One home charger, two EVs: separate company car and private car charging
A company car and a privately owned EV can use the same home charger if the metering and allocation of charging sessions are suitable for shared use. The employer must not simply treat the charger's entire consumption as company car electricity. Two different charging cards can help with allocation; they replace neither a suitable metering setup nor a verifiable reimbursement process.
For fleet management, the decision therefore starts with the household: Which vehicles charge there, who pays their costs and what records does the existing equipment produce? This article covers organisational preparation in Germany, as of 24 September 2026.
Separate vehicles, not automatically every private journey
The first distinction concerns the vehicle. A company car used privately remains a vehicle provided by the employer. The employee's or their partner's own car is a different vehicle with a different payer. Do not confuse this distinction with splitting every individual company car journey into business and private use.
The German Federal Ministry of Finance letter of 11 November 2025 also addresses expense reimbursement for company vehicles made available for private use. Reimbursement of electricity for an employee's own private vehicle is treated differently. Establish the vehicle's identity before setting the tariff.
In practice, a small allocation table helps: vehicle identifier, registered keeper or business allocation, authorised users, reimbursement recipient and validity period. Avoid labels such as “my car” if they will not make it possible to identify the vehicle later.
Choose between shared and separate metering
A dedicated metering arrangement solely for the company car can simplify the separation. It requires space and potentially additional installation work. Shared hardware can avoid this effort, but requires reliable allocation of every charging session relevant to reimbursement.
Arrangement | What needs to be checked | Frequently overlooked point |
|---|---|---|
One charger solely for the company car | Suitable stationary metering and fixed usage | Later private car charging changes the arrangement |
One charger for company and private cars | Suitable metering with unambiguous session allocation | A card identifier alone does not reliably identify the car |
Two company cars from different employers | Separate evidence trails and recipients | One household does not mean one contracting party |
Shared charger in the building | Operator, tariffs and individual billing | Building accounts are not automatically supporting records for an employer |
The AGME technical guidance describes a simplified stationary reimbursement arrangement with narrowly defined requirements. This does not amount to approval for any form of mixed use. For your combination of meter, charger and reimbursement process, obtain confirmation that the proposed use is suitable.
Define an easy-to-understand charging routine
Employees' daily use should involve a few clear steps. First, the vehicle is selected or charging is started with the access method intended for it. The user can then check that the correct allocation is active. At the end, it must be clear whether the session was recorded as eligible for reimbursement.
Avoid a process in which allocation takes place from memory weeks later. This becomes particularly prone to errors when the vehicles charge at similar frequencies or several people use the same charger. The rule must also make sense to a partner who only wants to charge the private vehicle.
Label access methods by vehicle or purpose. Also document whether a card is intended to be transferable and what happens if it is lost. A card labelled “private” only helps if it actually cannot create sessions eligible for reimbursement. This belongs in testing, not just in the user instructions.
Test the wrong selection too
A successful charging session with the company car card is only the beginning. Next, test a private car charging session. It must not be included in the employer's amount. Check whether its record remains available to the private user and whether the reimbursement process presents the excluded quantity clearly.
Then test a short, deliberately misallocated session as part of an agreed test. Can its allocation be corrected in a controlled way? Is the original record retained? Who may approve a change? A process that fixes errors only by deleting the entire record makes later verification harder.
Other useful test cases include a replacement vehicle, a new card and a charging session spanning a month-end. These show whether the system represents an actual vehicle history or merely uses current display names. Always check the exported record, rather than relying solely on the mobile phone display.
What a plausible month-end close looks like
A month should only be closed once every session has a traceable status: company car, private or awaiting clarification. Unresolved charging sessions remain visible as open cases. They are not automatically assigned to the employer simply to make total consumption match an invoice.
Hypothetical example: A shared charger records a total of 410 kWh in September. Of this, 260 kWh can be verifiably allocated to the company car and 130 kWh to the private vehicle. Another 20 kWh remain unresolved. Initially, only the verifiably allocated 260 kWh can be reviewed under the agreed employer reimbursement process. The 20 kWh remain a case requiring clarification; they have neither disappeared nor become private by default.
This example describes a process control, not the suitability of a particular device. The total quantity serves as a plausibility check. It does not replace an individual record that is legally and technically suitable for the billing method used.
Avoid three persistent sources of error
The first error is a fixed percentage split. “The company car accounts for about two thirds of charging” may be enough for rough demand planning, but does not replace specific evidence of energy use. Mileage, weather, holidays and public charging continually change the ratio.
The second error is a shared access card without any further vehicle allocation. It may document access, but does not necessarily identify the connected car. Check what the technology actually recognises and what input is still required from the user.
The third error is an unreported change in the household. A new private vehicle, a change of employer or a rented-out self-contained flat can change the arrangement originally approved. Agree a simple obligation to report such changes and name the recipient within the company.
Prepare shared use before the rollout
You can find the general reimbursement rules in the article Charging a company car at home: reimbursing electricity costs correctly in 2026. For households with several vehicles, supplement this foundation with a documented user and metering arrangement, clear charging rules and a tested correction process.
The StromNow offering for company home charging records charging sessions with vehicle and driver allocation and prepares reimbursement records. The shared use possible with your hardware must be agreed specifically. Discuss mixed use with StromNow: state the number of vehicles, who pays for them, the existing charger and the desired reimbursement process.
Frequently asked questions
Do private journeys in a company car have to be treated like a second privately owned car?
No, these are different distinctions. The German Federal Ministry of Finance letter of 11 November 2025 also addresses expense reimbursement in Germany for company vehicles made available for private use. Electricity for an employee's own private vehicle is treated differently. When a charger is shared, it must therefore first be clear which vehicle the energy is allocated to. A flat-rate split based on assumed shares of journeys does not replace this evidence.
Are two RFID cards enough for a company car and a private car?
Two cards can support allocation, but alone prove neither which vehicle was actually charged nor whether the metering chain is suitable. Check whether private charging is excluded from employer reimbursement and whether incorrect allocations can be corrected in a traceable way. The AGME technical guidance of 9 January 2026 does not provide blanket approval for all forms of mixed use. Have the specific use confirmed before the rollout.
What happens to charging sessions that cannot be reliably allocated to a vehicle?
Keep them as open cases requiring clarification. They should not automatically be assigned to the employer simply to make the total match the charger's consumption. Check the available session data and user history; document every substantiated addition. Verifiably allocated sessions can be reviewed separately under the agreed process. A later correction must show which original session was changed.
What changes when two company cars from different employers share a charger?
You need separate evidence trails and clearly assigned reimbursement recipients for both vehicles. A shared household does not automatically mean a single contracting party. Clarify the metering setup, data access and approval with both employers before using shared reimbursement arrangements. The requirements of the simplified stationary setup described in the AGME technical guidance must not be transferred to a different contractual and usage arrangement without checking them.