EV Charging Budget
De Tijd reported this week that Belgian companies pay more than €100 million a year for public charging sessions that could have been cheaper. In the EV policies we see at large employers, the cause is usually the same: the charging card has no limit, and nobody sees the price per session.
Where it goes wrong
Most EV policies copied the fuel card model. The employee gets a card, it works at every charger, and the invoice arrives at the end of the month.
With fuel, that worked because prices between stations were close. With electricity, a kWh at home, at a public charger and at a highway fast charger can differ by a factor of two or three. The employee never sees that difference, so they have no reason to act on it.
The fleet manager sees the total weeks later. Payroll gets corrections afterwards. HR handles the discussions about who charges too much.
The scale problem
For 20 EV drivers, someone can check the statements by hand. For 800 drivers, it means 800 statements a month, from at least two sources: the public charging card and the home charging provider. Add charging abroad, idle fees and joiners and leavers, and that is close to 10.000 checks a year.
At that point, nobody does the checks properly anymore. Costs are paid as they come.
A charging budget, including the home charger
The approach we recommend is one monthly charging budget per EV driver. That budget also covers the cost of the home charger.
The charger cost is spread over its useful life. A charger of €1.800 over 5 years is €30,00 per month. That amount comes out of the same budget as the electricity.
This gives two profiles:
- Drivers with a home charger. Home is the cheapest place to charge. Drivers who mostly charge at home stay within budget and still have room for public charging. Drivers who mostly charge in public pay for an expensive kWh and for a charger they hardly use, so they reach the limit sooner.
- Drivers without a home charger. City residents without a driveway, or drivers who don’t want a charger, don’t pay the €30,00. Their full budget goes to public charging.
A worked example
Take a driver who drives 20.000 km a year at 18 kWh per 100 km, about 300 kWh a month. The monthly budget is €150,00. Prices are indicative.
| Profile | Monthly cost | Within €150,00? |
|---|---|---|
| Home charger, 85% charged at home | €30,00 charger + €77,00 home + €25,00 public = €132,00 | Yes |
| No home charger, mostly slow public charging | €150,00 to €165,00 | Roughly |
| No home charger, mostly fast charging | €225,00 or more | No, overrun visible |
The policy defines what happens with an overrun. For example, the difference is deducted through the cafeteria plan, or a manager approves it. That rule is agreed before the first charging session.
Sales staff and consultants
For people who drive to customers all day, a fixed budget doesn’t work. Someone driving 50.000 km a year often can’t wait to charge at home. For this profile, an unlimited budget is the reasonable choice.
They should still see their own costs: the monthly total, the share of fast charging, and a comparison with colleagues in the same role. In our experience, that information alone changes how people charge.
Today versus with Vaigo
| Today | With Vaigo | |
|---|---|---|
| Home charger | Paid once, not linked to charging behaviour | Spread monthly within the charging budget |
| Public and fast charging | Paid in full, checked after the invoice | Counted against the budget per employee |
| Out of policy (charging abroad, idle fees) | Found late, if at all | Detected and deducted through payroll, as the policy sets |
| Payroll | Manual corrections afterwards | Payroll-ready lines per employee |
| Exceptions (sales, consultants) | Same card, no visibility | Separate profile, with cost insight |
How Vaigo runs it
Vaigo works as a digital employee for your mobility team: tooling, AI agents and mobility specialists who run the policy HR defines.
- The admin. We connect to the public charging card providers and home charging providers, sync HR data every night, handle joiners, movers and leavers, and deliver payroll-ready lines.
- Explaining the policy. Employees can see their own budget and how their charging is counted, in NL, FR and EN, before they contact HR.
- Bringing the cost down. Every session is counted against the budget. Out-of-policy costs are detected and deducted through payroll, as the policy sets.
HR defines the rules once. We apply them every month.
What changes
- Who does less work: the fleet manager no longer checks charging statements one by one. Payroll no longer makes corrections afterwards. HR only handles exceptions.
- What risk is removed: out-of-policy charging no longer goes unnoticed. The rules are the same for everyone in a profile, so they can be explained to the works council and audited afterwards.
- What cost becomes predictable: charging cost per profile is known in advance, because the budget is the ceiling.
Rethinking your EV policy? Let’s look at what a charging budget would mean for your fleet, in a single conversation. Book a time