Comparing charging costs properly: at home, public, fast charging

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The three price worlds

When charging an electric car there is no single price, but three very different cost levels, depending on where you charge:

• At home on your own wallbox: You pay the normal household electricity price, on average around CHF 0.28 per kWh in Switzerland. This is by far the cheapest, especially with your own PV system and night/off-peak tariff.
• Public AC charging (slow, e.g. while shopping): Mostly between CHF 0.30 and 0.60 per kWh, depending on the operator and subscription.
• Public DC fast charging (motorway service area, Fastned/IONITY/Joya): The most expensive, often CHF 0.70 to 0.80 per kWh without a subscription.

What a subscription actually gets you

With the large fast-charging networks, a subscription pays off surprisingly quickly if you regularly charge on the road:

• IONITY: The direct tariff in Switzerland is CHF 0.79/kWh. With the Passport subscription (approx. CHF 12.–/month for the "Power" tier) the price drops by around 20 centimes per kWh.
• Fastned: The ad-hoc price in Switzerland is approx. CHF 0.75/kWh (as of 2026). The "Gold" membership (currently approx. CHF 6.–/month) gives a 30% discount, bringing it down to approx. CHF 0.53/kWh at some locations.
• Joya (GOFAST, MOVE, Swisscharge, Energie 360°): Since 1 October 2026 these four providers operate together as Joya. There are no uniform Joya prices yet; tariffs still vary by charge point. Until now GOFAST had no subscription of its own and recommended the MOVE Comfort subscription or Swisscharge for the cheapest prices. Whether and how these subscriptions continue under Joya is shown on joya.ch.

Rule of thumb: A subscription is worthwhile as soon as you charge at fast-charging stations regularly, meaning several times a month. For occasional charging on a holiday trip, the direct tariff is usually enough, and the subscription's base fee would not pay off.

Why the kilowatt-hour is not the whole story

Two cars with the same charging price can still cause very different costs per kilometre driven, because they use different amounts of electricity per 100 km. An economical small car uses, in our database, sometimes under 14 kWh/100 km, a large SUV more like 20 kWh/100 km or more. At CHF 0.28/kWh at home, over 15,000 km a year that quickly makes a difference of several hundred francs.

That is why our Auto-Check does not work with a flat charging price, but with the actual consumption of each individual vehicle and your own annual mileage. You can adjust the assumed electricity price at the top right under "Assumptions" at any time to your own situation (e.g. a cheaper night tariff or your own PV power).

Practical advice

Anyone with their own charging option charges almost exclusively at home in everyday use and uses public fast charging only for longer trips, which is by far the cheapest. Anyone who can only charge publicly should get a roaming app with no base fee (see our overview) for everyday use and only consider a subscription with a single network once they fast charge regularly.

As of: September 2026. Charging prices change more often than other information on this page, and the values given are indicative figures for orientation, not current tariffs of individual providers.