While you’re doing it all I’d recommend going to the 50A breaker especially if you’re getting a permit and inspected so you only have to do it once! You can always lower the charging rate with dip switch or most cars will let you lower charging rate too. Charging at 40A isn’t going to affect your batteries noticeably. However DC fast charging at 50KW will!

There is a rule that if NMD is above 1.5m I believe it doesn’t need to be mechanically protected.