Abstract One of the attractive solutions to the information loss problem is that the event horizon does not appear in the process of gravitational collapse and subsequent evaporation once the spacetime singularity is regularized by some mechanism, as pointed out by Hayward and Frolov. In this paper, we examine whether this Hayward–Frolov scenario holds for the evaporation of a charged black hole. The process of collapse and evaporation is modeled with the charged Vaidya spacetime and two kinds of regularization of the central singularity are considered. Analyzing the spacetime structure of the evaporating black hole, we find that the appropriately regularized evaporating Reissner–Nordström “black hole” has no event and Cauchy horizons, indicating the possibility that the Hayward–Frolov scenario may have sufficient generality as the solution to the information loss problem. In addition, the properties of the nonsingular evaporating Reissner–Nordström black hole are examined in detail.