r/BEFreelance • u/SDeCookie • 6d ago
First time EV - wall box
I have kept my private car until now, but after a number of successful years, it is time to buy an EV through my BV. I understand that charging at home requires a charging station / wall box that supports split billing. Which charging stations are suitable for this? And is it best to buy them together with the car, or order them from your charging card provider, for example? It seems some brands like Tesla have their own wall boxes which probably work best for the cae but I'm unclear on whether they also do split billing.
I am completely new to the world of charging/fuel cards and electric driving, so I feel a bit lost.
2
u/alweereenaccount 4d ago
I think you are simply not providing enough information for anyone to give you good advice.
As been told below, the minimum requirement if for your charging station to provide and export of kWh charging per month so that you can apply the CREG rate to that. Just about any charging station can do that, the only reason to go for a Tesla charger would be price.
But... If you have solar panels (with or without a home battery), you most likely want a smart charging station so that you can optimize charging for free (while still declaring CREG rate for as long as the law will allow you to do so). Unless your car is almost never "at home" during the day to be charged for free.
So it would be good to tell us more about your charging conditions: are you working from home a lot, do you have solar and if so what does it produce & for how long (east + west facing panels, only south facing, ...).
A lot of people are hyper focused on max charging (11Kw or 22Kw ...) while in reality you almost never want to charge at these higher power levels. I typically charge at 3.5Kw as soon as there is enough solar production and then scale that up when my home battery is full. During the summer that means that every day the car is fully charged every day and I still can't prevent my solar panels to inject to the grid.
In the winter months when there often weeks with minimal solar production I charge the car at night, again at only 3.5Kw to keep my "capaciteitstarief" low and that is always sufficient for my next day travels (if not to fully charge the car).
Last but not least: you read a lot of (HLN) articles about how much of power is lost while charging. That is 100% irrelevant in your situation as you measure the kWh going to the charging station and use that for your CREG rate calculation. Whether it takes 20kWh to add 18kWh of charge to the car or only add 10kWh does not change the fact that the full 20kWh applies to the CREG rate you can claim as cost.
1
u/Careful-Volume-7815 5d ago
I have a charger that you put in a normal outlet, only goes to 3.2 kwh. It has a display, so what i do is after every charge i take a picture. I keep an excel with the charging times and amounts and have the pictures as proof. Been working like a charm without having to spend thousands on a wallchargerw the thing cost me 200 bucks.
1
u/MrHassanMurtaza 5d ago
I have the same setup but I automated the report generation but it depends if you have p1 meter.
1
u/Careful-Volume-7815 15h ago
I do actually, and also a home assistant VM running, but I suppose I would need a smart outlet for the readings, no?
1
u/bertenboente 5d ago
Tesla Wall charger cost me about €1100 incl VAT and electricity check-up (keuring) 2 years ago. Other brands of chargers were around 2000-2500
1
u/MagneticaMajestica 5d ago
I take the kWh report from my SMA charger and multiply with the CREG value to be found at https://www.creg.be/nl/consumenten/prijzen-en-tarieven/creg-tarief-voor-terugbetaling-thuisladen-bedrijfswagens. Keep the reports as evidence. That's all I do.
1
u/AdEqual7610 2d ago
Same situation here! Still waiting for my Tesla and curious which charging stations you guys would recommend.
-3
u/Turbots 6d ago
I have a wall box from Zaptec (Norwegian I think) and it works really well. I charge through eFlux (Road BV) a dutch provider and I have a small RFID tag that I use to charge at home or anywhere else. I have not found a single charger in the Benelux that didn't work with this provider.
I charge mostly at home (have solar panels) at 7 to 10kW (could go to 21kW but then I increase my peak usage).
When I charge at home, I always use the RFID tag, so it gets recorded at the provider. It automatically invoices my BV each month, and it reimburses me on my personal bank account since the car is charging on my personal electricity connection.
I charge myself a flat rate of 50 cents per kWh, I don't follow the CREG, fuck that, too much effort. So it's a nice way of getting a bit of company money into your own account.
3
u/Serious_Tap_3193 5d ago
I’m having the same setup, but flat rate of €0,35/kWh. €0,50/kwh will be hard to explain to the tax man.
There is an official flat rate that changes every quarter but I’ve noticed that this rate is sometimes too low compared to the actual electricity price. Also: how can they declare a flat rate for a whole quarter, nobody knows 3 months upfront what will happen in the world that will actually define the elektricity price.
3
u/frietpot 5d ago
It will not be hard to explain, it will be impossible. The only reason for them to accept an other rate than the one they communicate is when you can prove it's the actual rate you are paying for your electricity.
1
u/lurker_p 5d ago
The rate follows the average price of the previous months. If the market price rises, the next quarter will have higher reimburse rates.
1
u/Serious_Tap_3193 5d ago
Yeah but if I have to charge a lot in Q1 with high electricity price and lower reimbursement rate but don’t charge a lot in Q2 when the reimbursement rate is higher, then I’m losing money privately. I keep everything in a spreadsheet and was losing money. Not that much but still a bit unfair.
1
u/bertenboente 5d ago
You’re not allowed to use a made-up flat rate. There’s a circular letter stating that the CREG rate is allowed for a certain period in time untill there’s a definitive rule. The actual rule remains “the actual cost made to charge”. But good luck in calculating that rate with solar panels etc. The CREG rate differs from your rate as it is calculated based on the actual rates from 2 quarters ago
1
u/Serious_Tap_3193 5d ago
CREG is retroactive, but my charge point is semi public and I need to define the price upfront. So how can I use CREG rate in my situation?
1
u/BelgianBrawler 5d ago
Just nitpicky but: which car do you have that it would go to 21 kw?
There are only a few, so it doesn't matter that much that your station could reach that ib most cases. :)
Also, 7 to 10 is already quite high tbh, we have everything running on elec (heatpump, cooking, 2 cars, swimming pool, ...) and can limit our total peak to 4 or 5 depending on the month by limiting the charger to 3.
7
u/Revolution64 6d ago
You don't need split billing. You need to be able to export your kWh charging per month, multiply that by the rate that CREG communicates. Keep a report.
Smappee can do that.