How we calculate CO₂e avoided, grid intensity and renewable share
Updated 8 October 2026
Your Monta dashboard shows how much CO₂e your network's charging has avoided, how much CO₂e each kWh of electricity carried, and how much of it came from renewable sources. It also shows the petrol comparison: how much money is saved for every kWh charged, compared with fuelling a petrol or diesel car. This article explains where each number comes from, so you can check our working — and understand what the figures do and don't claim.
To understand the purpose of the dashboard, see Understanding the Sustainability dashboard.
How is CO₂e avoided calculated?
Every time a vehicle charges on your network, we compare two things: the emissions of the electricity actually used, and the emissions of the petrol or diesel that would have been burned covering the same distance. The difference is what was avoided.
CO₂e avoided = ( baseline × kWh charged ) − CO₂e emitted
↑ ↑
the combustion car the electricity
that was not driven that was used
The figures are measured on a lifecycle basis. That means the full chain (extracting, refining and transporting the fuel, and the equivalent upstream emissions for electricity), not only what leaves the exhaust or the chimney. It is also why the figures are CO₂e rather than CO₂: the lifecycle covers methane and nitrous oxide alongside carbon dioxide.
Only two inputs go into the calculation. The kWh figure is the energy delivered at the charging station, which is what the station meters rather than what reaches the battery. The vehicle efficiency figure is measured in the same place, so the two match.
What ICE baseline does Monta use?
The baseline is what a combustion car would have emitted over the distance an electric vehicle (EV) travels on one kWh. Monta uses 1,020 g CO₂e per kWh in Europe, and 1,266 g in the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
The higher figure applies where the vehicle being replaced is larger. Roughly two thirds of new vehicles sold in North America are sport utility vehicles and light trucks, and the fleet in the United Arab Emirates is similar. Almost the whole difference is vehicle size rather than fuel.
The European figure is built like this:
| Step | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| What a combustion car emits per km | 166.4 g CO₂ | European Environment Agency, measured by the cars' own fuel meters, cars registered 2023 |
| Add fuel production and transport | × 1.238 | JEC Well-to-Wheels v5 (European Commission JRC) |
| How far an EV travels on one kWh | × 4.95 km | TNO and ICCT, measured at the charge point |
| Baseline | 1,020 g CO₂e / kWh |
Four things are worth knowing about this figure.
- The comparison is against a real car, not a laboratory one. Official fuel consumption ratings are measured on a test cycle and are roughly a fifth better than what drivers achieve. Monta uses real-world measurements on both sides, so the comparison is like for like.
- The 1,020 g covers the whole fuel chain. That is extracting, refining and transporting the petrol or diesel. The electricity figures it is compared against include the equivalent upstream emissions, so the two sides are symmetrical.
- Manufacturing is excluded. Neither the car nor the battery is counted, on either side. Those emissions belong to buying a vehicle, not to a charge session.
- There is one European figure, not one per country. No institution publishes a combustion-only emission factor by country, because every national table counts electric cars at zero.
Where does grid intensity come from?
Grid intensity is how much CO₂e each kWh of electricity carries. Multiply it by the energy charged and you get the CO₂e that charge session emitted.
Monta does not calculate this figure itself. It comes from the two data providers below, which build it from national generation data and published emission factors for each generation type.
| Electricity Maps | Ember | |
|---|---|---|
| How often | Hourly where available, otherwise the annual average for that bidding zone | Annual average |
| What it measures | The electricity actually consumed in your country, tracing imports and exports across borders | The electricity generated in your country |
| Markets | Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom | Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Réunion, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United States |
Grid intensity changes constantly. A windy night in Denmark can carry several times less CO₂e per kWh than a still evening. Where the data exists, Monta uses the intensity at the hour the charge session ran, in its bidding zone. That is what makes smart charging visible in the figures.
When the hourly figure isn't available for a session, the calculation falls back to the annual average for that zone. Where that happens, the CO₂e figure is a close approximation rather than an exact one: the annual average weights every hour of the year equally, so it fits best when charging is spread evenly across the year. It also won't reflect the specific hour the session ran, so smart charging will not show a benefit.
Each market uses one source for both grid intensity and renewable share, so the two figures always describe the same electricity.
What does the difference between the two sources mean for me?
