Do idle fees start when charging ends or when it starts?

In most tariffs in our catalogue they are counted from the start of the session. EnBW refers to 4 hours of connection time, Aral and ADAC to free minutes from the start. Whether your car is still charging does not matter.

Are idle fees charged overnight?

It depends on the tariff. With Elli IONITY Boost and Ultra, the fee at IONITY only applies from 06:00 to 22:00. With Elli Premium at AC chargers, only from 08:00 to 23:00. EnBW, EWE Go and ADAC e-Charge state no overnight pause.

Sometimes. EnBW caps the fee at €12 per session, EWE Go at €24 at partner chargers. ADAC e-Charge at third-party chargers and Shell at its own rapid chargers state no cap.

Yes. AFIR explicitly allows a per-minute fee at chargers of 50 kW or more to prevent long occupation, and requires it to be shown at the charger before you start. It sets no upper limit.

Idle fees at EV chargers: when they start, how to avoid them

At a glance

An idle fee (also overstay, blocking or parking fee) is a per-minute charge once your car stays plugged in beyond a set time. AFIR explicitly allows it at chargers of 50 kW or more (Art. 5(4)).
In the WATTWEG catalogue, checked on 24 October 2026, the free time ranges from 30 minutes (Elli Premium at EnBW rapid chargers) to 360 minutes (Aral tariffs at third-party AC chargers).
Fees are mostly €0.10 to €0.15 per minute. Some providers cap them (EnBW €12, EWE Go €24), others state no cap (ADAC e-Charge at third-party chargers, Shell at its own rapid chargers).
Overnight at a third-party AC charger with ADAC e-Charge from 19:00 to 07:00: (720 − 120) × €0.15 = €90 in idle fees on top of the electricity.

Most annoyances at public chargers cost time. Idle fees cost money, sometimes more than the energy. They are also easy to miss: they sit in the small print, they depend on both the tariff and the operator, and they keep running while you sleep. This is a guide to when they start with which provider, how to calculate them, and how to avoid them in most cases. The examples come from German, Dutch and Nordic tariffs, which is what our catalogue covers.

When the clock starts

The question that matters most is when the free time begins. In the tariffs we recorded, it nearly always starts when you plug in or start charging, not when the battery is full. EnBW, for example, refers to “4 hours of connection time”. So even a car that is still charging can run up fees. That mostly affects slow AC charging.

Who charges what

All values from our catalogue with a source on the provider’s website. Checked on 24 October 2026; prices change.

Tariff	Where	From	Price	Cap	Time window
EnBW mobility+ S, M, L	all chargers	240 min	€0.10/min	€12	none stated
EWE Go tariff	partner chargers in Germany only	240 min	€0.10/min	€24	none stated
MAINGAU Autostrom	AC / DC	180 / 60 min	€0.10/min	€12	none stated
ADAC e-Charge	third-party AC / DC	120 / 45 min	€0.15/min	none stated	not in Croatia
Aral pulse Klassik, Extra	third-party AC / DC	360 / 45 min	€0.15/min	none stated	not in Croatia
Shell Recharge Basic, e-Deal	Shell rapid chargers in Germany	60 min	€0.15/min	none	none stated
Elli IONITY Boost, Ultra	IONITY	60 min	€0.10/min	none stated	06:00 to 22:00 only
Elli Premium	other DC in Germany	90 min	€0.15/min	none stated	all day
Elli Premium	other AC in Germany	210 min	€0.07/min	none stated	08:00 to 23:00 only
Elli Premium	EnBW DC	30 min	€0.25/min	none stated	all day

No idle fee is stated for Aral pulse at its own chargers, for Vattenfall InCharge in Germany (its homepage says “no idle fee, regardless of payment method”) or for EWE Go at its own chargers with the EWE Go tariff.

ADAC and Aral disagree about third-party AC chargers: ADAC says 120 minutes, Aral’s tariff page says 360. Our rule for ambiguous data is to use the stricter value and show a warning.

Worked examples

Coffee stop at a Shell rapid charger. Plug in, buy a coffee, come back after 75 minutes. From minute 60 it costs €0.15 per minute: (75 − 60) × €0.15 = €2.25. With no cap, three hours would be (180 − 60) × €0.15 = €18.

Overnight at a hotel with an EnBW card. 720 minutes. The fee starts after 240 minutes at €0.10 per minute and is capped at €12, which it reaches after another 120 minutes. Total: €12.

Elli Premium at an AC charger overnight. Arrive at 19:00. The fee would start after 210 minutes, at 22:30, but only runs from 08:00 to 23:00. Counted: 22:30 to 23:00 and 08:00 to 09:00 if you leave at nine. 90 minutes × €0.07 = €6.30.

Long lunch at an EnBW rapid charger with Elli Premium. Elli lists a special price there of €0.83/kWh and an idle fee from minute 30 at €0.25. One hour costs (60 − 30) × €0.25 = €7.50 extra. With an EnBW card at the same charger no fee would apply in that hour.

These are calculations, not observed bills. Actual billing may round differently.

Why overnight AC is the trap

AC charging is slow. A car with an 11 kW on-board charger needs about five hours for 50 kWh. With two or three hours of free time, the fee starts while the car is still charging. Germany’s federation of consumer organisations describes cases where a car still charging has to be moved at one in the morning to avoid fees, and calls for 30 minutes’ grace after charging ends and no idle fees between 22:00 and 06:00 at normal chargers (vzbv, pp. 7 and 8). That is a proposal, not current law.

How to avoid idle fees

Check before you start. At 50 kW and above the per-minute fee must be shown at the charger. For charge cards it is in the app or on the tariff page. Remember two numbers: from when, and how much.
Set an alarm for plug-in time plus free time, ten minutes early. WATTWEG does this as a notification, and with Plus as a Live Activity on the lock screen.
Stop at about 80 percent on rapid chargers. Above that, most cars charge much more slowly, so waiting for 100 percent costs time and risks the fee.
Choose the right card overnight: tariffs with a cap, with an overnight pause, or operators without idle fees.
For AC, prefer long free time: 360 minutes beats 120.

What WATTWEG shows

WATTWEG shows the idle fee as a time, not a footnote: “From 02:14 it costs €0.10 per minute, up to €12.” Time windows like Elli’s are part of the calculation; conflicting sources show a warning and we use the higher cost. Where a provider doesn’t publish a fee, we say so. Allego, for example, writes that additional costs “such as overstay fees” may apply but gives no amount, so we don’t guess. For the basics of paying without a contract, see Ad hoc charging with a bank card.