A 60 kWh car charge is about thirteen days of December output from a south-facing 4 kWp roof in Loughton, on PVGIS figures, and less than four days of June output (our arithmetic). That one comparison explains most of what follows. More households across Epping Forest district are weighing it up: DVLA records about 4,676 plug-in vehicles kept by private owners there at the end of June 2026, up from 3,594 a year earlier.
This guide works through where the car charges, what the roof and a battery can each contribute, and the paperwork and VAT for each piece. For the roof itself, including shading from the forest and the conservation areas on the Hills, see our page on solar panels in Loughton.
What the district count does and does not say
The DVLA figure covers the whole of Epping Forest district, including Epping and Buckhurst Hill as well as Loughton. It counts vehicles at the registered keeper’s address, privately kept ones only here, and it is not a tally of home chargers or of homes with an EV. What it does show is pace: 1,082 more privately kept plug-in cars and vans across the district in twelve months, a rise of about 30% (our arithmetic).
First question: where is the car parked?
Loughton’s homes split almost evenly. At the 2021 Census, 30.1% of households in the built-up area lived in semis, 26.5% in terraces, 26.4% in flats and 16.9% in detached houses. A semi or detached house with a drive is the simple case for a charger. A terrace with on-street parking, or a flat with a bay in a shared car park, is not.
OZEV’s grants follow that split. Renters and people who own and live in flats can get 75% of the purchase and installation cost, up to £500 per socket, with private off-street or allocated parking. Households with on-street parking only can get up to £500 towards a chargepoint with an approved cross-pavement solution, subject to the council’s rules. Owner-occupiers of houses get no grant. Our guide to who qualifies for the EV chargepoint grant sets out each case. In Loughton, 17.5% of households rent socially and 15.9% privately, and for them the landlord decides first; flat owners need the freeholder.
What the roof can give the car
PVGIS 5.3, run for Loughton on 15 October 2026, gives a 4 kWp array facing due south about 486 kWh in June and about 142 kWh in December: roughly 16.2 kWh a day in midsummer and 4.6 in midwinter (our arithmetic), from a roof the trees do not reach. Ofgem’s typical household uses 2,500 kWh a year, about 6.8 kWh a day if spread evenly.
On an average June day, then, a roof like that might leave about 9 kWh beyond the house’s average use, roughly 15% of a 60 kWh charge (our arithmetic). In December there is nothing left over. Since 30 June 2022 every new home chargepoint sold in Great Britain has had to be smart, so it can follow a schedule or a solar surplus. On the forest-edge streets of the Hills, PVGIS models the terrain but not individual trees, so the survey measures your roof’s real shading before anyone promises a summer surplus.
Where a battery fits in
The Energy Saving Trust says a typical home battery might be 10 kWh. Emptied into a car, that adds a sixth of a 60 kWh charge and leaves the house nothing for the evening. The usual Loughton pattern is a division of labour: the car takes cheap overnight units through its smart charger, the battery covers the house from teatime to bedtime, and on summer days the panels’ surplus goes to whichever you set first. For scale, a full 60 kWh charge at Ofgem’s October to December 2026 cap unit rate of 26.32p costs about £15.79 (our arithmetic); off-peak EV tariffs price overnight units well below that. Our guide to what size home battery you need starts from evening use; for where a unit fits in a Loughton house or flat, see battery storage in Loughton.
The supply and the network
Before any of the kit is chosen, the survey looks at the cable coming into the house. A 7.4 kW charger pulls 32 A for hours at a time, against a main fuse that in most homes is rated 60 A, 80 A or 100 A. Load management, which measures the incoming supply and throttles the charger when the oven and shower are on, usually means the fuse can stay as it is. Where it cannot, UK Power Networks says it can raise a 30 A or 60 A fuse to 80 or 100 A. Some older Loughton terraces may share a looped supply with next door; UKPN says that has to be re-planned with both households and may carry a charge. Our guide to whether your fuse will take a 7 kW charger goes further.
Loughton’s town centre is in UK Power Networks’ London Power Networks licence area, but the Eastern Power Networks boundary is about 1.2 km away, so parts of IG10 may sit on the Eastern licence; UKPN’s postcode area checker confirms yours. Either way, the installer notifies UK Power Networks of the charger. For panels or a battery, generation up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW) is notified under G98, and anything larger needs a G99 approval before work starts.
VAT and the order of work
Residential solar panels and batteries are zero-rated until 31 March 2027, reverting to 5% from 1 April 2027; a home chargepoint installation is standard-rated at 20%. On a combined quote, check that the charger carries its own VAT line. The Energy Saving Trust says fitting storage at the same time as panels costs less than a separate visit later, so if all three are likely in an IG10 home, one survey that checks the fuse, the supply, the roof and the parking first is the sensible start.
One point applies whatever is fitted: a standard grid-tied battery shuts down in a power cut, even when full, so it runs neither house nor charger in an outage unless backup is designed in. For neighbouring towns, see our solar panels in Essex hub.
Sources: Department for Transport and DVLA, VEH0142 licensed plug-in vehicles by local authority, Epping Forest, 2025 Q2 and 2026 Q2 (published 23 September 2026); PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission JRC), PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023, 4 kWp, 35°, due south, 14% losses, run 15 October 2026; Ofgem, Typical Domestic Consumption Values (from 1 July 2026) and energy price cap October to December 2026; ONS, Towns and cities, characteristics of built-up areas, Census 2021 (tables 5c and 6c); OZEV, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026); Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021; Energy Saving Trust, Battery storage (updated 19 August 2026); UK Power Networks, fuse upgrade guidance, Areas we cover (area checker) and licence boundaries open dataset (17 December 2024); NESO, GIS boundaries for GB DNO licence areas (3 May 2024); Energy Networks Association, EREC G98 Issue 2 (10 March 2025); HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6.