Do you need
EVITP certification?

The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP)is a private certification — not a government license. It doesn't replace your electrician license; it's an add-on credential specific to EV charging equipment.

To take it, you need to already be a state-licensed or state-certified electrician (or, in a state that doesn't license electricians, documented proof of at least 8,000 hours of hands-on electrical construction experience). The course covers charging station fundamentals, National Electric Code requirements for EV equipment, and jobsite safety, and ends in a proctored exam.

This is the one real, binding state law on this — California Public Utilities Code § 740.20, from Assembly Bill 841 (2020). It does not cover every EV charger install in California. It applies specifically to charging infrastructure funded or authorized, in whole or in part, by the CPUC, the California Energy Commission, or the California Air Resources Board.

There is no second state with an EVITP law on the books that we could verify. New York, Texas, and Washington all require a standard licensed electrician for EV charger work — same as every other electrical job — with no EVITP-specific mandate.

What does exist outside California: individual utility rebate programsthat require EVITP certification as a condition of participating in their incentive program, independent of any state law. Connecticut's Eversource EV charger program is a confirmed example — it requires EVITP certification specifically for DC Fast Charger installations (Level 2 chargers under that program only require standard state licensing and insurance).

We were not able to confirm or rule out similar requirements in every utility program nationally — this is a program-by-program patchwork, not a tracked national list. If you're bidding utility-rebate-funded EV charger work anywhere, check that specific program's contractor requirements before you assume EVITP either is or isn't needed.

If you do or plan to do EV charger work in California on anything tied to state funding, or you're bidding utility-rebate EV charger work anywhere, the math is simple: $275 and 20 hours against getting locked out of a bid entirely. Get certified before you need it, not after you lose a job over it.

If your work is entirely private, non-utility-rebate EV charger installs, or you're outside California, there is currently no confirmed legal or program requirement forcing the issue — though EV charger installation demand is growing broadly, and EVITP is the one credential that's shown up as a requirement more than once. Treat it as a resume differentiator, not an urgent mandate, unless you have a specific program in front of you that requires it.