The certification list is the product
Read the listings on this charger and then read them on anything else in this registry. Leviton publishes UL 2594, UL 2231-1, UL 2231-2, UL 2251, UL 62, UL 991, UL 1998 and UL 840, plus CSA C22.2 #280, conformance with NFPA 70 Article 625, OCPP 1.6 compliance and an ENERGY STAR certification.
Most chargers cite UL 2594 and stop. That is the core EVSE standard and it is the one that matters most, so a unit listing only that is not deficient. But the extra entries here are not padding either: UL 2231 covers personnel protection systems, UL 2251 covers the connectors themselves, UL 991 and UL 1998 concern safety-related control and software in programmable components. A brand that has taken a charger through all of them has spent real money on certification, and that spend is part of what you are paying for.
Whether it makes the charger meaningfully safer in your garage than a solidly UL 2594-listed rival is not something we can measure and we are not going to claim it. What we will say is that it is exactly the sort of thing an electrician recognizes and an inspector is untroubled by. Our guide on whether cheap chargers are safe covers what these listings do and do not certify, and our spec sheet guide covers how to read a claim like this rather than being impressed by its length.
ENERGY STAR, and why it can be worth more than it looks
The direct saving is small and permanent. ENERGY STAR reports that certified chargers use roughly 40% less energy in standby than non-certified units, and a home charger spends most of its life idle, so that difference runs continuously for a decade. It will not transform your bill.
The indirect value is larger and lumpier. A number of utility rebate programs name ENERGY STAR certification as an eligibility condition, which can make the listing worth considerably more than the standby energy it represents — potentially enough to close a good part of the gap between this and a value charger. Check your own utility’s program before you decide the premium is unjustified; our rebates and credits guide covers what to look for, and our ENERGY STAR roundup lists which of our picks carry it.
The install, and the plug that makes it easy
The EV40P arrives with a pre-attached three-foot input cable ending in a NEMA 14-50 plug, plus mounting hardware. If you already have a correctly-installed 14-50 receptacle, this is a mount-and-plug job rather than an electrical one.
Forty amps is not an arbitrary ceiling. A NEMA 14-50 receptacle lives on a 50-amp circuit, and NEC Article 625 treats EV charging as a continuous load, so the usable continuous draw is 80% of the circuit — 40 amps. Any charger that wants more has to be hardwired to a 60-amp circuit. That is the real dividing line in home charging, and our hardwired versus plug-in comparison takes it apart properly. The short version: plug-in units move house with you and can be swapped in an afternoon; hardwired units cannot, and are the only way to 48 amps.
For an outdoor install, note the detail Leviton itself flags: the charger is rated NEMA 3R and its cable is specified from −30°C to 50°C, but the receptacle also has to be suitable — weatherproof, in a two-gang box, with a code-compliant cover. People miss this and mount a weather-rated charger over an indoor-grade outlet. Our outlet types guide covers the receptacle side.
The spec we would want and did not get
Leviton does not publish an adjustable-amperage range for this model, and that is the one omission we would genuinely like filled.
Adjustable current is the quiet hero spec of home charging. It is what lets a charger go onto a smaller circuit when the panel is tight, and be turned up later if the service is upgraded — and it is what makes a charger usable at an outlet whose circuit you cannot verify. The ChargePoint Home Flex publishes 16 to 50 amps; the ELEGRP 40A publishes five steps from 16 to 40. Leviton publishes 40 amps.
We record that as unpublished rather than as “fixed”, because those are different claims and only one of them is in evidence. But for buying purposes, treat it as a charger that wants a 50-amp circuit. If your panel cannot spare one today, read our panel capacity guide and our load management guidebefore assuming a service upgrade is the answer — and consider a charger that publishes a range.
The app, and the honest case for it
My Leviton handles the usual: scheduling, status, usage history, and optional RFID control for households that want a card to start a session. It is also, unusually, not a single-purpose app — if you already have Leviton switches, dimmers or a smart load center, the charger appears alongside them.
We are on record being skeptical of charger apps in general, and we stand by it: your car almost certainly schedules charging perfectly well already, and a second scheduler is a second thing to keep in sync and a common cause of a car that quietly did not charge. Our smart versus basic comparisonmakes that argument at length. The genuine exception is wall-side energy reporting, which tells you what charging actually drew rather than what the car estimated — our energy monitoring guide explains why those two numbers differ.
The Leviton-specific argument is ecosystem: one app for the charger and the rest of the house is worth something if the rest of your house is already Leviton, and worth nothing if it is not. Judge it on that basis rather than on the feature list.
Who should buy it — and who should skip it
Buy it if brand permanence and certification depth are things you actually value: you want a charger from a company that has been supplying American electrical wholesalers for a century, with a support line that will still answer in a decade, ENERGY STAR for the rebate, and a Wi-Fi app that fits alongside your existing Leviton devices. It is also a strong choice if your electrician recommends it, because that recommendation usually means they can get parts and support for it.
Skip it in three cases. If you are optimizing on price, the ELEGRP 40Agives you the same 40 amps, the same 25 feet of cable, an IP67 body and a published adjustable range for a fraction of the money. If you want more than 40 amps, this is the wrong category entirely — go hardwired and read our 48-amp roundup. And if adjustable current is important to you, whether for a tight panel or for travel, buy a charger that publishes a range: this one does not.