How can I pay?
An electric vehicle gives you several options to easily and conveniently make payments: via app, charge card or credit card. Soon, your authentication data will be stored in your car. You will only have to connect it to a charging station. Payment is made automatically. And the best part: There are public charging stations, for example in the parking lots of supermarkets. Sometimes you can even charge up for free.
Socket and Wallbox
If you charge your electric car at home using a socket or Wallbox, you will pay for the battery charge on your next electricity bill. It couldn’t be simpler.
Public charging points
It is also very easy to pay when you use paid-for public charging points in the city or on the motorway: as the driver of an electric car, you choose a provider, who will bill you for the power you use for charging. The provider is referred to as the mobility service provider (MSP) and will offer you a billing tariff that meets your needs perfectly – just like your mobile phone tariff. Likewise, you can tailor the individual options to your own requirements and consumption for your car too. If your chosen MSP has not linked up with a particular charging point, you can still use the point with ad hoc charging and pay the charge point operator (CPO) directly, for example with a credit card.
Payment methods
So that you can be billed for the electricity you use, the charging point of course needs to know who you are. Depending on the provider, you can sign in with a charge card or an app (using NFC communication or a QR code). Simply choose what suits you best. You will be charged using your saved payment method (e.g. direct debit, PayPal or credit card). Alternatively, you can use the ad hoc charging option and pay the CPO directly via credit card. The tariffs mostly charge by time unit and do not yet bill for the amount of power you have used for charging. This is because only very few charging points have so far been certified as compliant with calibration regulations for accurately recording volumes of electricity. However, this will become more common in the near future, which means that we can expect to see billing by the amount of electricity become the norm in future.
Plug & Charge (ISO interface)
To make the charging process even simpler, in future you will only need to plug in the charging cable and the charging will start. With this technology, known as Plug & Charge, your authentication details will be stored in the car once. The charging station will then automatically identify who you are – creating a wonderfully practical solution. This technology will be introduced from 2020 and will be rolled out gradually using an ISO-certified standard, which means that you will be able to use more and more Plug & Charge stations in future.
Free charging
In addition to paid-for charging points, there are also many public charging stations where you can charge for free, for example in the car parks of large supermarkets or furniture stores. This makes shopping twice as good!
We Charge - Volkswagen’s new charging service
Charge and pay. Simple and transparent.
We Charge offers you direct access to a public charging network with charging opportunities across Europe - comfortably via your smartphone using Volkswagen’s We Connect app1. Authentication at charging stations is granted by the We Charge charging card (RFID), via the app (QR code) or through Plug & Charge with a comprehensive coverage in place - as the charging station already identified you through your e-car.
While charging you are able to check your charging status, control both charging process and pre-climate control or receive push notifications conveniently with We Charge via the We Connect app. Especially after the charging process was completed or an error occurred during charging. Additionally We Charge offers you with your charging contract payment including receipt and transaction overview – automatically. In short: We Charge.