Electricity Maps traces electricity across borders. Ember measures what a country generates. For most markets these are the same thing: a country that generates roughly what it consumes gets the same answer either way.
The difference matters where a country imports a large share of its electricity, because imports may be higher or lower in carbon intensity than domestic generation. In those markets an Ember-based figure describes the national generation mix rather than the mix flowing to your charging stations.
Among the markets on Ember, this affects four: Luxembourg, Malta, Croatia and Portugal.
Luxembourg is the clearest case. It generated 1.5 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2025 but consumed 6.5 TWh, so roughly three quarters of the electricity used there is imported, almost entirely from Germany. Its renewable share of 91.6% describes what Luxembourg generates, not what a driver charging in Luxembourg receives.
The other nine Ember markets have no interconnectors, export more than they import, or are close to balanced, so the two approaches agree. Countries that export more than they keep, such as Sweden, France, Norway and Canada, consume their own mix, which makes the distinction irrelevant.
Why is smart charging shown separately?
CO₂e avoided and Smart-charging avoided are not meant to be added together.
CO₂e avoided covers every charge session, and answers what the charging would have emitted in a combustion car. Because it is calculated with the intensity of the hour a session ran, a session shifted into an hour with lower carbon intensity already shows lower emissions.
Smart-charging avoided covers shifted sessions only. Because a shifted session already shows lower emissions in the total, this figure tells you how much of that total came from the shifting.
This example shows the same 10 kWh charged in Denmark at two different hours:
| Scenario | Baseline (1,020 g × kWh) | Grid intensity | CO₂e emitted (grid intensity × kWh) | CO₂e avoided |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charging at a high-carbon hour | 10,200 g | 200 g/kWh | 2,000 g | 8,200 g |
| Shifted to a low-carbon hour | 10,200 g | 50 g/kWh | 500 g | 9,700 g |
Shifting the session improved the avoided figure by 1,500 g.
How is renewable share calculated?
Renewable share is the percentage of electricity from wind, solar, hydro, bioenergy and geothermal. It is taken from the same provider as your market's grid intensity, and it is energy-weighted across the bidding zones you delivered energy in.
Nuclear is not counted as renewable. That is standard practice, and it is the source of the most common misreading of this figure.
A low renewable share does not mean a high-carbon grid
Because nuclear is excluded, some of the lowest-carbon grids in Europe show modest renewable percentages:
| Country | Renewable | Fossil-free |
|---|---|---|
| 🇫🇷 France | 28% | 97% |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 68% | 98% |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | 72% | 99% |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | 57% | 96% |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 40% | 74% |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 57% | 79% |
| 🇨🇿 Czechia | 17% | 59% |
| 🇺🇸 United States | 26% | 43% |
France is the clearest example. It is 28% renewable, but 97% of its electricity comes from sources that emit almost no CO₂e, because most of it is nuclear. To judge the carbon intensity of your charging, look at grid intensity rather than renewable share.
Renewable is not the same as carbon-free
Bioenergy (burning wood, agricultural residues or waste) counts as renewable under EU law and in all standard accounting, so it is included here. But it does emit CO₂e when burned, so it is not treated as zero-carbon in our figures.
This matters most where bioenergy makes up a large share of generation: Réunion at 76%, Luxembourg at 27% and Denmark at 22%. In those markets a high renewable share does not translate into a low carbon intensity.
The same applies at the low-carbon end. Iceland runs almost entirely on hydro and geothermal and still carries around 28 g CO₂e per kWh, because building and maintaining power plants is not emissions-free.
The annual figure hides seasonal movement
Renewable shares are yearly averages. Individual months sit far above or below them, depending on wind, rain and sunshine. Nine markets swing by more than 25 percentage points between their lowest and highest month:
| Country | Monthly range across 2025 |
|---|---|
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 23% – 62% |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 34% – 69% |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 35% – 61% |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 37% – 70% |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 46% – 73% |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 50% – 77% |
| 🇭🇷 Croatia | 63% – 100% |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 68% – 98% |
| 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 75% – 100% |
So a Belgian charge in a windy February draws from a very different grid than the same charge in a still August, even though the annual figure is one number.
How is the petrol comparison calculated?
Every time a vehicle charges on your network, Monta estimates how much money was saved compared with fuelling a petrol or diesel car to cover the same distance.
