Off-peak EV charging in Europe: cheap hours by country, savings and fair reimbursement

Off-peak EV charging means charging the car when electricity is cheapest, usually at night and at weekends. In most European countries, the off-peak kWh is about 25 to 65 % cheaper than the standard or peak rate: about €0.11 instead of €0.17 before VAT on Portugal's regulated bi-hourly tariff, about €0.24 instead of €0.33 at night in Belgium, about 8.9p instead of 26.32p on a British EV tariff.

This guide explains how cheap hours work in nine European countries, which EU rules give you access to them, how to schedule the charge, how many km you recover in a night and how much you save in a year. It ends with the question fleets often miss: how to value off-peak sessions so the saving is not lost in reimbursement. Voltaback values each home session at the driver's real time-of-use rate, which is why we look at this in detail.

How off-peak electricity works

Electricity costs more when everyone uses it at once: weekday mornings and early evenings. At night and at weekends, demand falls and the grid has spare capacity, often from wind; at midday, solar can create the same effect. Suppliers and grid operators pass part of that difference on through time-of-use pricing, which charges a different price per kWh depending on the hour.

There are three main families of tariff in Europe:

• Two-rate or multi-rate tariffs with fixed hours: day and night, peak and off-peak, sometimes a third shoulder period.
• Dynamic tariffs, where the energy price follows the wholesale market hour by hour or quarter-hour by quarter-hour.
• Time-variable network fees, where the grid part of the price drops in certain hours, whatever your energy contract.

An electric car is the ideal load for all three. It is parked for 10 to 14 hours a night and only needs a few of those hours to recover a day's driving.

What the EU guarantees

Under the EU Electricity Directive, every household with a smart meter can ask for a dynamic electricity price contract, which at least one supplier and every supplier with more than 200,000 customers must offer. Member States also roll out smart meters, which time-of-use tariffs need in most countries. Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2019/944, article 11.

The exact hours, prices and meter requirements remain national. Our article on EV charging without a smart meter covers what happens if your home does not have one.

Off-peak hours by country

Sources: Wallonia, Fluvius, Bundesnetzagentur, Endesa, 2.0TD periods, ERSE, Creos, Zapmap Price Index.

The table shows why one European answer does not exist. In Luxembourg, the night rate on a dual-rate offer is barely cheaper than the day rate; what costs more is drawing above your reference power. In Portugal or the UK, the gap is large enough to change the annual budget.

Germany: § 14a modules and dynamic tariffs

Since 2024, private wallboxes above 4.2 kW are "controllable devices": the grid operator may temporarily reduce their power, but never below 4.2 kW. In return, the owner pays lower grid fees through one of three modules:

1. Module 1: a flat annual reduction set by each grid operator, from about €110 to €190 a year.
2. Module 2: the grid fee per kWh cut to 40 % of its normal level, with a separate meter for the charger.
3. Module 3: time-variable grid fees with cheaper windows, available since April 2025 on top of Module 1, with a smart meter gateway.

Since 1 January 2025, every German supplier must also offer a dynamic tariff to customers who have a full smart meter system.

Netherlands: the end of net metering

With solar panels, the end of net metering (salderingsregeling) on 1 January 2027 changes the calculation. Exported solar power will be worth much less, so charging the car on your own solar during the day becomes more attractive than exporting and buying back at night. Source: Rijksoverheid.

Portugal and Spain: the clock is regulated

In Portugal, the regulator has moved the bi-hourly off-peak start from 22:00 to 22:30, rolled out to homes between July and December 2027. In Spain, every home with a supply up to 15 kW sits on the same three-period access tariff, so valle hours are the same nationwide, with weekends entirely off-peak.

How to schedule an off-peak charge

There are three ways to make sure the car only charges in the cheap window.

1. From the car: most EVs let you set a departure time or a charging window in the dashboard or the app. This works on any socket, including a standard household plug.
2. From the charger: a smart wallbox lets you set fixed hours or follow a dynamic price signal.
3. From the supplier or an app: on smart and dynamic tariffs, the supplier or a third-party app schedules the car once you set the target charge and departure time.

Use only one of these at a time. If both the car and the charger have a schedule, they can block each other and the car stays uncharged in the morning.

Two settings are worth checking. Set the departure time rather than a start time, so the car finishes just before you leave and the battery does not sit full for hours. And on a capacity-based network tariff, such as in Flanders or Luxembourg, limit the charging power at night so the car does not add a new monthly peak.

In Great Britain, smart chargepoints sold since 30 June 2022 must come with default charging hours that avoid peak demand, 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm on weekdays, which the owner can change, and a randomised delay so that millions of cars do not start at the same second. No EU country imposes the same default yet, but grid operators increasingly reward chargers that can be steered, as Germany's § 14a shows. Source: OPSS guidance on the Smart Charge Points Regulations 2021.

