Two states adopted the 2026 electrical code within weeks of each other last summer, and it changed how home EV chargers get installed. On July 28, 2026, the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation (TCLR, the board that oversees the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation) voted to adopt the 2026 National Electrical Code as the state's electrical standard, effective September 1. Minnesota's Board of Electricity, working through a review process that had been underway since late 2025, set its own 2026 code effective date of August 17. Both dates have now passed, and both states are enforcing the new code. Buried in the update is a new provision written specifically for EV charging equipment, and it is worth knowing about before you schedule an installer.
Texas and Minnesota were not the only ones. As of this update, seven states enforce the 2026 NEC: Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Seven more are actively moving toward it. Washington still has a formal rulemaking underway aimed at a late-2026 effective date. The full tracker, sourced from the National Fire Protection Association's own enforcement map, is below; check it for your state before assuming which edition applies to your project.
What actually changed
The National Electrical Code (NEC) is the model electrical code that most US states and cities adopt, in whole or with local amendments, as their legal standard for wiring work. It gets a new edition every three years; 2026 follows 2023. States do not adopt a new edition automatically or on the same schedule. Each one runs its own process, and the gap between an edition's publication and a given state making it law can run from about a year to five years or more.
The 2026 edition adds a new section to Article 625, the part of the code that governs EV charging equipment: Section 625.4, which did not exist in the 2023 NEC. It reads, in substance, that permanently installed electric vehicle power transfer system equipment must be installed by qualified persons. This is the change worth knowing about if you are planning a hardwired installation; the rest of Article 625's existing wiring, GFCI, and disconnect rules (covered in our hardwired versus plug-in guide) are not affected by this specific update.
Why "qualified person" is not the same as "licensed electrician"
Here is the detail that gets flattened in a lot of coverage of this change: the NEC defines a "qualified person" as someone with the skills, knowledge, and safety training to work safely with electrical equipment. That is a real, specific definition (it lives in NEC Article 100), but it is not the same thing as a state electrician's license. The National Electrical Code does not decide who is allowed to legally perform electrical work for pay or on their own home; that is set by each state's contractor-licensing and permitting law, separately from the NEC.
In practice, the two often overlap once a jurisdiction adopts this section. A local building department reviewing a permit application, or an inspector standing in your garage, is not going to independently vet a homeowner's electrical skill; the documentation they know how to check is a license. Still, the code itself only invokes the Article 100 "qualified person" concept: whether local law requires a licensed electrician, permits owner-performed work, or demands particular documentation depends on the adopting jurisdiction. Confirm with the authority having jurisdiction before relying on an owner-permit pathway.
The tracker below follows one thing only: which NEC edition each state currently enforces, since that determines whether Section 625.4 even applies where you live. It is not a state-by-state survey of electrician licensing law, which is a separate question set by each state's own contractor-licensing board and does not move on the same schedule as code adoption. Do not assume your state's licensing requirement from its NEC edition; check with your state's licensing board directly if that is the question you are trying to answer.
Who this actually affects
If you already planned to hire a licensed electrician for your home charger installation, which is standard practice and, per our own installation guide, the right call regardless of what the code requires, this change affects you not at all. The electrician you were going to hire is exactly the "qualified person" the code has in mind.
Where it matters is the narrower group of homeowners in a state that both allows owner-performed electrical permits on a primary residence and has not previously required a licensed installer specifically for EV charging equipment. That combination let some homeowners legally pull their own permit and hardwire a charger themselves. Once a state adopts the 2026 NEC, that path narrows or closes for permanently installed units, because the equipment now carries its own installer requirement layered on top of whatever the state's general owner-permit rules already allowed.
Plug-in chargers are a partial exception. Section 625.4 is written around "permanently installed" equipment, so a plug-in Level 2 charger that connects to a NEMA 14-50 outlet is not itself a permanent installation in the way a hardwired unit is. That said, the outlet and its 240-volt circuit are ordinary branch-circuit wiring, the same category of work as the hardwired connection, so wherever a state's owner-permit rules already let a homeowner do that wiring, they still do; Section 625.4 does not reach it. What changes is narrower than it first sounds: it is specifically about the charging equipment itself, which mainly matters for the hardwired case.
