Where EV charger installation work really comes from

Every electrician who did the EV course was told the work would come. Most of them got a badge, a listing on a manufacturer map, and a very quiet phone. The work is real and it is growing, but almost none of it arrives the way the training company implied it would.

Here is where EV charger installations actually come from, in the order that pays.

1. The customers you have already worked for

The cheapest charger lead in the country is the customer whose kitchen you rewired two years ago. They already trust you, they already have your number somewhere, and roughly one household in four is looking at an electric car right now.

Go back through two years of invoices, pull out anybody with a driveway, and send one plain message. Not a newsletter. Something like: you are thinking about an electric car at some point, here is what a charger costs to fit at your place and what would need doing first, no rush, keep it on file. That message costs nothing and it converts better than any advert you will ever run.

2. The installer networks, with your eyes open

Subcontracting for a national installer gets you volume fast. It also sets your price for you, takes the customer relationship away, and can dry up overnight when they change their rates.

Use it to fill gaps, not to build a business. If more than half your charger work comes from one network, you do not have a customer base, you have a shift pattern that somebody else writes.

3. Local search, which is where the good jobs are

People buying a car do the same thing everybody does. They search EV charger installer plus their town, and they ring somebody in the top few results with reviews that mention chargers.

Two things move that needle. Put a proper page on your website about EV charger installation in your area, with the brands you fit, what a typical install involves, what it costs and photographs of your own work rather than manufacturer stock images. Then get reviews that say the word charger in them, by asking for the review the day after you fit one while they are still pleased.

4. The trades who are standing next to the decision

Somebody is fitting a new kitchen, laying a driveway or building an extension for a household that is about to buy an electric car. Driveway contractors are the best of the lot, because a charger cable run is far easier before the block paving goes down and they know it.

Find three or four locally, meet them, and make the arrangement simple. You give them your card to hand over, you turn up when they ask, and you never tread on their toes with the customer. That relationship is worth more than any lead site, and it costs you a coffee.

What to charge

Quote the installation, not the box. Customers can look the charger up online, so the number they compare is the fitting, and that is where the difference between a tidy job and a botched one shows.

Always survey before you quote. The two things that ruin an EV job are an earthing arrangement you did not check and a cable route you guessed at from a photograph on the phone. Ten minutes on site protects the whole price.

Do not let it be the only thing you sell

Chargers are a door, not a destination. You are stood in a house looking at a board that is probably due an upgrade, a garden with no outside sockets, a garage with a light hanging off a nail and an EICR that expired a while back.

Mention one thing before you leave. Just one, the one that matters most, with a price. That single habit turns a £700 charger job into a £1,400 day more often than you would think, and it costs you nothing but the sentence.

If you want the phone to ring for this work rather than chasing it, local search is the piece to fix first.