Schneider Electric launches a home EV charger that manages panel load

Schneider Electric launched Schneider Charge on August 25, 2026: an 11.5 kW (48 A) Level 2 residential EV charger, available now in the United States and Canada, that monitors the rest of the house in real time and throttles its own output to stay within the home's existing electrical capacity.

The load management, which Schneider brands SmartAmp, runs on current transformers included in the box rather than a separate monitoring device or gateway, and the company says it keeps adjusting even when Wi-Fi is unavailable. The design supports managed-load installations under UL 3141 where the local authority having jurisdiction accepts them, which is the code mechanism that lets an installer size a circuit around managed rather than worst-case load. The charger comes with a NACS (J3400) or J1772 connector, complies with OCPP 1.6 for future grid-service programs, and is hardwired only for now, with a plug-in version planned for early 2027. Installation support comes through a partnership with Qmerit.

The pitch is aimed less at the EV than at the electrical panel. Many homes were never provisioned for a 48 A continuous load, and Schneider says the resulting service and panel upgrades often cost $2,000 to $6,500 or more depending on the home. By fitting charging into measured headroom instead, the company is selling the charger as a way to skip that project entirely; the approach still depends on the panel having headroom to manage, so a home with none left is back to the electrician.