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Wallbox subsidies in 2026: Which Swiss cantons still pay, and for how long

Wallbox subsidies in 2026: Which Swiss cantons still pay, and for how long

Ivan Miric·

A wallbox installed in Switzerland typically costs CHF 1'500 to 5'000. A bidirectional DC model quickly costs double. Several cantons and municipalities still cushion that with subsidy programmes, but the pots are draining, and for some, 2026 is the last year.

Zurich: CHF 50 million, until the pot is empty

The canton of Zurich has earmarked CHF 50 million for charging infrastructure. The programme runs until exhausted, no later than end-2026.

It funds basic charging infrastructure in apartment buildings (rising mains, building connection) and privately installed bidirectional DC wallboxes in residential buildings. The second point is a small revolution: Zurich supports bidirectional charging while most cantons still do not.

Lucerne: CHF 350 per parking spot in apartment buildings

Lucerne supports the basic infrastructure in multi-party buildings at CHF 350 per parking spot. The grant covers shared infrastructure, not the wallbox itself, that is the part to get right.

In practice: get the rising mains and load-management cabinet funded now, and let tenants add their individual wallboxes as their EVs arrive over the years.

Basel-Stadt, St. Gallen, Solothurn and others

Several cantons run smaller programmes or advisory schemes. Conditions vary, some only fund apartment buildings, some only single-family homes, some only commercial sites.

A central list lives at energiefranken.ch: enter the postcode, see the programmes.

Levers that often beat the subsidy

Three knobs that usually move more money than a cantonal grant:

  • Self-consumption. Charging straight from your own solar saves the gap between consumer and feed-in tariffs, 15 to 25 Rp./kWh in 2026, depending on region.
  • Load management. Several wallboxes on a dynamic controller can avoid an expensive house-connection upgrade.
  • Bidirectional. Using the car as your home battery replaces a separate storage system and trims the evening import tariff.

What this looks like for your project

For a single-family home with solar, an 11 kW AC wallbox with load management is usually enough. In an apartment building, invest now in prepared infrastructure, individual wallboxes follow as tenants buy EVs.

Free State designs solar, storage, wallbox and load management as one package. We prepare subsidy applications; you sign and receive the funds directly from the canton.

Get in touch before the next pot empties.

Sources: Canton of Zurich (DINAMO), Canton of Lucerne, energiefranken.ch, CKW. As of April 2026. Information without guarantee.