EV charging · Overnight charging and idle fees
Verdict
Charge slowly where the car sleeps, but check the unit first.
By the kWh, a night on a hotel or street post is the cheapest charge of the trip. By the minute, as some Austrian posts still bill, the same night can cost €302. And once the battery is full, several networks start an idle fee within minutes.
Run the numbers on a 60 kWh fill. Ionity Direct in Italy, at €0.85, is €51. Allego's ordinary Dutch AC post, at €0.39, is €23.40. Free To X sells the same electricity on the same Italian motorway at €0.79 on a high-power charger or €0.50 on AC, €17.40 apart on one fill, for the price of eating lunch where you stopped anyway.
So my order is unromantic: charge slowly wherever the car sits overnight, and treat the motorway as a top-up to reach the next one. One rule on hotels: if the hotel's own site does not state what its charger costs, ask when you book, and ask in what unit. "EV charging" on a booking site means a socket exists, not that it is free, working, or billed by the kWh.
Most public charging in Europe is now billed per kWh. Austria is where that breaks.
Wien Energie, which runs essentially all of Vienna's public charging, billed every session by charging time until 2 October 2023, and still sells a time-based tariff:
| Charging point | Per minute | Per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 11 kW | €0.084 day, €0.069 night | €5.04 / €4.14 |
| 12–50 kW | €0.420 | €25.20 |
| 51–400 kW | €1.690 | €101.40 |
The band is set by the post, not by your car: Wien Energie's sheet says the figures are the point's maximum output, independent of what the vehicle draws. A 22 kW AC post, the ordinary kind in a hotel garage, is therefore in the middle band. Leave the car on one overnight on the time tariff and twelve hours is €302, most of it billed after the battery was already full.
Per kWh, an overnight charge costs what the energy costs. Per minute, it costs what the night costs.
Tesla's congestion fee applies in the euro countries, and its page states there is no limit on what accrues: twenty minutes over lunch is €10. Allego's overstay fee covers thirteen countries. For Ionity and Fastned that is not a promise one will never exist, but at the time of writing there is none on their pages.
ParkingInEurope's city pages carry the local version. Vienna is the clearest: Wien Energie's ad hoc rate is €0.56/kWh, you need no Parkschein while the car is charging, and its FAQ says to leave within 15 minutes of the "charging finished" push notification, after which the City of Vienna writes a parking ticket. Amsterdam reserves its kerbside bays for cars that are actually charging, and in a city with more than 10,000 connectors that is enforced. Monaco is the outlier: Monaco ON has nearly 300 points across 17 public car parks, and it has been free to use since it opened.
Paris draws the line differently. The city states that charging spaces are not classed as parking, so you pay for the electricity and no parking fee. A kindness, and also why a Parisian bay is never empty.
Where to leave the car, from our sister site. Each card is the short version; the full guide has every car park, the tow pound and the charging points.
ParkingInEurope
Twenty-three districts, one short-stay zone, two hours maximum.
Full parking guide for Vienna Checked 22 September 2026
ParkingInEurope
Up to €8 an hour on the street, €6 a day if you know the P+R rules.
Full parking guide for Amsterdam Checked 16 September 2026
ParkingInEurope
The richest car park in the world gives you the first hour free. And the electricity.
Full parking guide for Monaco Checked 16 September 2026
ParkingInEurope
A city that charges by the hour, by the zone and by the kilo. Come on a Sunday.
Full parking guide for Paris Checked 16 September 2026
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