Charging station

NOS Bart Kamphuis

Marieke Schunselaar

news editor

Marieke Schunselaar

news editor

It is complicated for the electric driver to see in advance how expensive a charging session will be at a public charging station. As a result, they often pay unnecessarily too much, according to interest groups. They advocate more transparency to help consumers.

Tariffs for electric charging at public charging stations vary widely. Those who do not find out in advance can spend 70 cents per kilowatt hour at any charging station, while the cheapest rate for that station is 30 cents per kilowatt hour.

The Netherlands has more than 51,000 public charging stations. But finding the cheapest charging point is very complex. The rate depends on several things: the operator of the charging station, the charging card you use and the municipality where you are located.

Depending on your pass – there are about 70 providers in the Netherlands – the price can be found via a website or app. There are charging cards with a fixed rate at every charging station, but that is by no means the cheapest rate for many stations. Then there are passes and apps that work with a flexible rate that differs per post. As a result, the price of a charging station 200 meters away can be much higher.

And those who do not have a pass or app can pay via the QR code on the pole, but then first have to register or download an app. In short: there are many different rates per charging station and it is complicated to find out all these rates.

Confusion of prices

The Consumers’ Association has been bothered by the lack of transparency for years and has therefore conducted a new investigation. Conclusion: It’s still too complicated. “It is a jumble of prices,” says a spokesman for the union. “It is a huge search job for consumers. There are dozens of charge cards with their own rate structure, but also with all kinds of other conditions.”

Maarten van Biezen of the Association of Electric Drivers recognizes this sound. He finds it too cumbersome to look up rates. His association conducted a survey among nearly two thousand electric drivers. Van Biezen: “This shows that only one third knows in advance what they will lose at a charging station.”

Owners of electric cars cannot see at a glance how much they will spend on a charging session:

Charging an electric car: ‘a jumble of prices’

The sector association DOET of charge point and charge card operators does not recognize the image. According to a spokesman, there is room for improvement, but he says that there are enough apps and websites to compare prices.

Moreover, according to him, the strong price differences can also be easily explained: “This is because the municipality issues a permit for several years to a charging station provider and the price is determined at that time. Five years ago, the rate was much lower than now, which means that newer contracts stuck with high rates.”

Wish for change

The Authority for Consumers and Markets has announced via a spokesperson that the providers now comply with their legal obligation. “Price information must be findable and must be correct. How easy to find that information must be is not specified in the law.” The Consumers’ Association hopes that this will change and that it will be regulated by law that the basic price at each charging station is visible in advance via a display, as is currently the case with fuels at filling stations.

Maarten van Biezen of the Electric Riders Association hopes that a good, reliable app will soon be on the market. Until then, he advises consumers to do their own thorough research. “Electric drivers often pay too much for charging without knowing it. You can save a lot of money if you research the different rates in advance.”

2023-08-28 18:00:01
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