Charging an electric car: At many charging points you pay with a subscription

Created: 10/11/2022, 09:30 am

By: Marcus Efler

Whether at Aldi, Lidl or municipal charging stations: If you pull out the wrong card when paying for electricity, you have to expect significantly higher costs.

Anyone who switches from a combustion engine to an electric car not only has to get used to driving or planning longer tours.

Charging electricity on the go is also significantly different from taking fuel.

It takes longer, the network of stations is thinner.

Above all, the costs at charging stations are extremely opaque compared to gas stations: Large billboards announcing prices are in vain at most electricity stations.

After all, there will soon be an end to the compulsion to use a specific charging card or app to charge: From the middle of next year, new columns will have to accept common credit and debit cards.

However, this type of payment can, especially in times of rising electricity and charging costs (e.g. for Tesla superchargers) lead to unpleasant surprises on the bill (nevertheless, charging is still cheaper than filling up).

Charging an electric car: At many charging points you pay with a subscription

With some charging stations, such as Aldi, the original price is lower than the subscription price.

(Iconic image) © Aldi Süd

The clear recommendation is therefore to take out a subscription for charging.

With the associated charging card (these are the cheapest), the battery can then be charged with electricity throughout Europe at a fixed, previously specified price per kilowatt hour.

A lot of money can be saved, especially at DC-powered fast-charging stations along the freeway.

But with the slower AC columns, things can be completely different.

The tip here is very clear: Don't just pull out the subscription card or app, but compare prices beforehand.

The discounter chains Aldi and Lidl collect a fair 29 cents per kilowatt hour of alternating current (AC) from credit card payers at their now chargeable stations.

Many municipal charging network operators still charge 30 cents or just over.

Charging an electric car: alternating current is often more expensive with a subscription

That may change, and in fact prices are already rising sharply in some places.

But you can still find many cheap offers.

But be careful: If you pay there with the subscription card, you may be asked to pay significantly more for the same electricity at the same pillar.

For example, AC charging via the EnBW subscription costs 45 cents per kWh without a basic fee - at Aldi and Lidl a whopping surcharge of 16 cents, which makes each battery charge more than 55 percent more expensive.

Even those who book the "frequent loader tariff" for 5.99 euros per month pay significantly more at 39 cents than the original discounter tariff.

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Even the car manufacturers' own tariffs are not automatically a guarantee for low prices.

For example, Audi charges 45 cents/kWh at AC columns for its e-tron charging service – even in the expensive “Transit Tariff” with a monthly basic fee of 17.95 euros.

However, this does not automatically mean that Audi and other subscription providers make additional profits: they often have to pay disproportionately high prices to the charging station operators.

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Charging an electric car: Subscriptions are cheap, especially for fast charging

When it comes to fast DC charging on the go, the Ingolstadt-based company is cheap: in the good Ionity network, which the VW group operates, you can charge with a luxury subscription for 36 cents (instead of 79 cents with a credit card).

Of course, Korean competitor Genesis shows how it can be done really cheaply: Anyone who buys an Electrified GV70, for example, can charge at Ionity for four years without a basic fee for 25 ct/kWh.

For drivers of electric cars, the same applies to every store as it does to every supermarket customer when shopping on Saturdays: anyone who compares prices saves a lot of money.