I'm presuming there is power where you want the internet connection (otherwise how will the car be charged)? If the power feed is on the same circuit as your TP-Link devices, could you take a feed from the power supply and put a 13-amp socket and TP-Link Wifi device in a locked cabinet within range of the charging unit?

In reply to a post by gostak:

Remote diagnostics, remote support issue resolution.
�Over the Air� software updates.
Energy usage reporting and associated features.
Access to new smart features as they become available in the Pod Point App.

1. Only necessary when there is an issue
2. And what if an update renders the vehicle inoperative, or worse, working, but unsafe?
3. Not necessary 24/7 : Perhaps helpful to send total data once a year
4. New features...for a battery...

Sorry, but I am completely taken with renewable energy and completely against the marketing of all things nowadays, as it's practically impossible to have any business transaction without the purchaser being asked to submit data on purchase, or during life of product. Everything is a feature, and almost all features are total [censored].

If people stopped giving their data en-mass, companies might get the hint.

There is little need for all that data awareness, unless they're still in a period of testing, which should be clearly stated in the contract as something you HAVE to carry out, or face some form of loss of support. Either way, I wouldn't sign it.

The TP-link device does not transmit wifi (perhaps too far from teh hosue), but does give a LAN signal

A bespoke lockable cabinet containing charging unit plus mains connection and TP-Link with an additional small door over the charging socket (too small to allow any other access to the innards of the cabinet)?

FYI, From the 1st July, an EV charging unit has to be "smart" to be eligible for the government installation grant (which typically pays for the majority of its cost).

This typically means a connection to your home internet.

It is to facilitate the smart grid of the future where rather than firing up an extra power station when there is a spike in demand, non-critical consumption can be briefly turned off instead...

In reply to a post by SJHambly:

FYI, From the 1st July, an EV charging unit has to be "smart" to be eligible for the government installation grant

Now that is big brother.

In reply to a post by longedge:

..... the huge amount of data being fed to numerous companies by a robot vacuum cleaner.

It is a good job robot lawm mowers don't do that!

In reply to a post by gostak:

I would like to know if it is possible to password protect the LAN connection

"MAC filter" facility on your router will probably be sufficient unless you have a lot of guests coming and going who want to connect.

Can the charger use a wired ethernet connection or does it only support Wifi?

Can the charger use a fixed IP address? If so you could connect it to a second router next to and downstream of your main router. This second router could have an obscure 10.x.x.x network IP address and DHCP disabled. That would make if difficult for anyone else to use the connection as they would need to know the router's address.