SASO Requirements for EV Chargers in Saudi Arabia

Electric vehicle charging in the Kingdom is governed by a Saudi-modified version of an international standard, and the modifications are the part that matters. A charger that is entirely legal in Europe or East Asia can be non-compliant here, and the difference is not obvious from a product datasheet. In practice most buyers discover it at customs, or when a facility manager asks for documentation that was never going to exist.

The Standard That Actually Applies

The governing document for conductive charging systems is the Saudi amendment SASO IEC 61851-1:2018/AMD1:2022, which adopts the international standard IEC 61851-1 and then varies it to take account of conditions in the Kingdom. Reading the IEC standard alone is not enough, because it is precisely the amendment that removes options the international text permits. Confirm the current revision with SASO or your certification body before you specify against it.

This is a general pattern with SASO adoptions and it is worth internalising before specifying anything. The base standard is international and familiar; the Saudi layer on top narrows it. Suppliers quoting compliance with IEC 61851-1 are not making a false claim, but they are also not answering the question, and the distinction is one a purchaser has to enforce.

Ambient conditions are part of the reason for the narrowing. Equipment specified against a temperate-climate assumption behaves differently in a car park in Dammam in August, and the derating that follows is a real design constraint rather than a paperwork exercise.

The Two Restrictions That Catch People Out

IEC 61851-1 defines four charging modes. Mode 1 is a plain connection to a standard socket with no dedicated protection or communication. Mode 2 adds an in-cable control and protection device, which is the familiar portable cable that comes in the boot of the car. Mode 3 is a fixed installed AC charging station with control pilot communication, and Mode 4 is DC charging with an off-board charger.

The Saudi amendment is blunt about both. Mode 1 supply equipment is not permitted in the Kingdom and is not allowed to be imported — not restricted to certain applications, but excluded outright. Mode 2 is prohibited in public areas, and allowed in private areas only under stated conditions: plugs and socket-outlets to SASO IEC 60309, earth leakage protection on the socket-outlet, and a rating of 16 A at 230 V AC single-phase.

The practical consequence for anyone providing charging to the public is that the installation has to be Mode 3 or Mode 4: a fixed station with proper control pilot communication, protective earthing and dedicated circuit protection. Budgeting on the assumption that sockets and cables will do is the single most common way an EV charging project arrives late and over cost.

DC Fast Charging Brings Its Own Standards

Once a project moves to DC fast charging, the applicable set widens. SASO GSO IEC 61851-23 covers DC electric vehicle charging stations themselves, and SASO IEC 61851-24 covers the digital communication between the DC station and the vehicle that controls the charging process.

Electromagnetic compatibility is handled separately again, and in two parts that are easy to confuse. SASO IEC 61851-21-1 addresses the EMC requirements for the vehicle's on-board charger, while SASO IEC 61851-21-2 covers EMC for off-board charging systems. For a site owner the second is the relevant one, and it is a routine gap in documentation packages assembled by suppliers who mostly sell into other markets.

None of this is exotic for a manufacturer that already sells into regulated markets. The problem is almost never that compliant equipment does not exist; it is that the specific certificates covering the specific model being shipped were never requested at the point of order, and obtaining them retrospectively is slow.

The Certificate of Conformity Is Not Optional

Every EV charger placed on the Saudi market requires a SASO Certificate of Conformity. This is a shipment-level document tied to the product and the consignment, and without it a container does not clear customs. It is not satisfied by a CE mark, a manufacturer declaration or a test report from an unrecognised laboratory.

The commercial risk here sits with whoever bought the equipment, not with whoever made it. A supplier quoting an attractive unit price and leaving conformity as the buyer's problem has transferred a real cost and a real schedule risk without it ever appearing on the quotation. The correct time to ask which certificates will accompany the shipment is before the order is placed, and the correct answer names the standards and the certifying body.

Grid connection is a separate approval from product conformity, and it is worth tracking separately. A charger that is fully certified can still be waiting on the utility, and on projects of any size that permission tends to sit on the critical path rather than beside it.

What This Means Before You Buy

For any charging provision open to the public, start from Mode 3 for AC and Mode 4 for DC, and treat anything cheaper as out of scope rather than as a saving to be evaluated. That single decision removes most of the compliance risk from a project before the electrical design begins.

Ask each shortlisted supplier to name the certificates that will accompany the shipment, for the exact model being quoted, and to state which apply to off-board EMC. A supplier who can answer that in writing without hesitation is a supplier who has shipped here before, and that is worth more than a small difference in unit price.

Finally, specify for the site rather than for the catalogue. Ambient temperature, direct sun on the enclosure, dust ingress, cable management in a busy car park and the physical protection of the unit against vehicle impact all determine whether the installation still works in year three. Compliance gets the equipment into the country; the site conditions decide whether it survives.