Three months after Ghent introduced a financial penalty for drivers who hog public charging points, the numbers paint a clear picture: behavioral change. The number of long-stay sessions has decreased, charger availability has increased, and the city’s revenue amounted to €230,000.
There is a particular frustration that unites EV drivers across Europe: arriving at a public charging station only to find every bay occupied by a car whose battery finished charging hours ago.
In charging infrastructure circles, the phenomenon has a name: “charge hogging”. City planners have been wrestling with how to discourage it without punishing drivers who genuinely need a long session. Ghent, which is in dire need of funds for its daily operations, decided to put a price on it.
€3.60 an hour
Since February, any driver leaving an electric vehicle connected to one of Ghent’s publicly managed charging stations for more than four hours must pay a rotation surcharge of €3.60 per hour.
This decision followed the city’s own analysis. This showed that vehicles at public chargers drew power for only about 45 percent of the time they were connected. For the remaining 55 percent, the occupied space was simply unavailable to other EV drivers. No parking charge was applied either.
Dropping occupancy rate
The city’s first formal evaluation (covering February through April) shows the fee is achieving its core objective. The clearest signal comes from the longest sessions: the share of charging events where a vehicle remained connected for more than 24 hours fell by half, from 4 to 2 percent. The fork between 8 and 24 hours also shrank, from 37 to 32 percent of total sessions.
At the other end of the spectrum, the proportion of daytime sessions completing within four hours, and thus attracting no surcharge at all, rose from 48 to 52 percent compared with the same period last year.
The occupancy rate across Ghent’s public chargers dropped from an annual average of 45 percent in 2025 to approximately 40 percent. These evolutions directly translate into greater availability for drivers seeking an open bay.
Declining curve
During the same period, Ghent collected approximately €230,000 in rotation charges. But these profits are, of course, temporary and already start declining. While daily revenues averaged around €2,650 in February and March, they have dipped to roughly €2,350 in April, or a decline of about 11 percent.
The profit loss is, paradoxically, a marker of success because it signals that drivers are adapting. A policy designed to change behavior is expected to see exactly this curve. As for now, Ghent is in a transitional phase concerning the rotation tariff.
The drop in occupancy rates cannot be attributed solely to the tariff, because the city has simultaneously been expanding its charging network. More chargers mean more supply, which automatically reduces average occupancy regardless of driver behavior. But the number of electric vehicles on Ghent’s roads is also rising.
Ghent’s three-month snapshot offers an early empirical indication of how charge hogging can be remedied. And it’s real enough to be watched closely by other Belgian cities.
