For pool cars, the electricity is the small line: a day of pool driving costs a few euros of energy at typical business tariffs, as the examples below show. The question that matters is attribution — which team, project or booking used it. On a wallbox like the EV-ACT3204PE, every session starts with an RFID card tap, so each charge is tied to a card. Set the cards up for pool use and the charging log becomes the pool’s cost record.
Key Takeaways
- A pool car’s charging energy costs a few euros a day at typical tariffs — use your own bill’s price, not an average.
- Charger size changes the wait, never the cost per kWh.
- Card-per-car plus the booking diary is the record design most pools settle on.
- Session records are internal allocation estimates, not certified metering; billing integration is a written confirmation, not an assumption.
What a Pool Car’s Charging Costs
The arithmetic is one line: energy used × your electricity price. Everything below uses an example tariff of €0.30 per kWh, invented for illustration — replace it with the price on your own business bill, because that figure, not any average, decides your real cost.
| Pool-car pattern (examples) | Energy | Cost at the example €0.30/kWh |
|---|---|---|
| Short top-up between two bookings | 10 kWh | €3.00 |
| A full day out, recharged on return | 30 kWh | €9.00 |
| Near-full refill of a large battery | 50 kWh | €15.00 |
Two things follow. Even the heaviest pool day is a modest energy cost. And the charger’s size does not appear in the maths: a 22 kW post and a smaller one deliver the same kilowatt-hours for the same driving — the bigger post just finishes sooner. Cost per kWh is a tariff question, never a charger question.
Card per Car, or Card per Driver?
Pool cars break the usual workplace pattern — the car is shared, so who is “the user”? The card design decides what your records can answer. How card systems work generally is covered in our overview of RFID and user management for shared chargers; for a pool, the choice is this:
| Design | What the records answer | The weakness |
|---|---|---|
| One card stays with each car | Exactly what each vehicle cost to run — the natural record for pool accounting | It does not say who drove; the booking diary answers that |
| A card is issued to the driver for each booking | Which person or booking charged | Forgotten or swapped cards quietly corrupt the record |
Most pools land on card-per-car plus the booking diary: vehicle costs from the charger, driver accountability from the diary, and the two reconciled when a number looks wrong.
What the Records Are — and Are Not
Keep the accounting honest. Session records tied to cards are the working estimate pools use to allocate costs between teams and projects, and for internal allocation they are usually enough. They are not certified, billing-grade metering, and per-user billing or payroll-style integration is not stated for this unit — if finance needs metered figures or an automated billing feed, that is a written confirmation to get first. Any tax or benefit treatment is likewise your employer’s tax adviser’s territory. The wider programme around the posts is covered in our workplace EV charging program guide.
Where 22 kW Earns Its Keep in a Pool
Pool cars turn around: back at lunch, out again at two. Where a car accepts 22 kW — written conditionally, because many cars accept less — a midday hour on the EV-ACT3204PE returns a large share of a battery and keeps the pool moving. Where a car accepts less, it charges at its own rate; the cost per kWh is identical, only the wait changes. The ACT3204PE is a hardwired three-phase wallbox (380–400 V, 32 A), Type 2 in cable or socket form, with RFID and app control, an IP66 rating and CE marking — fixed posts for vehicles that live on site, with the card system as their logbook. More layouts are on our commercial EV charging page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we bill departments automatically from the card records?
The records tell you what each card — and with card-per-car, each vehicle — used. Turning that into internal charges is your finance process: multiply by your tariff and allocate. Automated per-user billing is not stated for this unit, so confirm any billing scope in writing first.
Are the session figures exact enough for cost allocation?
For allocating costs between internal teams, session records are the estimate pools normally work with. For anything customer-facing, regulated or disputed, ask about certified metering instead.
Does charging pool cars cost more than charging staff cars?
The electricity maths is identical. Pool cars draw more per day because they work all day and return emptier — the difference is usage, not the charger or tariff.
Related Reading
- How to Plan a Workplace EV Charging Program
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
- RFID and User Management for Shared EV Chargers
- What Is an RFID Card for EV Charging?
