Frequently asked questions about public charging for your electric vehicle

The charging process for electric vehicles is pretty self-explanatory: you connect your car to the public charging station via the appropriate charging cable that came with your car. The correct charging cable when you want to charge at a charging station (regardless of whether it is public or private) is the cable with 2 equal ends. Some charging stations, and certainly the fast chargers, have a fixed cable that you can use.

Some charging stations start charging your car as soon as the car is connected. Alternatively, you can initiate the charging process using the charging card or pass provided by Alphabet or its partner, unless specified otherwise by your company. 

Once your car is fully charged, stop the charging process by scanning the charging station again with your charging card. Finally, unplug the cable and store it in your car.

Please note that most cars will not allow you to unplug the charging cable unless the car is unlocked.

A charging card or charging pass has an RFID chip that can be scanned and read by a smart charging point. This ensures that your charging session is registered and linked to your account. This way, the charging will be billed correctly. You can use our charging card for home charging, workplace charging and public charging (unless otherwise specified by your company). If a home charging point located on the premises of family or friends is configured as a public or semi-public charging station, you can also charge there on your “own account” with your charging card.

Upon receiving an electric (EV) or hybrid (PHEV) leased vehicle from Alphabet, you will receive a charging card from Alphabet or its partner. You cannot request a spare charging card for your vehicle. However, if you need a charging card for, say, the car of a family member who lives under the same roof as you, you can arrange this through our partner. Be mindful of any new subscriptions that you may be required to take out.

If your company opts for a provider other than Alphabet or its partner to install charging points, that provider will supply the charge cards.

If you lose your charging card, immediately block it using the charging partner’s application. Then, contact your fleet manager or the Alphabet Driver Center to request a new card, which is also necessary if the card is defective. It is crucial to act quickly and obtain a new charging card: (1) to be able to charge your car and therefore keep driving, and (2) because at the moment not yet many charging stations are set up and equipped to allow charging with a traditional credit card. From 2027, all charging stations should allow this functionality.

The network of public charging stations is expanding almost daily, so there will gradually be sufficient charging stations. No fewer than 36,000 new public charging points were added in a single year. As a result, in 2024, Belgium’s charging infrastructure has just under 72,000 charging points. For every 10 EVs, there should be at least one public charging station available so that everyone can charge without difficulty. In Belgium, we comply with this.

Public charging is possible at all charging stations of providers with whom our charging infrastructure partner has a roaming agreement. At least 95% of the charging stations in Belgium are in our partner’s roaming network, and this network is expanding daily. The latest list of roaming partners can be found in the charging partner’s application. Through the applications of our charging partner(s), you can find the public charging points where you can charge with your charge card.

There are two types of charging stations: standard AC charging stations and fast DC charging stations. Standard charging stations are most commonly used for home charging, workplace charging, and the majority of public charging points. They are designed to charge the car at normal, fast, or semi-fast speeds. In contrast, fast charging stations are typically located along motorways or busy access roads, allowing for quicker charging of your car.

If you drive an EV, a fully electric vehicle, you can use a fast charger, provided your company’s car policy permits it. Your charge card may enable you to use a fast charger, but if your company’s car policy prohibits it, you could be billed for the charges afterward.

If you want to charge your hybrid vehicle, you cannot use a fast charger. This will overload your battery and consequently damage it.

Prices for public charging vary according to:

• The charging point;
• The provider who enters into long-term contracts with an energy supplier of its choice;
• The rate which is fixed or flexible (this is determined by the charging partner);
• A starting fee (some charging station operators charge a fee for starting charging sessions).

Prices can be 3 to 6 times higher (under normal market conditions) than charging at home or at work. Today it is still unclear what is to be paid where, but various organisations are pushing for European regulations in this regard. You can find information about the cost at the public charging point itself, typically by scanning a QR code.

Tip: when charging your car at a public charging station, be sure to check the parking regulations and whether you have to pay parking fees in that location. Additionally, some charging points can apply extra fees if your car remains parked after the charging session has ended. So drive your car away from the charging point on time.

No, you cannot charge at a Tesla charging point with your Alphabet charging card because Tesla charging points do not have an IReF-id*. The latter is needed to scan and read the Alphabet charging card to record your charge. 

If you would nevertheless like to charge at a Tesla charging point, you need to link your credit card in the Tesla app.

*IReF stands for Integrated Reporting Framework

In many cases, it is not possible to install a charging station yourself and a public charging point is often too far away from your location. In those situations, you, as an individual, business, taxi operator or shared car company, can apply to the government for a public charging station. In this way, you can obtain a charging station a maximum of 250 metres from your door.

You can apply for a public charging station on the website of the government.

Not at this time. The charging card is active on a roaming platform, which means that the charging card works on all platforms with which our charging infrastructure partner has a roaming agreement. This also means that the charging card cannot be limited by location or amount and therefore your employees can also charge abroad (EU).

To optimise the cost of public charging, there are several things you can do. Consider limiting fast charging in the charging policy, raising your employees’ awareness about possible starting and parking charges applied by charging station operators, etc.
Alphabet can support you in this optimisation process.