A service level agreement for a charging project is a set of definitions before it is a set of numbers: what counts as available, how uptime is measured and over what window, what response and restore promises apply, what is excluded, how performance is reported, and what follows a miss. Every number in it is the contract’s own. The one fixed figure in the field is programme-set — U.S. corridor ports funded under NEVI must average above 97% uptime — and no manufacturer’s hardware warranty is an SLA, whatever a brochure implies.
Key Takeaways
- An SLA is definitions first: availability, measurement, response and restore clocks, exclusions, reporting, remedies.
- Every figure is the contract’s own; the only programme-fixed one is NEVI’s above-97% uptime for funded U.S. corridor ports.
- The party running the monitoring-and-repair chain signs the number — never the hardware warranty behind it.
- EVDANCE offers no SLA, response time or uptime record; its commitment is the 3-year hardware warranty on its written terms.
The Clauses, Precise and Vague
| Clause | What a precise version specifies | The vague version’s failure |
|---|---|---|
| Availability definition | What “working” means — powered, reachable on the platform, able to start and complete a session — and whether it is judged per port or per site | A charger online but unable to charge still counts as “up”, and both sides know it |
| Measurement and window | The data source, the averaging period, and how a single long outage is treated inside it | One long outage averaged away — or one bad week failing an otherwise sound year |
| Response and restore | Two separate clocks — time to respond, time to restore service — each stated as the contract’s own figure | “Prompt attention”: unmeasurable, and therefore unenforceable at the first dispute |
| Exclusions | Events outside the number — upstream grid outages, vandalism, host actions — and who decides, from what evidence | Every outage becomes an argument about whose it was, fought from memory |
| Reporting | Format, frequency and producer — normally the platform record, shared by both sides | Figures assembled by hand before each review meeting, disputed line by line |
| Remedies | What a miss triggers — a cure period, service credits or another stated consequence — and the escalation path | A missed target with no agreed consequence: the SLA as decoration |
Where the Numbers Come From
An SLA number is honest only when the chain behind it exists: monitoring that sees the fault, spares that reach the site, and field cover that restores the port — the service operation our commercial maintenance checklist describes at visit level. That is why the SLA normally attaches to a maintenance or operating contract rather than standing alone, and why the party who runs that chain — the operator or service provider — is the party who can sign the number. Some numbers arrive already set: a project built under a funding programme inherits the programme’s duty, as NEVI-funded corridor contracts inherit the above-97% uptime rule in 23 CFR Part 680. Everything else is negotiated from the site’s duty — priced before signing, not discovered after.
The Manufacturer’s Boundary
Hardware sits one step behind the SLA. A networked station such as the EV-AC03201T (two Type 2 connectors, up to 43 kW shared, OCPP 1.6J, RFID, IP54) reports its status to the operator’s platform, which is where uptime data comes from — as our explainer on OCPP for charge point operators sets out. The manufacturer’s own commitment is its warranty: EVDANCE’s standard warranty runs 3 years on its written terms, answering defects in the product. EVDANCE offers no service level agreement, publishes no uptime record and promises no response time — and a project SLA should never be drafted as if it did. Project teams scoping the service chain behind a site can reach us via the commercial charging team or contact us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What uptime figure should our SLA require?
There is no market norm to copy. A funded corridor project inherits its programme’s figure — above 97% under NEVI. Other projects set their own, from the site’s duty and the cost of the chain that must hold it. A number chosen before that chain is priced is a penalty accepted in advance.
Is the manufacturer’s warranty a service level agreement?
No. The warranty answers defects in the product on its written terms — 3 years for EVDANCE hardware. It sets no response clock, no restore time and no uptime figure. Those live only in a service contract, with the party who operates the repair chain.
What happens when the target is missed?
Whatever the remedies clause says — a cure period, credits, escalation — which is why it is negotiated before signing rather than after the first miss. If the draft is silent on remedies, the negotiation is not finished.
Related Reading
- Commercial EV Charger Maintenance Checklist
- OCPP Explained: What Charge Point Operators Need From EV Charger Hardware
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
- EV Charger Warranty and After-Sales Terms: A Distributor’s Checklist
