium home chargers on the market, including the Tesla Wall Connector. It ships in two versions, one with a NACS (SAE J3400) handle and one with J1772, so the connector choice depends on your vehicle rather than the charger forcing an adapter on you.
The feature Schneider is leading with is SmartAmp, its dynamic load-management system. The charger comes with current transformers, small clamp sensors that a licensed electrician installs on your home's main electrical feed during setup, that continuously measure how much power your house is drawing. When a big load like a dryer, an electric range, or central air conditioning kicks on and pushes your total draw toward the panel's limit, SmartAmp automatically throttles the charger's output. When the load drops, charging speed comes back up. Schneider says this keeps working even if your home Wi-Fi goes down, because the sensing and throttling happen locally rather than through the cloud. A companion app handles setup, scheduling around off-peak utility rates, and monitoring, but is not required for the safety-relevant load management itself.
For now, Schneider Charge is hardwired only, with a 25-foot cable, and installation requires a licensed electrician both for the standard 240-volt hookup and to run and commission the current sensors. Schneider has said a plug-in version is planned for early 2027. The unit is rated for outdoor use down to -30°C (-22°F), is UL 3141 certified for managed-load installs where the local authority accepts it, and carries a three-year warranty (the longer five-year warranty sometimes mentioned in coverage of Schneider's charger lineup belongs to Charge Pro, the separate commercial product, not this residential unit). It is available now through Schneider's authorized distributors and its own online marketplace in the United States and Canada.
Why this is the news, not just a new charger
We covered the underlying trend in May: a mix of updated National Electrical Code provisions and a wave of load-management hardware now lets many homes add a Level 2 charger without a full panel upgrade, because the code allows an electrician to size the circuit to what the managed system will actually let the charger pull, not its full nameplate rating. See Smart Load Management Is Making Panel Upgrades Optional for Many EV Owners for how that math works and when a panel upgrade is still the right call regardless.
What's new here is who is selling it and how. Load management has mostly come from smart-panel makers like Span, from charger brands like Emporia and Wallbox with the feature as an add-on, or from Tesla as a separately purchased accessory. Schneider Electric is one of the largest electrical equipment manufacturers in the world, the kind of name your electrician already knows from the breaker box, and it is putting the sensing hardware in the box with the charger at no added line item. That is a meaningfully different sales pitch than "buy the charger, then buy the load management device, then have both installed."
How the numbers stack up
| Hardware cost | Load management included? |
|---|
| Schneider Charge | $695 | Yes, bundled (SmartAmp with included current sensors) |
| Tesla Wall Connector + Remote Meter | $585 + $210 = $795 | Only with the separate Remote Meter accessory |
| Full 100A-to-200A panel or service upgrade | Commonly $2,000 to $6,500, and sometimes higher, depending on scope | Not applicable; adds physical capacity instead of managing existing capacity |
That $2,000 to $6,500 range comes from Schneider's own materials for this launch. It is close to, but not identical to, the $1,500 to $4,000 range we found researching the broader load-management trend in May; both are point-in-time estimates rather than a single fixed price, and either depends heavily on your home: a straightforward breaker swap sits at the low end, while a service line and meter upgrade required by the utility sits at the high end. Tesla's Remote Meter, a $210 accessory Tesla began selling in May 2026, is a wireless device that adds the same kind of dynamic load balancing to an existing Wall Connector purchase; it is a real point of comparison here rather than a hypothetical one.
None of this changes the basic tradeoff described in our load-management piece: a managed charger gives up some charging speed during brief household peaks in exchange for skipping or deferring a bigger, more disruptive electrical job. What Schneider Charge changes is the shopping experience, by folding the decision into a single purchase instead of two.
Who this affects and what to do now
If you're shopping for a Level 2 charger and have a 100-amp or borderline 200-amp panel, Schneider Charge is worth adding to your list alongside the options in our roundup of home chargers worth considering, which predates this launch. Run the numbers with our panel capacity check first; load management helps when your panel is busy but not genuinely full, and no charger, managed or not, can create capacity that physically is not there.
If you're already comparing the Tesla Wall Connector, the relevant question is whether you need Tesla's native app integration and multi-unit power sharing, which SmartAmp does not replicate, or whether your priority is the lowest all-in hardware cost for a single charger with load management. On that second question, Schneider Charge's bundled price currently undercuts buying a Wall Connector plus a Remote Meter. Tesla raised U.S. Wall Connector pricing in 2026 (the standard unit was $535 at our September publication and is reported at $585 in mid-September), so check Tesla's shop for today's figure.
If you don't have a tight panel, none of this matters much. A managed charger has no real downside for a home with genuine electrical headroom, but it also has no upside over an unmanaged charger at a lower price.
Caveats
This is a brand-new product with no independent long-term reliability track record yet; the reporting above is based on Schneider's own launch materials and initial trade coverage, not months of ownership reviews. It is hardwired only today, so anyone who wants a plug-in charger will need to wait for the version Schneider has said is coming in early 2027, or choose a different brand now. Installation still requires a licensed electrician, both for the circuit and to wire in the current sensors, so this is not a lower-skill DIY project than a standard charger install. And regardless of which charger you choose, the federal 30C tax credit that used to help offset installation costs ended June 30, 2026; check whether your state or utility runs its own rebate before you buy, since that money did not disappear along with the federal credit.
Last factually verified: October 19, 2026. The $695 price, 11.5 kW / 48 amp rating, NACS and J1772 versions, 25-foot cable, hardwired-only status, three-year warranty, -30°C to 50°C operating range, UL 3141 certification, SmartAmp operation without Wi-Fi, and the $2,000 to $6,500 panel upgrade figure were re-checked against EnergySage's Schneider Charge review and trade coverage of Schneider's August 25, 2026 launch (Design News, Charged EVs, EE Power, The EV Report, as indexed by search). The early-2027 plug-in version is reported consistently across that coverage. Tesla's Remote Meter price ($210, Gen 3 and Universal Wall Connector only) was checked against Not a Tesla App and Drive Tesla Canada reporting, and the $585 Wall Connector price against Tesla North's September 17, 2026 report. Schneider's own site, Business Wire release, and Tesla's shop blocked automated reading, so these are secondary confirmations of primary announcements, not direct page loads. We could not confirm the ENERGY STAR certification mentioned in our earlier version and have removed it. The June 30, 2026 end of the federal 30C credit was checked against the IRS Form 8911 instructions. Pricing, warranty terms, and availability can change; confirm current details with Schneider Electric before buying. We do not have a referral arrangement with Schneider Electric, Tesla, or any charger manufacturer; this reflects independent judgment.
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