We don’t advise on what specific tariff you should set, but for some help on what may be competitive, you can compare to published public charging tariffs. Some useful resources are the Zapmap price index and chargeprice.
This article also helps to understand how many kWh a driver might be expected to charge per session on average, which helps if you’re using a per kWh tariff.
The Switch Platform offers three tariff measures; per kWh of energy delivered, per minute, and a flat session fee.
There are two additional fees you can add; a session fee (also known as a start fee) applied at the start of a session regardless of time or energy delivered, and a blocking fee (also known as a parking fee) applied over time while the parking spot is blocked by a vehicle that’s finished charging.
A minimum and maximum overall session fee can be set so that no session can go below or above a certain price.
You can also create a variable tariff that has different values at different times of the day or week. This allows for the creating of more complex tariff structures which encourage drivers to charge at quieter times in the week for example.
When you facilitate a public charging session through the Switch Platform it means some third party (known as an MSP) has taken the payment from the driver and will then pay you (via Switch) that money, minus some fee. This is the “MSP fee”.
The other fee is that which Switch charges, which covers part of the payment for the Switch Platform and the fees associated with being a member of roaming hubs. To see our latest transaction fees head to https://www.switch-ev.com/pricing.
Both of these will be automatically deducted before you are paid via Switch for a public charging session on your network. We aim to minimise all fees by negotiating with MSPs, they will always be presented clearly to you and any changes communicated as promptly as possible.
A tariff is what you “charge” (in money) for your customers to “charge” (their vehicles). The Switch Platform offers various structures for tariffs to let you adopt whatever pricing strategy suits you.
Tariffs are used first for reporting, so any tariff you set on a station will show accurate session cost and revenue figures throughout the Switch Platform.
Secondly, they can be sent out to our integration partners so they know what to show the Tariff as on third-party apps and services, and then also collect that exact Tariff from the driver and pay you. The way this works depends on the integration, read our integration FAQs here to learn more.
Head to the sessions tab, choose a date range in the top right then select "Download CSV" to download the data to your computer. This data can also be accessed from our API using the /sessions endpoints
Pre authorisation charges are a common practice in EV charging payments when the total fee cannot be known ahead of time. Whether or nor a pre-authorisation charge is taken depends on the specific payment integration being used.
Click ‘Create new tariff’ in the top right-hand corner.
This will take you to the ‘Create a tariff’ page where you can enter the tariff’s name, the currency and the cost per kWh.
Once entered, click ‘Create and finish’. You will then be taken back to the main tariff page where you can see your tariff.
The Switch Platform supports a number of payment integrations which can be viewed and enabled in the Switch App store. Examples are Hubject which allow for payments from various mobility service providers in Europe, Paythru which allows for direct payment to the charge point operator through a QR code or mobile app, and Payter which allows payment by credit or debit card.
To apply a tariff to a charging station, go to the ‘Stations’ page within the left-hand side menu. Find the charging station you want to apply the tariff to.
Click into the charger, under ‘Station management’ on the right-hand side of the page there is a ‘Tariff’ option with an edit button. This lets you set a tariff of your choosing.
On the right-hand side of this tariff is a column named ‘Actions’ and here you can click the ‘Delete’ button (a trash can). This lets you delete the tariff if no chargers are using it.
If the tariff has chargers attached to it, you must remove all of the chargers attached before you can delete the tariff. This can be done through the ‘Stations’ page.
On the right-hand side of this tariff is a column named ‘Actions’. Here you can click the ‘Edit’ button (a notepad and pencil). This will then let you to edit the tariff.
Once you have made the edits you require, click ‘Update tariff’ and you will then be taken back to the main tariff page where you can see your tariff.
Tariffs for charging stations can be created, edited, and deleted from the ‘Tariffs’ tab in the left-hand menu.
