Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) can help deliver the EU 2050 policy vision of cities free of conventionally fuelled vehicles and a power sector absent of carbon, as they have no tailpipe emissions and create far less noise compared with conventional vehicles. How and when PEVs are recharged can dramatically affect the electric grid. As a result, regulation of the power sector could have a significant influence on the rate of PEV roll out. This policy brief explores how regulation can be developed to minimise negative grid impacts, maximise grid benefits, and shrink the total ownership gap between PEVs and internal combustion engine vehicles. The authors set out power sector policies and regulation that can facilitate or promote PEV roll out with a focus on the role and design of time-varying electricity pricing, adaptation of EU electricity market rules to enable demand response, and the character of regulation that will likely be needed to encourage distribution system operators (DSOs) to be effective contributing partners in advancing progress with the roll-out of PEVs.