The 2026 NEC state-by-state tracker
The National Fire Protection Association publishes its own enforcement map, and it is the primary source for which edition each state currently enforces. The table below is built from that map as of its own stated snapshot date, August 3, 2026, with one update layered on top: Texas's adoption took effect September 1, 2026, after NFPA's snapshot, and is confirmed separately by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
States actively enforcing the 2026 NEC today, meaning Section 625.4 applies to a permanently installed home charger:
| State | Effective date |
|---|
| Colorado | August 1, 2026 |
| Maine | July 1, 2026 (with Maine amendments) |
| Massachusetts | April 24, 2026 (with Massachusetts amendments) |
| Minnesota | August 17, 2026 |
| North Dakota | July 1, 2026 |
| Texas | September 1, 2026 |
| Wyoming | July 1, 2026 |
States with a 2026 adoption process underway but no requirement in effect yet:
| State | Currently enforcing | 2026 timeline |
|---|
| Arkansas | 2020 NEC with Arkansas amendments | Underway, no effective date set |
| Iowa | 2023 NEC with Iowa amendments | Underway, no effective date set |
| Kentucky | 2023 NEC | Underway, no effective date set |
| Michigan | 2023 NEC (commercial); 2014 NEC (one- and two-family) | Underway, commercial effective date not yet set |
| Nebraska | 2023 NEC | Underway, no effective date set |
| Oregon | 2023 NEC with Oregon amendments | Underway, projected October 1, 2026 |
| Washington | 2023 NEC | Underway, projected December 31, 2026 (rulemaking not yet final) |
Every other state, plus Chicago and New York City, which each set their own local code independent of their state:
| Jurisdiction | Current NEC edition in effect |
|---|
| Alabama | 2020 (effective 7/1/2022) |
| Alaska | 2020 (effective 4/16/2020) |
| Arizona | Local adoption only, no statewide code |
| California | 2023 with California amendments (effective 1/1/2026) |
| Connecticut | 2020 with Connecticut amendments (effective 10/1/2022); moving toward 2023, not 2026 |
| Delaware | 2023 (effective 1/1/2026) |
| Florida | 2020 (effective 12/31/2023); moving toward 2023, not 2026 |
| Georgia | 2023 (effective 1/1/2025) |
| Hawaii | 2020 (effective 3/14/2023) |
| Idaho | 2023 with Idaho amendments (effective 7/1/2023); temporary rules permit 2017 with Idaho amendments |
| Illinois | 2008 (effective 7/1/2011), commercial occupancies outside local adopting jurisdictions |
| Indiana | 2008 commercial with Indiana amendments (effective 8/26/2009); 2017 one- and two-family with Indiana amendments (effective 12/26/2019); moving toward 2023, not 2026 |
| Kansas | 2008 (effective 2/4/2011), State Fire Marshal |
| Louisiana | 2020 (effective 1/1/2023) |
| Maryland | 2020 with Maryland amendments (effective 7/1/2025); moving toward 2023, not 2026 |
| Mississippi | Local incorporation by reference only, no statewide code |
| Missouri | Local incorporation by reference only, no statewide code |
| Montana | 2020 with Montana amendments (effective 6/10/2022); moving toward 2023, projected 9/2026 |
| Nevada | 2017 (effective 7/1/2018), Nevada State Public Works Division |
| New Hampshire | 2023 with New Hampshire amendments (effective 7/1/2025, six-month grace period for the prior edition) |
| New Jersey | 2020 with New Jersey amendments (effective 9/6/2022) |
| New Mexico | 2020 (effective 3/28/2023) |
| New York | 2023 (effective 12/31/2025) |
| North Carolina | 2020 with North Carolina amendments, other than one- and two-family (effective 11/1/2021) |
| Ohio | 2023 commercial (effective 3/1/2024); residential with Ohio amendments (effective 4/15/2024) |
| Oklahoma | 2023 (effective 9/14/2024) |
| Pennsylvania | 2020 (effective 1/1/2026) |
| Rhode Island | 2023 (effective 12/1/2025) |
| South Carolina | 2020 with South Carolina amendments (effective 1/1/2023); 2023 edition complete, effective 1/1/2027 |
| South Dakota | 2023 with South Dakota amendments (effective 11/12/2024) |
| Tennessee | 2017 with Tennessee amendments (effective 10/1/2018) |
| Utah | 2023 (effective 1/1/2025) |
| Vermont | 2020 (effective 1/1/2023); moving toward 2023, not 2026 |
| Virginia | 2020 (effective 1/18/2024); moving toward 2023, not 2026 |
| West Virginia | 2020 with West Virginia amendments (effective 8/1/2022) |
| Wisconsin | 2023 with Wisconsin amendments (effective 9/1/2026); moved from the 2017 edition, confirmed in effect by DSPS |
