How much will it cost an employer for employees to charge their EV at home?

1. The costs of the charge point and installation

It goes without saying that if you want to give your employees the opportunity to charge their EV at home, they will need a charge point. Depending on the type of charge point you choose, the total price of the purchase and installation is usually somewhere between 1500 euros and 2500 euros.

2. A subscription to manage the charge point

If you reimburse charging costs, you will need insights into the charging sessions and the consumption of the home charge points. A smart charge point can be linked to a smart management platform. You will need to take out an annual subscription for this.

The price of your subscription depends on the functionalities you choose – in other words, the extent of your management options. You may be satisfied with a consumption report for each home charge point, for example, or may prefer to have the charging costs reimbursed automatically. Some employers also offer charge cards or energy management to ensure that the use of the charge point is spread effectively.

An overview of the four different MobilityPlus subscriptions can be found here.

3. The charging costs

Every time your employees charge their electric company cars at home, they will incur electricity costs. As an employer, you can repay them in full without the benefit in kind increasing. What is the best approach here?

• A fixed rate per kWh:

Among other things, electricity costs depend on the energy contract and your employees’ consumption levels. As a result, it would be an immense task to set a reimbursement rate for each individual.

It is better to include a fixed rate in your e-car policy. For example, you could agree to reimburse 25 or 30 cents per kWh charged, which would be more than sufficient in normal circumstances. It will then be up to your employees to compare energy suppliers and sign a contract that offers them a good deal.

• With a variable rate based on CREG figures:

It would be fairer to say that 25 or 30 cents per kWh used to be more than sufficient, but energy prices have gone through the roof over the last few months. In particular, employees with a variable energy contract are now clearly feeling the pinch. To avoid dissatisfaction, you could also choose to revise the reimbursement rate every month, based on the average energy prices at that time.

Wouldn’t that be a lot of work? Not necessarily. MobilityPlus now offers the option of automatically adjusting your reimbursements in line with the average rates published by the CREG energy regulator. Under this system, employees would be sent an overview of their charging sessions and the applicable CREG rates every month. As an employer, you will receive the same report, with a total calculation comprising all your employees’ charging sessions. This will make the reimbursements clear to everyone.

• Including charging costs in your corporation tax:

As a company, you can include 100% of your general electricity costs in your corporation tax. The same applies to the charging costs of your employees’ home charge points, but the way in which you reclaim VAT is different here.

With ‘normal’ electricity, you can reclaim the entire 21% VAT from the tax authority. With charging costs, however, the tax authorities will reject the proportion that is considered to be private use rather than professional expenses. In concrete terms, this means that you will receive a VAT refund of around 15% (3/4 of 21% VAT).