Charging and reimbursement without a smart meter in Switzerland

Yes, you can charge an electric car and be reimbursed for it without a smart meter in Switzerland. Charging depends on the home's electrical installation, not on the type of meter fitted by the grid operator, and even a smart meter cannot separate the car's consumption from the rest of the household.

The real question is a different one: how to measure the car's kWh, so that the employee is reimbursed to the centime and the company has clean evidence for the salary certificate (Lohnausweis / certificat de salaire). This guide explains the Swiss smart meter rollout, what changes (or does not) on the electricity bill, the three ways to measure home charging and how to document the reimbursement for the cantonal tax authority.

At Voltaback we reimburse home charging at actual cost for more than 200 companies, with no hardware and whatever meter the home has: an old electromechanical meter in a flat in Zug works just as well as a brand-new smart meter in Geneva (see home charging reimbursement).

Updated 2 November 2026.

Can you charge an electric car without a smart meter?

Yes, without any technical restriction. An electric car charges from any suitable socket or wallbox connected to the grid, whether the home has an old electromechanical meter, a first-generation electronic meter or a smart metering system.

The meter installed by the distribution system operator (Verteilnetzbetreiber / gestionnaire de réseau, often the local utility) measures the household's total consumption for billing. It never decides whether a vehicle can be charged, whether you live in a house in Küsnacht, a condominium flat in Basel or a rented apartment in Lausanne with a space in the underground car park.

What matters for charging is the installation: a suitable socket or wallbox fitted by a licensed electrician on a properly sized circuit. What matters for reimbursement is measurement. That is what the rest of this guide covers.

Does a smart meter recognise an electric car?

No. A smart meter measures the total energy drawn by the home, usually in 15-minute intervals. It does not know which appliance is consuming: it cannot tell the car apart from the washing machine, the heat pump or the oven.

Nor does it communicate with the car, the wallbox or the on-board charger. Even with a smart meter, you cannot isolate charging from the grid operator's meter. A load profile might hint at an overnight charge, but it cannot quantify it in a way that stands up to scrutiny.

A smart meter does bring two useful things:

• remote readings, so bills reflect actual consumption rather than estimates;
• access to finer tariffs, notably dynamic tariffs, which are reserved for customers with a smart meter (see below).

These are billing benefits. Neither tells you how many kWh went into the company car's battery.

Where does the Swiss smart meter rollout stand?

The Electricity Supply Ordinance (StromVV / OApEl) sets the target: 80 % of metering points in each grid area must be smart metering systems by the end of 2027, i.e. within ten years of the rule entering into force on 1 January 2018 (Art. 31e StromVV). The remaining 20 % may stay in service until the end of their working life.

The grid operator decides the timetable in its area. An employee in Zurich, Zug or Nyon generally cannot ask to be upgraded ahead of schedule, and does not need to be in order to charge.

Source: Electricity Supply Ordinance, SR 734.71, Art. 31e.

In practice, for another year or two some of your employees will have a smart meter and others will not. A reimbursement method that depends on the meter creates two classes of employee in the same fleet. A meter-independent method treats everyone the same.

Without a smart meter, what changes on the bill?

Less than you might think. The price per kWh depends on the municipality and the grid operator, not on the meter. The Federal Electricity Commission (ElCom) publishes tariffs for every municipality each year: in 2026 the Swiss median for a typical household (profile H4, 4,500 kWh a year) is 27.7 centimes per kWh excluding VAT, with clear differences between cantons, for example 21.9 centimes in Zug, 24.8 in Zurich, 24.9 in Geneva, 30.4 in Vaud and 33.2 in Basel-Stadt.

Source: ElCom electricity price website.

Most grid operators offer a two-rate tariff: a high tariff (Hochtarif, HT) during the day and a low tariff (Niedertarif, NT) at night and at weekends, with time windows that vary by operator. A conventional dual-rate meter is enough: overnight charging of a company car is already billed at the low rate.

Dynamic tariffs: smart meter only

Since 1 January 2026, grid operators may offer dynamic grid tariffs that change every 15 minutes or every hour. They require a smart metering system: without one, the employee stays on the conventional tariff model.

For now these tariffs are the exception and are mostly offered as an option. They can make overnight charging cheaper still, but they complicate reimbursement: the price per kWh is no longer the same every night. You then need a measurement and a price for each session, which no flat rate can reflect.

Source: example of a 2026 dynamic tariff sheet from a Swiss grid operator (EKZ), available only to customers with a smart metering system.

Do you need a bigger grid connection to charge?

Not necessarily. In Switzerland you do not subscribe to a "power level": the home has a connection protected by main fuses (usually three-phase in a house), and the electrician checks whether charging fits within it alongside the other large appliances.

Indicative figures, to be confirmed by your electrician. Above 3.7 kW, most grid operators require a technical connection request (technisches Anschlussgesuch, TAG) and an installation notice (Installationsanzeige), filed by the licensed electrician before work starts, followed by a safety certificate (Sicherheitsnachweis, SiNa). The exact rules are in each operator's technical requirements.

Source: example of legal requirements for charging stations from a grid operator (CKW).

