Made in the charging station expansion plans for 2020 the federal government is clear about its goal: The ratio of charging points to registered e-cars should be around 1: 10 stay. This corresponds roughly to the status from the beginning 2019. The vast majority of charging processes should continue to take place at home (the authorities reckon with 75 to 85 Percent), but the signal for charging station operators was more than clear: At today’s level of capacity utilization, they have to earn money. That is why 2019 so much happened in the tariff jungle, that is why something continues to change almost every week. Here we give recommendations for tariffs that we want to keep up to date for a while. All prices apply to Germany.

Our long-term recommendation We have mostly recommended the EnBW tariff on the car channel. It’s called “Mobility +”, comes with an app and card and costs 5 euros a month basic fee. One kWh on the alternating current charger (AC) costs 25 Cent, one kWh on the direct current fast charger (DC) 39 Cent. There is no basic fee for ADAC members, they can use it as an “ADAC e-Charge”. For people who hardly ever charge outside the home, there is a tariff variant (“Standard”) that is exempt from the basic fee, in which the kWh 10 Cent costs more.

The same price (39 / 49 Cent / kWh AC / DC, no basic fee) EWE Go also offers, but includes Ionity, which EnBW lacks. Mobility + provides you with roaming to over 100. 000 Charging points in Germany and neighboring countries with electricity – for a simple kWh price anywhere in the roaming area. Therefore we like to recommend it. The crux of the whole thing, however: EnBW is probably currently paying extra, especially for high-priced roaming pillars, where the customer still pays their guaranteed tariff, while EnBW pays the pillar price, which is often higher.

Blocking fees Therefore we all fearfully hope that the southern German energy company will hold out even longer with this offer, because already at the household electricity level 30 Cent / kWh Driving an electric car is not particularly cheap. In order to absorb the worst cost peaks, EnBW has already changed the contract for Mobility +. Since autumn 2019, blocking fees apply for idle times of more than 4 hours (10 Cent / minute up to a maximum of 12 Euro). The adjustment is understandable, but plugging it into the AC pillar overnight for lantern parkers is no longer economical.

In addition, the tariff has recently been restricted to private individuals and to a maximum of 800 kWh per month – loss hedging. If this value is exceeded “for at least two out of three consecutive months”, “EnBW reserves the right to terminate this contract and offer the customer a tariff that is adequate for his consumption.” Commercial charging is no longer included in the contract, so strictly speaking, company cars too. The contract explicitly and “in particular” names taxis, ridesharing services and delivery companies. So there will probably be a commercial, more expensive tariff from this house soon.

Ionity The Ionity consortium made headlines with their message at the time, charging customers without a contract 79 Cent / kWh to be calculated – for the circumstances at that time an unbelievably high amount (beginning 2021 it only looks half as bad, right?). Ionity justified the procedure with the costs of the fast charger. However, Ionity also offered charging service providers such as EnBW such high prices in roaming that the Ionity charging stations soon dropped out of Mobility + ‘s roaming network. Since then, customers can no longer pay at Ionity columns with these apps / charging cards.

ADAC e-Charge: An absolute no-brainer for ADAC members.

(Image: Clemens Gleich)

At the turn of the year, Plugsurfing also threw its “Plus” tariff for Germany from the program, which is available at 20 Euro monthly basic fee Ionity for 34 Cent bot – interesting for frequent drivers with high loading capacities. Plugsurfing Plus is only available in Belgium and the Netherlands. At the same time, Plugsurfing increased the remaining normal tariffs to 15. January 2021 on 47 Cent / kWh AC, 69 Cent DC and 109 Cent on ionity columns. Yes, you read that right: Plugsurfing will charge you 1, 09 Euro per kWh of Ionity columns. This is another example of “worse than useless” because then you can just use Ionitys 79 Take cents blank for non-contractors.

Cheap rates for own customers So what do I charge for Ionity if you would like to be a customer there? The best option at the moment is to check with the car manufacturer to see whether there is a cheap Ionity variant on offer. Members of the consortium in particular offer affordable tariffs. Members are BMW, Ford, Hyundai / Kia, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche. All of these manufacturers have low-cost Ionity tariffs in their range – with the exception of Ford, where such a tariff will probably appear at the German market launch of the Mustang Mach-e. The vehicle manufacturers don’t build it themselves, but buy their charging solutions from the usual suspects (mostly digital charging solutions).

Audi City 39 49 79 4, 95 € can be canceled monthly after 3h 10 ct / minute Audi Transit 39 49 31 17, 95 € 12 after 3h 10 ct / minute BMW Active 33 39 79 4, 99 € can be canceled monthly after 3h (AC during the day) or 1.5 h (DC) 6 ct / minute (AC) or 20 ct / minute (DC) BMW Ionity Plus (option) like basic contract as basic contract 35 13, 00 € 12 – – Hyundai Special tariff (EnBW tariff) 29 39 – 4, 99 € can be canceled monthly after 4h 10 ct / minute Kia KiaCharge Advanced 29 47 79 4, 99 € can be canceled monthly after 2h 8 ct / minute Mercedes me batch depending on the column depending on the column 29 8th,25 € can be canceled monthly depending on the column depending on the column Porsche Charging Service Max. 39 Max. 39 33 14, 92 € 12 – – Tesla – 35 – 0, 00 € – after a full battery from 5 minutes 40 ct / minute or 80 ct / minute when the park is fully occupied Volkswagen We Charge Go depending on S. column depending on the column 55 7, 49 € 12 depending on the column each by column Volkswagen We Charge Plus depending on the column depending on the column e 30 17, 49 € 12 depending on the column depending on the column New buyers should take a good look at the tariffs of the vehicle manufacturers, because they are usually free of basic fees for the first one to three years. We have only listed recommended tariffs, either based on their Ionity price or their other prices. Manufacturers such as Mercedes, Porsche and Volkswagen offer fixed ionity tariffs and simply pass the costs of other charging station operators through (“depending on the column”). Here you should also book a plannable general tariff for everything except Ionity, because the wild increase in costs can otherwise lead to nasty surprises.