EV-drivers in Belgium, what charge passes do you use and why? What are the going rates for the charge pass?
For the non- or future-EV drivers: you’ll need a charge pass to access public charging infrastructure. This is most often linked to your (bank) account and/or is charged on a monthly basis. Most passes work on most (not all) chargers.
Pricing, however, is very unclear. Note that charge prices are never displayed at the charging station. There is often a base rate per kWh, but certain providers will have deals with certain charge pass companies and will offer a lower rate. Others will charge an additional cost, either per kWh, per minute or both. This can be a percentage, or a fixed rate. Sometimes they add a “starting fee”, and some have a subscription fee, monthly or yearly. To top it off, prices may vary per charging point so not just by provider.
So yeah, finding the best and cheapest charge pass can get pretty complex pretty fast. It’s often advantageous to have multiple passes and use them alternately, depending on your location. A good starting point to compare seems to be the website [https://www.chargeprice.app/](https://www.chargeprice.app/) . They compare different charge pass rates per charging location, but they’re not 100% accurate either.
I myself am using:
* DATS24 pass: well-known, by Colruyt
* Works nearly everywhere
* Subscription: €1 yearly
* No additional fees on standard provider rates
* Charging at DATS24 stations @ fixed rate of €0,35/kWh (as of Monday, used to be €0,25)
* Freshmile: French company, but delivers to Belgium
* Should work on all of the big ones (Allego, BlueCorner, Ionity, …)
* Subscription: You have to buy the pass for €5
* Fixed rate of €0,19/kWh + €0,01/minute, nearly everywhere
* They work by using a kind of pre-paid account. Strangely, they haven’t charged me anything yet except for the charge pass itself
Any other recommendations or tips?
11 comments
My company gives us a Mobility+ charge card and I have a personal Chargepoint pass for charging outside of Belgium or in emergencies when the Mobility+ card fails.
I also know that a lot of colleagues have a Plugsurfing card.
I can’t really comment on all prices, as it’s paid by my employer, but here is my take.
Plugsurfing: good spread of charging points in Europe. Works with most public well known charging point brands. Downside was that the badges sometimes get blocked for no apparent reason and customer support sucks. I had to call the VAB once, because I ran out of juice because if it. Was also the biggest reason my employer switched to eflux.
Eflux: similar spread to plugsurfing. Great customer support. They sent me a badge over the holiday period, which got lost in the mail somewhere. Went to their online helpdesk chat and was sent a new one within 5 minutes.
Tesla supercharger: not sure if non-Tesla cars can use it at the same price as Tesla drivers, but I think it’s the cheapest option for me. I had to use these when my plugsurfing badge was blocked. Charged 45kwh for 11.25 euro (0.25euro/kwh)
Fastned: I recommend you install their app regardless of which provider you choose. You can just link it up with your bank account and can use their charging points, should you run into issues with your badge. The cost will be taken directly from your account, no service fees or anything like that. Downside is that there are currently only a handfull of charging stations in Belgium (Dutch company), but they are expanding. Charging was also more expensive, as I charged 39kwh for 27 euro (0.69euro/kwh). Upside is that they are freakishly fast. They went faster than the Tesla supercharger for me. Also supereasy to use, as you just plug your car in, open the app and it already knows you are there through GPS, so you just need to tap which station you are at and it starts charging.
I have only needed to charge once out of my home, I used the Smoov app.
We have Plugsurfing and shell recharge. You have to pay for the card they send you, but we don’t have a subscription. They cover a lot of charging points. Sometimes one is a bit cheaper than the other but the difference is small.
We also have an account with Fastned because we went on a holiday to the Netherlands last year. But you just need the app, no charging key needed. And I think the chargers also work with the plugsurfing key.
Chargemap is a good app to have to check photo’s of the charging points. And they also display the Lidl charging points. But don’t count on those when the shops are closed because most of them have a gate.
I use NewMotion (Shell Recharge). They have are going to raise their prices to €0.41/kWh from February. (€0.71/kWh for fast charging)
The card itself is free, no subscription cost. Good enough for me, I only charge on public chargers maybe once a month.
If you use facebook, you’re welcome to ask these kind of questions on EV Belgium Community group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/EVBelgium/?ref=share
Plugsurfing, shell recharge, Maingau here.
But mostly charging at Superchargers for free and at home
Shell recharge and the BMW charging card. Both work well.
I’ve came across some info at around 2019 where they demonstrated that a lot of these charging locations have the management interface open towards the internet. Using default credentials.
If u would then log in to one, and looked at the logs, u could just see the charging card number been logged in plain text.
As I understand it, there is near 0 security on these cards. So u could just write this number to a blank card and then use that person’s account.
There were also options to start/stop charging from the management interface. So u could just stop the charging for the car that was already connected. Or start a new session without even paying. Lots of options for bad people to misuse.
So I’m not really a fan of public charging stations. Even if they probably have changed the default credentials since then.
Download the NewMotion apps from Shell and you can see the charging point and their going rate, their status, their power rating, …
I have a Shell Recharge card from work for my PHEV and that seems to work everywhere I have tried.
I haven’t tried it abroad, but seeing as I supposedly (haven’t tried) can’t fuel up abroad with it, I don’t expect to be able to charge abroad with it either.