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Belgium has some 10,000 public or semi-public charging points as of 2021. All points where you can charge your electric car with a badge or card, a subscription and/or a smartphone app. The charging speed, however, depends on the type of charging point. Here’s a tour of the infrastructure in our country to find where to charge your electric car.
The Flemish and Brussels public authorities have introduced a policy of installing 11kW public highway charging points. They have started to deploy thousands of these charging points in their territory. Moreover, if you own a rechargeable electric or hybrid car, but do not have a private parking space to charge it, you can apply for a charging point installation near your home free of charge. However, everyone will be able to use this charging point. It will include two sockets with a parking space reserved for vehicles to recharge. The price of the charge is democratic.
On our highways, the offer is changing fast. In 2021, over half of the service areas already have charging points. Sometimes they are even available in basic rest areas. You can also find charging points along major routes or in tourist or industrial areas. However, the price is sometimes high and their power varies: from 50kW to over 300kW. To reduce the wait time to 30 minutes in a 100% electric car, with a suitable DC charger, operators with super-fast charging points are to be favoured. Even if they are the most expensive. Ionity, Fastned and Total now have equipment with more than 100kW. Tesla also offers 18 points in Belgium with its superchargers, placed at strategic locations on the road network around the country. These Tesla charging points will soon be open to all makes.
Many retailers are installing charging points for their customers who own a rechargeable electric or hybrid car. These are sometimes free (during store opening hours) or paid for charging points. Their power is variable, but enough to recharge your battery for a few dozen kilometres or even longer, while shopping. You will also find 11kW or 22kW charging points in most underground car parks. This also lets you charge your car conveniently when parked.
Unfortunately, there are still areas with poor coverage, particularly in the southern part of the country. To avoid being caught short, there are apps and mapping sites that show charging point locations. However, Belgium is already one of the best equipped countries in Europe for charging electric cars. So it’s relatively easy to get around our country with an electric car. To pay at these charging points, plan to have at least 2 payment cards or badges, with or without a subscription. This will open the doors to almost all Belgian charging points, but also tens or even hundreds of thousands of charging points across Europe. There is also the payment solution using an app or SMS.