The meter type changes nothing here. To choose the right equipment for each employee, see our comparison of connected home chargers for company car drivers.

Three ways to measure home charging

There are three ways to isolate the car's consumption: the wallbox meter (or a sub-meter in the distribution board), a connected charging cable and a software solution. The first two rely on hardware at the employee's home, the third does not.

For the models on the market, see our comparison of connected charging cables.

Why connected boxes and cables miss sessions

A connected meter depends on a fragile chain: compatible hardware, working electronics and above all a network signal at the moment of charging. Many charging sessions happen exactly where that chain breaks.

• Underground car park or concrete garage: no Wi-Fi, no 4G, the session is not transmitted.
• Valley or hamlet with poor coverage: gaps in the data every time the signal drops.
• Older or basic wallbox: no data exposed at all.
• Router switched off at night: overnight charging, the cheapest at the low tariff, goes unrecorded.

The car is charged, but the consumption is not logged. For the employee, that is a session to reconstruct from memory. For the fleet manager, it is a gap in the evidence.

Measure at the meter, not at the battery

Charging loses energy between the home meter and the battery, in the on-board charger and the cable. Tests by the ADAC (the German automobile club) put these losses at about 5 to 7 % on an 11 kW wallbox and considerably more on a household socket (ADAC study on charging losses).

The manufacturer's app only shows the energy stored in the battery. Reimbursing on that basis underpays the employee by roughly 10 %: the losses are on their bill.

Voltaback relies on the home's MID-certified meter, not on a standalone cable meter. The method has been audited by an independent third party: relative error of 1.22 %.

How do you justify reimbursement without a smart meter?

Exactly as with a smart meter: kWh charged multiplied by the employee's price per kWh, with the documents to prove it. The meter plays no part.

What the Swiss tax rules say

In Switzerland, expenses are in principle reimbursed at actual cost, against receipts. The model expense regulations (Spesenreglement / règlement de remboursement des frais) of the Swiss Tax Conference (SSK / CSI) also allow, for an electric company car, a flat rate of at most CHF 60.– a month for charging at the employee's home, shown under item 13.2.3 of the salary certificate. That CHF 60.– is a ceiling for a flat payment, not a ceiling for documented actual costs.

Without an approved expense regulation, actual expenses other than travel and meals are shown as an amount under item 13.1.2 "Other actual expenses", stating their nature (salary certificate guidelines, margin note 54). With a regulation approved by the canton where the company has its seat, including an actual-cost clause, they do not need to be shown as an amount (margin note 59).

Sources: salary certificate guidelines 2026 (German); SSK model expense regulations 2026 (German); Federal Tax Administration, salary certificate.

For social security (AHV / AVS), expense reimbursements are not part of the relevant wage, provided the employer or employee can prove the expense. A documented reimbursement at actual cost therefore triggers neither tax nor social security contributions, as long as every kWh is evidenced. For employees taxed at source (Quellensteuer / impôt à la source), approved flat-rate expenses are not subject to withholding tax.

Documents to keep

• the monthly statement of kWh charged for the company car;
• the household's electricity bill, showing the price per kWh (energy, grid, levies) and the tariff windows;
• the company's calculation method, ideally written into its expense regulation.

The full framework, flat rate or actual cost, is in our guide to reimbursing company car home charging.

Worked example: Basel, Zurich and Zug

An employee drives 20,000 km a year, charging almost entirely at home, at 18 kWh/100 km. That is 3,600 kWh into the battery, or about 4,000 kWh at the meter once losses are included.

In all three cases the actual cost exceeds the CHF 60.– monthly flat rate, and the place of residence alone moves the figure by more than CHF 450.– a year. That is why it pays to start from the real tariff. To work out the right price, see our guide to the price per kWh of EV charging.

How does Voltaback measure and reimburse without a smart meter or a box?

Voltaback neither reads the grid operator's meter nor installs anything at the employee's home. The platform records every home charging session, assigns it to the right vehicle and applies the actual tariff of the employee's electricity contract, high or low rate, charging losses included. The meter type, the wallbox and the car park play no part.

How it works in practice:

1. The employee connects the company car to the app in 2 minutes; more than 48 car brands are supported.
2. They enter their electricity tariff once, from their bill; tariff changes on 1 January are updated.
3. Every home charging session is recorded and priced, with no box and no connected cable.
4. Each month a statement per employee is generated and exported to payroll or expenses.

The company never receives its employees' geolocation, only the kWh and the data needed for reimbursement, in line with the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (nDSG / nLPD). The platform has been ISO 27001 certified since 2 December 2025.

If you are still weighing up whether to equip employees with hardware, see our alternative to installing chargers at employees' homes.

Reimburse the whole fleet at actual cost, smart meter or not

Most of your employees will have a smart meter by the end of 2027. Reimbursement does not need to wait: you only need to measure the car's charging and apply the right tariff.

Managing a fleet in Switzerland? See the measurement on your own vehicles, with your employees' municipal tariffs: request a demo.

Charging a company car without a smart meter? You can be reimbursed at actual cost with nothing installed at home: your fleet manager can get in touch with us.