Solar + EV Charging: How to Run Your Car on Sunshine

Charging your EV from the sun is the cheapest driving there is — and in 2026 there are two ways to do it. If you have rooftop solar, a solar-aware charger can top up your car using only your surplus export. And even if you don't have panels, the new Solar Sharer free midday window lets you charge on cheap daytime solar from the grid. This is what solar EV charging looks like today, and how to set it up.

👉 See our EV charger installation service →

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Two Ways To Run Your Car On Sunshine

Solar EV charging isn't one thing — it's two, depending on whether you own panels:

• With rooftop solar: a solar-aware charger diverts your surplus generation into the car instead of exporting it for a low feed-in tariff.
• Without panels: the new Solar Sharer offer gives you a free midday window to charge on the grid's abundant daytime solar.

Both put cheap (or free) sunshine into your battery. Here's how each works.

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With Solar: Charge From Your Own Surplus

If you have panels, the smart move is to charge your EV from the solar you'd otherwise export. A solar-aware charger uses a CT clamp on your meter to watch your export in real time and channel the surplus into your car. The Zappi is the best-known example, with three modes: Fast (grid), Eco (solar plus a grid top-up) and Eco+ (solar only). A Fronius Wattpilot does the same natively if you run a Fronius inverter.

The payoff: instead of exporting excess solar for a few cents, you store it in your car as free kilometres. If you're planning panels or a system upgrade to suit EV charging, see our solar installation service and our guide on making your home solar and battery-ready.

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Without Panels: The Solar Sharer Free Midday Window

No solar? You can still charge on daytime solar. From 1 July 2026, the Australian Government's Solar Sharer offer requires major retailers in NSW to make available a plan with a free three-hour midday window — in NSW that's 11am to 2pm, with up to 24 kWh of free electricity per day. It's designed to soak up the abundant solar flooding the grid at midday, and you don't need your own panels to use it.

The catches worth knowing:

• You need a smart meter and you must opt in with your retailer — it isn't automatic.
• Rates outside the free window are typically a little higher, so the win comes from shifting flexible load into the window.
• The 24 kWh daily cap is generous — a 7kW charger draws about 21 kWh over the three hours, sitting just under it. A 22kW three-phase charger would blow past the cap, so 7kW is the sweet spot for maximising free charging.

Shifting big loads to the middle of the day is exactly the strategy in our guide to moving household load to cheaper windows.

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Making It Work: Charger + Scheduling

Whichever path you take, the key is a charger that can be told when (or how) to charge. For solar homes, that's the diversion modes on a Zappi or Wattpilot. For the Solar Sharer window, any smart charger with scheduling can be set to only charge between 11am and 2pm. If nobody's home midday, a timer handles it automatically — the car charges on free power while you're out.

A 7kW single-phase charger is ideal for both: fast enough to make good use of a midday window, without needing a three-phase upgrade. See 7kW vs 22kW and how long charging takes for the numbers.

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Which Setup Is Right for You?

• You have solar: a Zappi (or Wattpilot with Fronius) to charge from surplus export.
• No solar, flexible schedule: a smart 7kW charger set to the Solar Sharer 11am–2pm window, on a smart meter and an opt-in plan.
• Best of both: solar plus a solar-aware charger, topping up from surplus by day and Solar Sharer when the sun's not enough.

Either way, charging outside those windows is cheapest on an off-peak meter — and our EV charging cost guide shows how it all adds up.

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How High Demand Electrical Helps

As a Level 2 ASP electrical contractor (Licence No. 397193C), we install solar-aware EV chargers, set up the scheduling to hit your free or surplus-solar window, fit smart meters, and handle any switchboard work — so you can actually run your car on sunshine.

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