Public charging in Belgium: price differences of up to 200% depending on charging card and operator

For those who charge publicly, the kWh price at a charging station is rarely the price that ultimately appears on the invoice. The charging card provider acts as an intermediary and charges its own rates, sometimes its own surcharges, and almost always its own session or start-up fees. The result: at the exact same charging point, one company can pay twice as much as another — even though the electricity comes from the same plug.

In the first half of 2026, we compared nine commonly used charging cards across a fixed set of reference points: three AC stations (11–22 kW) and three DC fast chargers (50 and 150 kW), in Antwerp, Brussels, and Namur. Below are the most important findings.

The kWh rate is only part of the story

On AC stations, the effective all-in rate in our test ranged from €0.42 to €0.71 per kWh. On DC fast chargers, it ranged from €0.55 to €0.89 per kWh. The highest rate was systematically 60 to 70% more expensive than the lowest — at the exact same charging point.

The difference is rarely in the kWh rate alone. Three elements together explain 80% of the variance:

• Session fee or start-up fee: with two cards, a charging session cost a standard €0.35 to €0.50, regardless of how much you charged. For a short stop of 5 kWh, this has a significant impact.
• Time surcharge: three cards charged a per-minute rate on top of the kWh rate for DC fast charging. Those who stay at the station just a little too long pay a substantial extra amount.
• Roaming margin: cards operating through a foreign roaming partner charged 8 to 22% on top of the local CPO rate in our test.

Example: sales representative with 25,000 km per year

For a typical profile mix — 60% home charging, 30% public AC, 10% DC fast charging station — the annual difference between the most expensive and the most economical card for a sales representative amounts to €620 to €840 per year, per vehicle. For a fleet of 30 vehicles, this quickly adds up to a difference of €25,000 per year — purely due to the choice of charging card.

The paradox: one card is rarely the best choice

In our comparison, no single card was the cheapest across all three segments (public AC, DC up to 50 kW, DC from 150 kW). The card with the best AC rate was more expensive than average on fast chargers. The card with the most competitive DC rate had a high session fee that made AC charging unattractive.

For fleets with mixed usage, this means either a dual-pass strategy (one card for regular use, one backup for exceptional use) or a choice that is explicitly weighted based on the expected consumption profile — not on the rate table as it appears on the provider’s website.

How do you compare them yourself?

• Request rate tables for at least three segments: public AC, DC ≤ 50 kW, and DC ≥ 150 kW.
• Explicitly ask whether session, start-up, or time surcharges apply, and from when they are charged.
• Ask whether the rate depends on the CPO or location (domestic versus roaming).
• Calculate the costs based on your own consumption profile, not on an average “typical driver.”

What this means for fleet managers

The choice of a charging card is not an administrative detail. For a fleet of 10 vehicles or more, the potential difference between a “good” and a “bad” card choice is usually greater than the entire annual maintenance budget. A thorough charging card audit almost always pays for itself, especially when linked to a reimbursement policy for employees with home charging stations.

See also

• Hidden costs of public charging for fleets
• Charging cards for businesses in Europe
• Costs of home charging vs. public charging