Charging electric company cars at home: What to consider

Companies are slowly but surely switching their employee benefit cars to electric ones. These cars can be charged directly at the company premises, but also at the employee’s home. In this blog post, we’ll dive into the topic of charging EVs at home and its reimbursement process.

6 out of 10 cars sold in Europe are company cars. Most of these are still internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, but electric company vehicles (EV) are on the rise. The advantages of an electric company car fleet are clear (lower maintenance costs and higher employee satisfaction are only two of many). Besides, EVs can be charged almost anywhere and at any time. Your employees are not limited only to refuelling their cars at petrol stations.

It’s also becoming increasingly important for companies to act environmentally friendly. Switching to electric vehicles results in significant savings in GHG emissions. According to a study by Eurelectric, electrification of fleets could cut almost half of Europe’s road emissions.

Once you make the leap and offer your employees an electric company car, the question of “Where can the car be charged?” arises. EVs can be charged directly at work if the necessary charging infrastructure is in place. Also, the Virta charging network gives your employees access to over 350,000 public charging points.

But what if your employees want to charge privately at home? After all, it is the most convenient way of recharging EVs. If you decide to cover the electricity costs when company cars are charged at home, you might be wondering how is the charged electricity measured and reimbursed?

First of all, there’s no need for a dedicated electricity meter. With a smart EV charging station and a comprehensive EV fleet management solution, the electricity charged at home can be automatically measured and the cost reimbursed to the employee.

What's needed for home charging of company cars?

Your employees need a home charger. Taxation-wise, if you, as an employer, provide an EV charger to be installed at your employee’s home, it doesn’t classify as a taxable benefit (in the UK).

Chargers installed at your employees’ homes need to have integrated MID-approved energy meters. What does “MID-approved” mean? MID-approved electricity meters ensure the charged electricity is measured following the Measuring Instruments Directive (EU-wide). In simple words, these meters ensure accurate consumption measurements.

The home chargers also have to communicate with the Virta platform and support the OCPP protocol - the open communication protocol for communication between EV charging stations and central management software. A prerequisite for smooth communication is a stable data connection via Wi-Fi or a mobile phone.

How does the home charging reimbursement work?

• All employees who drive an electric company car receive a charging account with which they can easily start a charging session.
• In the Virta mobile app, the employee can then attach the home charger to the account and fill in their reimbursement information - bank account details and electricity price.
• After charging, your employee can see the amount to be reimbursed in the mobile app.
• Virta takes care of the reimbursement process in the background.

GOOD TO KNOW: Taxation-wise, if you provide an electric company car to your employee for business and personal use, where they pay for the home charging and you reimburse them back, your payment counts as earnings. That means that you, the employer, have to deduct and pay tax.

Home charging for electric company cars with Virta

The main advantage of charging electric company cars at home is convenience. Your employees can charge their cars overnight in the comfort of their own garage or parking space and set on their way in the morning with a full battery.

The charging options for an electric car are much more diverse than the conventional ICE car. There’s no need to solely refuel at a petrol station (even though it's possible since more and more petrol retailers equip their petrol stations with EV chargers). Besides home charging, your employees still have the option to charge at work or on public chargers.

Electric mobility is making its way into our lives in a rapid fashion. But many fleet managers are new to the world of e-mobility, which can bring up uncertainties and worry about complexities.

That’s why we designed an end-to-end charging solution for fleet management. We take all the administrative hassle off your shoulders and take care of automatic payments and invoicing, home charging reimbursement and offer your employees the chance to charge wherever they are.

Learn more in our video 👇

 Charging at work:

Install EV chargers at your company location, enabling easy charging for your fleet and employees. You can also choose to make the chargers accessible to the public and uncover a new revenue stream while you’re at it. We take care of all the complex processes, and you can easily optimise the capacity of your power grid thanks to our smart energy management solutions.

 Charging on the go:

With Virta, your fleet and electric company vehicles can be charged at over 71 000 public Virta charging points. And within our roaming network, you get access to over 350 000 charging points all over Europe. Invoicing is automated thanks to our comprehensive payments & invoicing solution and can be seamlessly integrated into your fleet management system.

 Charging at home:

And as we've already mentioned, your employees can charge their vehicles comfortably at home. Virta then calculates the charged electricity in the background and reimburses your employees automatically.