Saving on charging costs for your electric company car: 7 tips

Public charging is convenient when you're on the road, but if you have the choice, home charging is financially more attractive for anyone entitled to a CREG reimbursement. The CREG scheme applies exclusively to charging sessions at your home address — public charging is covered by different reimbursement rules that don't run through the CREG tariff.

In practice: every kWh you charge at home can be claimed back at the official quarterly tariff. You can always find the current tariff per region on our live CREG tariff page. An overview of all quarterly tariffs is available in our guide on the cost per kWh of home charging.

The amount your employer reimburses you is set at the official CREG tariff — regardless of what you actually pay your energy supplier per kWh. That means if your own electricity price is lower than the CREG tariff, the reimbursement will be higher than your actual cost. The difference is then a net benefit to you.

Many energy contracts offer a day/night tariff or a variable (dynamic) tariff. With a day/night contract, electricity is cheaper outside peak hours. By charging your car at night or over the weekend, you can lower the cost per kWh charged. The difference between peak and off-peak rates is typically 4 to 8 cents per kWh on the energy component (source: Selectra/CallMePower, 2026). In Flanders, off-peak hours generally run from 10pm to 7am and all weekend (source: Fluvius). Note: since the introduction of the capacity tariff, the savings have become more limited — for an average household it amounts to around €8 a year, so charge mainly during off-peak hours if you already have a day/night contract.

If you have solar panels at home, you can charge your company car during the day using your own generated electricity. That way you use energy you would otherwise feed back into the grid — which, under current rules without a reversible meter, yields less than it used to.

The CREG tariff still applies as the calculation basis for the reimbursement your employer pays, even with solar panels. You can therefore optimise your charging costs twice over: charging cheaply via solar power while still receiving the full CREG reimbursement. With solar panels you charge (partly) on your own production and avoid the all-in grid price you would otherwise pay — in Flanders roughly €0.23 to €0.30 per kWh (source: Selectra, July 2026). The exact savings and payback period depend heavily on your installation size, orientation, consumption profile and self-consumption rate, and therefore vary per situation.

A smart charger with a solar-priority mode automatically charges faster when there's surplus production, and more slowly when you need to draw from the grid.

Smart charging means your charger or app automatically optimises the charging moment. Instead of charging at full power as soon as you get home, the charger spreads the session over a longer period — typically overnight — to avoid peak moments.

This has two benefits: you make use of cheaper hours (with a day/night tariff or dynamic contract), and you lower your peak consumption. The Flemish capacity tariff is calculated based on your monthly peak power (kW): by not charging everything at once, you reduce that peak and therefore that part of your grid tariff (source: VREG/Fluvius, capacity tariff). The concrete saving depends on your grid connection, connection capacity and consumption profile.

Many modern charging points (Easee, Alfen, Wallbox, Smappee) offer built-in smart charging features or connect to energy management systems. Check the settings in the accompanying app.

Many employees leave money on the table because they don't report their charging sessions fully or on time. The CREG reimbursement is a legal entitlement for anyone who charges their company car at home, but your employer can only pay out what you provide.

Export your charging data from your charger's app every month (or quarter): date and kWh per session. Pass this on to your employer or HR department, together with a calculation based on the correct CREG quarterly tariff for your region. Our charging cost calculator does this automatically and generates a PDF report your employer can use straight away for bookkeeping.

To calculate your CREG reimbursement correctly, you need to know exactly how many kWh you charged per session. A regular power socket or a shared household meter doesn't automatically provide that information.

A communicating charging point (or wallbox) with its own kWh meter registers each session separately and stores the date, time and consumption. Most suppliers offer an app where you can view and export that data as a CSV file. You can paste that file directly into the charging cost calculator.

Don't (yet) have a communicating charging point? An external sub-meter on the socket or charging cable offers an alternative. The tax authorities also accept a smart digital meter as proof, provided the charging point is connected to a separate circuit.

The CREG tariff changes four times a year: on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October. The reimbursement you can claim depends on the tariff that applied in the quarter of the charging session — not the moment of payment.

A historical overview of the quarterly tariffs up to Q1 2026 (cents/kWh):

Source: official CREG publications. Rates in cents/kWh.

By exporting a PDF report every quarter, you always have a correct, documented overview ready for your employer, accountant or tax return. The charging cost calculator generates this report automatically based on your charging data and the correct quarterly tariff for your region.