EV charging · Charging apps

How many charging apps do you need to drive an EV across Europe?

Checked 1 October 2026 on each operator's own price page · skynomad

Pick your trip and your car. The calculator works out how much you will buy at fast chargers in each country, using the same route and stops as the charging costs page, then tries every combination of the three networks that publish their app and subscription prices: Ionity, Fastned and Electra. For each number of apps it shows the cheapest choice and what it saves against paying by card at the charger.

The one figure you have to guess is how often you will actually be able to stop at the network you have the app for. A network you can use is assumed to get your stop most of the time, and a second network most of what is left, but no network has a station at every exit. If your route runs past plenty of one network, set the share higher; if you are not sure, leave it. And because Electra has far fewer stations than Ionity outside France and the Benelux, the calculator also shows the best plan if you already know which network most of your stops will be at.

Why one app usually does it

Electra+ Smart is the surprise on most routes. For €4.99 a month it takes €0.20 off every kWh at Electra's own stations, and it also gives a fixed rate at Ionity, Fastned and Atlante, the three networks Electra calls its ChargeLeague partners: €0.64 a kWh at Ionity and Fastned in Germany, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands, CHF 0.64 in Switzerland, €0.59 in Belgium, €0.54 in Spain and €0.49 in France. In Italy that is €0.21 less than Ionity's own pay-as-you-go price. The partner rate works with the Electra charging card, free for subscribers, which takes 3 to 8 days by post, so order it before you leave.

Ionity Power is the other strong one, and the better choice when most of your charging is at Ionity in the expensive countries: €11.99 a month for Ionity at €0.31 in France, €0.41 in Germany and €0.48 in Italy. Ionity Motion, at €5.99, sits in between. Both have no minimum term and a month's notice.

Fastned Gold takes 30% off Fastned's standard price and costs €5.99 a month until 31 October 2026, a half-price offer. Even without it, paying in the Fastned app takes 10% off, everywhere except Germany. Fastned's stations are mostly in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, so on a route further south it rarely comes out on top.

Every price, side by side

All prices per kWh with VAT, read on each operator's own page on 1 October 2026, converted to euro where the country uses another currency. "Typical by card" is the middle of what the big networks charge without an app, as on the charging costs page. Electra's app price varies with demand in France, Belgium and Spain, so the table shows the middle of its range there.

Monthly fees: Ionity Motion €5.99, Ionity Power €11.99, Fastned Gold €5.99 until 31 October 2026, Electra+ Essential €1.99 (not in the table: €0.10 off at Electra), Electra+ Smart €4.99. Fastned's app discount does not apply in Germany. Electra card prices are "from" prices.

Roaming cards: one card for every network

A roaming card or app opens almost every network, but it does not make charging cheaper. The Chargemap Pass costs €19.90 including packaging and delivery, is valid two years, and replacements are €7. Chargemap's own support page says the fixed charges were removed and its margin now sits inside the charge rates. Their published Ionity rate in France, without the add-on subscription, was €0.594/kWh on 1 March 2025, against Ionity's own Direct price of €0.55 now. You pay a little for not installing nine apps.

Octopus Electroverse sends the card free and states it charges no subscription or transaction fees, passing through the operators' rates. For a visitor, that is the one I order first.

What the calculator leaves out

Tesla Superchargers open to other cars set prices per site and only show them in the Tesla app, so they are not in the calculator. Nor are the national networks in Poland, Czechia, Hungary or Portugal, which have no app plan with a published price that we could compare; there, Ionity is the only option the calculator can price.

Subscriptions renew every month. Put a reminder in your calendar for the day you get home, and cancel the ones you will not use again.