| Chicago | 2017 with Chicago amendments (effective 3/1/2018) |
| New York City | 2020 with New York City amendments (effective 12/21/2025) |
A few notes on reading this table. NFPA's own summary line states that 20 states enforce the 2023 edition, but its state-by-state table only lists 18; that discrepancy has not been resolved with NFPA, so this tracker cites the table rather than the summary count. Wisconsin is a second case, like Texas, where NFPA's August 3 snapshot predated a since-passed effective date; the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services confirms its 2023 edition took effect September 1, 2026, so that row above is updated independently of the snapshot. NEC adoption moves on each state's own schedule, so if your project timing is close to a listed date, confirm directly with your state's electrical licensing board or fire marshal rather than relying on this table alone.
What to do now
If you live in one of the seven states already enforcing the 2026 NEC, nothing about your plan should change if you were already hiring a licensed electrician, which our installation guide and permit guide both recommend regardless of code specifics. Ask your electrician which NEC edition your permit will be reviewed against; if your project spans an adoption date, get clarity on which rules apply to your specific permit rather than assuming.
If you were weighing a plug-in setup specifically to keep the option of doing the wiring yourself where your state allows it, that calculus has not changed; Section 625.4 is aimed at the permanently installed charging equipment, not the outlet and branch circuit that feed it. Our hardwired versus plug-in guide covers the tradeoffs that actually matter for that decision: portability, amperage ceiling, and the existing GFCI receptacle requirement on plug-in installs, none of which this update changes.
If your panel needs work before any of this is relevant, our panel capacity check walks through the load calculation your electrician will run.
The honest caveat
Code adoption is a slow-moving, state-by-state process, and timelines shift. Washington's effective date is not final until its rulemaking closes, and several other states in the tracker above have a 2026 process underway with no effective date set yet. Some states also amend sections of a model code before adopting it, so a given state's final language on Section 625.4 could differ from what is described here. The state-by-state tracker above is built from NFPA's own enforcement map as of its stated snapshot date, August 3, 2026, plus Texas's adoption, which the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation confirms took effect after that snapshot. This tracker covers NEC edition only, not electrician licensing law, and NEC adoption moves state by state throughout the year, so re-verify it before relying on it for a specific project or reusing the figures elsewhere. If you are working with an electrician on a project that will cross an adoption date, confirm directly with them which code edition and effective date your jurisdiction is enforcing rather than relying on a general timeline.
Last factually verified: September 11, 2026, against the National Fire Protection Association's NEC enforcement map (stated as-of date August 3, 2026), the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation's commission agenda for the July 28, 2026 vote and September 1, 2026 effective date (cross-checked against IEC Fort Worth Chapter reporting), the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry's Board of Electricity meeting records describing its NEC 2026 Adoption Review Committee process and the August 17, 2026 effective date, the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services' confirmation that its 2023 NEC with Wisconsin amendments took effect September 1, 2026, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries' Electrical Currents newsletter describing the pending CR-102/CR-103 rulemaking for 2026 NEC adoption, IAEI Magazine's published summary of the 2026 NEC's new Section 625.4 qualified-installer requirement for Article 625 (cross-checked against the NEC 2026 motions committee report), and the NEC's Article 100 definition of "qualified person" as summarized by Electrical Contractor magazine. evcharginghelp.com is editorially independent and receives no compensation from any company mentioned.