Five mistakes that cancel the off-peak saving

1. Plugging in on arrival without a schedule. The car starts charging at 18:00, right in the most expensive hours, and is full before the cheap window opens.
2. Two schedules at once. The car waits for 23:00, the wallbox for midnight, and a dynamic app for 2:00: one of them blocks the others.
3. Forgetting weekends. In Spain, Italy and on many Belgian and Swiss contracts, the whole weekend or Sunday is off-peak. A Saturday afternoon top-up at home costs less than a weekday evening one.
4. Ignoring the clock change. Some meters and grid operators keep winter time all year, so the off-peak window shifts by an hour in summer. Check the hours on your meter or your grid operator's site.
5. Charging at full power on a capacity tariff. In Flanders or Luxembourg, a fast night charge can cost more in network fees than it saves in energy. A lower power over a longer window is cheaper.

How many km you recover in an off-peak window

The km you add overnight depend on the charging power and the length of the window. With a real-world consumption of 20 kWh per 100 km, before charging losses:

A typical British EV window lasts about five hours, Spain's weekday valle eight, and Portugal's daily-cycle vazio ten. A standard socket in a 10-hour Portuguese off-peak window covers about 115 km, more than most daily commutes. A single-phase wallbox in a five-hour window covers 185 km. More detail on charging speeds is in our guide to EV charging times.

How much you save in a year

Take a driver covering 15,000 km a year, all charged at home: about 3,000 kWh at the plug.

Our calculation from the prices in the table above; Ofgem price cap October to December 2026. Source: Ofgem.

Two caveats. First, on many two-rate tariffs the day rate is higher than a single-rate price, so the rest of the household's use costs a little more. Compare on your own consumption, not on the headline night price. Second, the saving only materialises if the car actually charges in the window.

The full budget per charge, per km and per month is in our article on the cost of charging an electric car at home, and the comparison of all charging locations in our guide to the EV charging price per kWh.

Do you need a special EV tariff?

Not necessarily. A two-rate, dynamic or EV tariff pays off when three conditions are met:

• you have off-street parking and charge at home most nights;
• you have, or can get, the meter your tariff requires, usually a smart meter;
• your household can live with a higher day rate, or uses little electricity during the day.

If you mostly charge at work or on public chargers, or you drive very little, a single-rate contract may cost less overall. In countries with a regulated time-of-use structure, such as Spain, the periods already apply to everyone and the question is only which supplier offer prices them best.

Charging at night does not harm the battery. What matters for battery health is avoiding sitting at 100 % for long periods and limiting very frequent fast charging; most drivers set a daily limit of 80 to 90 %.

Who keeps the saving: flat rate or real cost?

For a company car, the off-peak saving raises a practical question: who benefits from it, the driver or the employer? It depends on how the company reimburses home charging.

Flat rates ignore the clock. Several countries publish a flat reference that employers may use:

• Germany: a flat €0.34 per kWh in 2026, set from Destatis data, for measured kWh.
• Switzerland: up to CHF 60 a month in canton-approved expense regulations.
• United Kingdom: the Advisory Electricity Rate of 7p per business mile charged at home.
• Belgium: measured kWh, capped at the quarterly CREG reference price.

Take a German driver on a dynamic tariff who charges at night for, say, €0.22 per kWh. At the flat €0.34, the employer pays about 55 % more than the real cost: the driver keeps the saving. Take a colleague on an expensive fixed contract at €0.40: the flat rate leaves the driver out of pocket. A British driver on an EV tariff spends about 2.8p per mile and receives 7p, while a driver on the price cap spends about 8.4p and loses money.

Real cost, session by session, prices each charge at the rate in force when it happened: the night rate for the overnight session, the day rate for the afternoon top-up. The employer pays exactly what the car used, the driver is never out of pocket, and the company captures the off-peak saving across the fleet. Sources: BMF letter of 11 November 2025, GOV.UK advisory fuel rates.

Company car: be repaid at your real off-peak rate

If you drive a company EV, check three things with your fleet manager:

1. Which method your company uses: a flat rate per kWh or per km, a monthly allowance or actual cost.
2. Whether the method recognises two-rate and dynamic tariffs, or applies one price to every kWh.
3. How the kWh are measured: whole-house meter readings cannot separate the car from the rest of the home.

Voltaback reads each session from the car's own data, matches it to the driver's tariff and time window, and reimburses it at actual cost, with no box or charger to install. Voltaback relies on the home's MID-certified meter, not on a standalone cable meter. The full driver's view is in our guide to charging a company car at home, and the employer's view on our home charging reimbursement page.

Turn every off-peak session into a fair reimbursement

Your drivers are already charging at night, in different countries, on different tariffs. The question is whether your reimbursement method sees it. Pricing each session at the right rate, for every car, is what keeps the off-peak saving in the company and every driver whole.

Book a demo to see how Voltaback values home charging session by session on your fleet.