ERE Earnings Explained: How Your EV Fleet Makes Money While Charging

"Your EVs earn money while charging" sounds like a marketing slogan — but it describes a real, regulated mechanism. In the Netherlands, renewable energy delivered to road transport generates tradable certificates. For EV charging, we call these units Energy Reduction Equivalents (EREs). This article explains where they come from, who can claim them, and how they turn into actual payouts for fleet owners.

The mechanism starts with an obligation, not a subsidy. Suppliers of fossil fuels for transport are legally required to prove that a growing share of the energy they bring to market is renewable. They rarely produce that renewable energy themselves — instead, they buy certificates from parties who do. Electricity charged into EVs counts, which is what makes your charge points a source of certificates. This follows the same logic as the Dutch HBE system (hernieuwbare brandstofeenheden) for renewable fuel units.

Because the certificates are bought by obligated parties, they have market value. Demand is driven by legal blending targets that increase over time, while supply comes from renewable fuel and charging volumes. The result is a traded price that moves with the market — which is why any euro amount you see in examples is an assumption, not a promise. ChargeControl's demo calculations use an assumption of €0.15 per ERE; the actual value follows the market.

Who can claim EREs? The key requirements are ownership and measurement. You need charge points whose charging volumes can be measured and verified per session, and the right to register those volumes — which is typically the case for companies that operate their own EV fleet and their own charging infrastructure. This is exactly why fleets of roughly 10 to 50 vehicles are in a sweet spot: enough charging volume to matter, with infrastructure under the company's own control.

In practice, most fleet owners never claim anything, for a simple reason: the process involves registration, verified metering data, certificate creation, and finding a buyer. None of these steps is impossible, but together they are far from a fleet manager's day job. That administrative gap is the money left on the table — the charging already happens, the certificates simply never get created or sold.

ChargeControl connects charging assets and verified data, then supports the applicable ERE route where eligibility, registration and scheme requirements are met. Fleet Managed costs €9.99 per managed point per month plus 10% of realised ERE value, so the customer keeps 90%. Fleet Flexible has no monthly platform fee and uses 30% of realised ERE value, so the customer keeps 70%. Actual eligibility, issuance and value follow the scheme and market.

How much could this be for your fleet? That depends on how many vehicles you run, how much they charge, and where they charge — and on the market price of certificates at the time of sale. Rather than quoting generic figures, we calculate it from your own fleet data: the free scan gives you a personalized estimate within 24 hours, with no account and no obligation.