MID meter or vehicle data: which is accurate?

Reimbursement is only as good as the data behind it

When employees charge their company car at home, they pay for the electricity first and you pay it back afterwards. To do that fairly, you need a record of every charging session that you can rely on: how many kWh were charged, into which vehicle, where and when. That record sets the amount you reimburse, and it’s the proof you keep.

So how accurate is EV charging data? That depends on where it’s measured and what exactly is measured. A meter in a charging station and the data from the car look at the same flow of energy from different places. And they don’t answer the same questions.

What makes charging data reliable enough to reimburse?

Counting kWh is only part of the job. For each session, reliable charging data answers five questions:

• How much? The energy charged, in kWh.
• Which vehicle? Proof that the electricity went into the company car, not into another car on the same charger.
• Where? At home, at work or at a public charger. Only home charging is paid back to the employee.
• When? A date and time, so each reimbursement covers the right period.
• Can you check it? An objective, verifiable record you can show if the tax authorities or an auditor ask for it.

What MID certification covers, and what it doesn’t

MID stands for the Measuring Instruments Directive, the EU rules for measuring instruments such as electricity meters. A MID-certified meter in a charging station measures the energy it delivers within a legally permitted margin of error. That margin isn’t zero: depending on its accuracy class, a MID-certified meter may deviate by up to 1% (class C), 2% (class B) or 3.5% (class A), and more at extreme temperatures.

MID is a quality mark for the meter. It says nothing about:

• The car. A charging station measures whatever is plugged in, whether that’s the company car, a partner’s car or a neighbour’s. It can’t tell them apart.
• Charging elsewhere. Sessions on a standard socket, at a second home or at a charger without a certified meter stay out of the picture.
• The rest of the process. A meter reading still has to reach the employer, be matched to the right driver and be turned into a reimbursement.

Do you need a MID-certified charging station to reimburse home charging?

Not by name, but accuracy does count. In Belgium, the conditions for reimbursing home charging (circular 2024/C/77) don’t mention MID. Since an update in June 2026 (circular 2026/C/68), systems bought, rented or leased from 2025 must measure kWh with accuracy class B under the Royal Decree of 15 April 2016, the Belgian version of the MID rules, or an equivalent class. The circular starts from a charging station that reports consumption to the employer, and also accepts other forms, as long as each company car’s consumption is measured separately and can be verified. Employees may use their own charging station on the same condition. Germany goes a step further, as you’ll read below.

Charging station meter or vehicle data?

A charging station measures the electricity that leaves the charger. An electric car measures the electricity that comes in through its charging port. Both describe the same energy drawn from the grid, so the two figures should be close to each other.

Energy from the grid vs energy in the battery

The battery is a different story. The grid supplies alternating current (AC), while the battery stores direct current (DC). The car converts one into the other, and that conversion produces heat. So not all the energy that enters the car ends up in the battery: depending on the car brand, charging efficiency is roughly 75% to 95%.

These charging losses aren’t a measuring error. They happen with every car and every charger. But they do matter for reimbursement. Your employee pays for the energy taken from the grid, losses included. Reimbursing only the energy stored in the battery would leave them out of pocket. That’s why reimbursement should be based on the energy measured at the charging port.

How EEVEE gets the data from the vehicle

EEVEE Mobility reads charging data straight from the vehicle, through the car manufacturer’s API. There’s no extra hardware to install and no specific charging station required. The driver connects the car once in the EEVEE app and gives consent to share the data.

• Measured at the charging port: the reimbursement uses the energy that flows into the car through the charging port, the same energy that leaves the charger. According to EEVEE’s own measurements, that figure deviates by no more than 2% from the home energy meter.
• Linked to the company car: every session is tied to the vehicle’s chassis number (VIN), so you know the electricity went into the company car.
• Classified automatically: each session is marked as home, work or public charging.
• Up to date: data is synced every 15 to 30 minutes.
• 20+ car brands: EEVEE works with more than 20 car brands.
• GDPR-compliant: data is only shared once the driver has given consent.

The EEVEE app also shows how much of the energy that entered the car actually reached the battery. That figure is for information only. It gives insight into the vehicle’s charging efficiency and the quality of each session, but it isn’t used to calculate reimbursements.

In Germany, the vehicle’s meter is accepted as proof

In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) set out new rules for home charging of company cars in a letter dated 11 November 2025, in force since 1 January 2026. The kWh charged must be recorded by a separate meter. According to the BMF, that meter can explicitly be built into the wallbox or into the vehicle. The Bavarian State Tax Office (BayLfSt) added in June 2026 that, for payroll tax purposes, it doesn’t have to be MID-compliant or calibrated. So for payroll tax, data from the car’s own meter is accepted as evidence.

Reliable data, whatever the charger

A MID-certified charging station is a perfectly good meter. But it isn’t the only route to reliable data, and it can’t tell you which car was charged. Vehicle data measures the energy at the charging port, ties each session to the company car and works with any charger or socket. What counts for reimbursement is an accurate, verifiable record of every session.

Want to see how EEVEE Mobility turns vehicle data into reliable reimbursements? Book a demo.