National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN IEC 61851‑23:2026+A11:2026. It is derived from IEC 61851-23:2023. It supersedes BS EN 61851‑23:2014, which will be withdrawn on 31 October 2029.

The start and finish of text introduced or altered by amendment A11 is indicated in the text by tags. Tags indicating changes to text carry the number of the CENELEC amendment. For example, text altered by CENELEC amendment A11 is indicated by .

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee PEL/69, Electric vehicles.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 October 2026.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 3 August 2026. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

The text of document 69/907/FDIS, future edition 2 of IEC 61851‑23, prepared by TC 69 "Electrical power/energy transfer systems for electrically propelled road vehicles and industrial trucks" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as EN IEC 61851‑23:2026.

The following dates are fixed:

This document supersedes EN 61851‑23:2014 and all of its amendments and corrigenda (if any).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document is read in conjunction with EN IEC 61851‑1:2019.

This document has been prepared under a standardization request addressed to CENELEC by the European Commission. The Standing Committee of the EFTA States subsequently approves these requests for its Member States.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

Endorsement notice

The text of the International Standard IEC 61851‑23:2023 was approved by CENELEC as a European Standard without any modification.

In the official version, for Bibliography, the following notes have to be added for the standard indicated:

European foreword to Amendment A11

This document (EN IEC 61851‑23:2026/A11:2026) has been prepared by Technical Committee CLC/TC 69X “Electrical systems for electric road vehicles”.

The following dates are fixed:

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

FOREWORD

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as "IEC Publication(s)"). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all interested IEC National Committees.
IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any services carried out by independent certification bodies.
All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC Publications.
Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

IEC 61851‑23 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 69: Electric power/energy transfer systems for electrically propelled road vehicles and industrial trucks. It is an International Standard.

This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition published in 2014. This edition constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous edition:

the structure has been rearranged according to IEC 61851‑1:2017;
electrical safety requirements in Clause 8 and Clause 12 have been revised based on the requirements in IEC 62477‑1 and inspired by the hazard based safety approach of IEC 62368‑1;
test methods for checking conformity to the stated requirements have been mostly added; general provisions for compliance tests have been specified in Clause 102;
specific requirements and/or information for the following functions have been added: energy transfer with thermal management system (101.2), bi-directional power transfer control (Annex DD), multi- side B separated EV supply equipment (Annex FF), and communication and energy transfer process (Annex GG);
Annex AA (system A), Annex BB (system B) and Annex CC (system C) have been updated including additions in conjunction with b) and c). This document has been limited to be applicable to system A, system B and system C;
the former Annex DD and Annex EE have been deleted. A new Annex EE, with the requirements for the artificial test load, has been added.
a new informative annex for the touch current and the touch impulse current (Annex HH) has been added.

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in the above table.

The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.

This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.

This document is to be read in conjunction with IEC 61851‑1:2017.

The clauses of particular requirements in this document supplement or modify the corresponding clauses in IEC 61851‑1:2017. Where the text of subsequent clauses indicates an "addition" to or a "replacement" of the relevant requirement, test specification or explanation of IEC 61851‑1:2017, these changes are made to the relevant text of IEC 61851‑1:2017, which then becomes part of this document. Where no change is necessary, the words "This clause of IEC 61851‑1:2017 is applicable" are used. The new clauses which are not included in IEC 61851‑1:2017 have a clause number starting from 101, for example 3.101, 101.1, etc. The annexes of this document are numbered using double-alphabet, for example Annex AA, to avoid confusion with the annexes in IEC 61851‑1:2017.

In this document, the following print types are used:

test specifications: italic type.
notes: smaller roman type.

Figures in this document use L1 and N to represent the connection of the side A of the EV supply equipment to the AC supply network or DC supply network. This is only to simplify the figures and not to impose requirements.

A list of all parts in the IEC 61851 series, published under the general title Electric vehicle conductive charging system, can be found on the IEC website.

The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the specific document. At this date, the document will be

reconfirmed,
withdrawn, or
revised.

IMPORTANT — The "colour inside" logo on the cover page of this document indicates that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

1 Scope

This part of IEC 61851 applies to the EV supply equipment to provide energy transfer between the supply network and electric vehicles (EVs), with a rated maximum voltage at side A of up to 1 000 V AC or up to 1 500 V DC and a rated maximum voltage at side B up to 1 500 V DC.

This document specifies the EV supply equipment of system A, system B and system C as defined in Annex AA, Annex BB and Annex CC. Other systems are under consideration.

This document provides the requirements for bidirectional power transfer (BPT) EV supply equipment for system A, with a rated maximum voltage at side A up to 1 000 V AC or 1 500 V DC. The requirements for reverse power transfer (RPT) and BPT for system B and system C are under consideration and are not specified in this document.

Annex DD provides information about BPT.

This document does not cover all safety aspects related to maintenance.

Requirements for systems not providing simple separation or protective separation between side A and side B are under consideration.

The requirements for digital communication between EV supply equipment and the EV to control energy transfer are defined in IEC 61851‑24.

Requirements for energy transfer with an automated connection device are given in IEC 61851‑23‑11.

Specific requirements for EV supply equipment with multiple vehicle connectors are provided in Annex FF.

General information about energy transfer control, signalling and digital communication is provided in Annex GG.

General information on the touch current and touch impulse current is provided in Annex HH.

Requirements for EV supply equipment without current, voltage and/or power control are under consideration.

EV supply equipment in compliance with this document are not intended to provide energy transfer to a single EV with

multiple vehicle connectors of the same EV supply equipment, or
multiple EV supply equipment.

Requirements for such use case are under consideration.

NOTE Requirements for EVs mated to an EV supply equipment are specified in ISO 17409:2020. ISO 17409 will be revised to the ISO 5474 series2.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Electric supply equipment

3.2 Insulation

3.3 Functions

3.4 Vehicle

3.5 Cords, cables and connection means

3.6 Service and usage

3.7 General terms

4 General requirements

5 Classification

6 Charging modes and functions

6.2 Charging modes

6.3 Functions provided in Modes 2, 3 and 4

7 Communications

7.1 Digital communication between the EV supply equipment and the EV

8 Protection against electric shock

8.102 Basic protection

8.103 Fault protection

8.104 Enhanced protective provision

8.105 Requirements for separated EV supply equipment

9 Conductive electrical interface requirements

9.1 General

9.5 Functional description of the DC interface

9.7 Wiring of the neutral conductor

10 Requirements for adaptors

11 Cable assembly requirements

11.1 General

11.6 Strain relief

11.101 Cable breakaway

11.102 Surface temperature of the side B cable assembly

12 EV supply equipment constructional requirements and tests

12.1 General

12.2 Characteristics of mechanical switching devices

12.3 Clearances and creepage distances

12.4 IP degrees

12.5 Insulation resistance

12.6 Touch current

12.7 Dielectric withstand voltage

12.8 Temperature rise

12.9 Damp heat functional test

12.10 Minimum temperature functional test

12.11 Mechanical strength

13 Overload and short-circuit protection

13.1 General

13.2 Overload protection of the cable assembly

13.3 Short-circuit protection of the charging cable

14 Automatic reclosing of protective devices

15 Emergency switching or disconnect (optional)

16 Marking and instructions

16.1 Installation manual of EV charging stations

16.2 User manual for EV supply equipment

16.3 Marking of EV supply equipment

16.4 Marking of charging cable assemblies case B

101 Specific requirements for EV supply equipment

102 Test methods

102.1 Technical data

102.2 General test conditions

Bibliography