The calculation uses the petrol comparison: a fixed amount per kWh for each country, equal to what a combustion car would spend on fuel to cover the distance an EV travels on one kWh, minus what one kWh of electricity costs. The cost saving on a charge is the petrol comparison multiplied by the kWh charged.
Petrol comparison = fuel cost per kWh − electricity price per kWh
↑ ↑
fuel for the distance an what one kWh
EV travels on one kWh costs at home
Cost saving = petrol comparison × kWh charged
What goes into the petrol comparison?
The petrol comparison uses the same cars as the CO₂e baseline, so the money saved and the CO₂e avoided on a charge describe the same journey. The Danish figure is built like this:
| Step | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| How far an EV travels on one kWh | 4.95 km | TNO and ICCT, the same figure used for CO₂e avoided |
| Fuel a combustion car needs for that distance | 0.345 litres | The same car as the CO₂e baseline: 77% petrol and 23% diesel, as in new EU registrations |
| What that fuel costs | 4.94 DKK | Average 2025 pump prices: 14.66 DKK per litre of petrol, 13.13 DKK per litre of diesel (EU Weekly Oil Bulletin) |
| What one kWh of electricity costs at home | − 2.54 DKK | Average 2025 household price (Eurostat) |
| Petrol comparison | 2.41 DKK per kWh |
So a 40 kWh charge in Denmark has a cost saving of 40 × 2.41 = about 96 DKK.
In the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, Monta uses the larger North American car, as for the CO₂e baseline: 4.77 km per kWh and 0.443 litres of petrol for that distance.
Four things are worth knowing about this figure.
- It is in the country's own currency. Each country has its own petrol comparison, built from that country's fuel and electricity prices, so the cost saving on a charge in Denmark is in DKK and on a charge in Germany in EUR.
- It uses the average home electricity price. Most charging happens on private charge points, at home or at work, and the household price is the only electricity price published on the same basis in every market. The figure does not look at the price paid for a specific charge.
- It is a fixed value per country. It is based on 2025 average prices and does not follow pump prices from month to month.
- This estimate is based on average home electricity prices. Charging on a fast (DC) charge point usually costs more per kWh, so your actual saving will be smaller than shown.
What is the petrol comparison in each market?
All prices are 2025 averages, in the country's own currency. Fuel cost per kWh is what a combustion car spends on fuel to cover the distance an EV travels on one kWh; the petrol comparison is that fuel cost minus the electricity price.
| Country | Currency | Petrol per litre | Diesel per litre | Fuel cost per kWh | Electricity per kWh | Petrol comparison per kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇹 Austria | EUR | 1.519 | 1.536 | 0.525 | 0.309 | 0.22 |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | EUR | 1.553 | 1.659 | 0.543 | 0.353 | 0.19 |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | CAD | 1.436 | — | 0.636 | 0.142 | 0.49 |
| 🇭🇷 Croatia | EUR | 1.489 | 1.476 | 0.513 | 0.164 | 0.35 |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus | EUR | 1.366 | 1.455 | 0.478 | 0.285 | 0.19 |
| 🇨🇿 Czechia | CZK | 34.73 | 33.91 | 11.914 | 7.895 | 4.02 |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | DKK | 14.66 | 13.13 | 4.942 | 2.536 | 2.41 |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | EUR | 1.707 | 1.654 | 0.585 | 0.226 | 0.36 |
| 🇫🇷 France | EUR | 1.726 | 1.619 | 0.587 | 0.262 | 0.33 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | EUR | 1.737 | 1.605 | 0.589 | 0.385 | 0.20 |
| 🇮🇸 Iceland | ISK | 309.2 | 317.6 | 107.19 | 29.31 | 77.88 |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | EUR | 1.737 | 1.707 | 0.597 | 0.364 | 0.23 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | EUR | 1.733 | 1.653 | 0.592 | 0.313 | 0.28 |
| 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | EUR | 1.479 | 1.436 | 0.507 | 0.267 | 0.24 |
| 🇲🇹 Malta | EUR | 1.340 | 1.210 | 0.452 | 0.127 | 0.33 |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | EUR | 1.923 | 1.694 | 0.646 | 0.248 | 0.40 |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | NOK | 20.68 | 20.22 | 7.097 | 2.290 | 4.81 |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | EUR | 1.707 | 1.577 | 0.579 | 0.241 | 0.34 |
| 🇷🇪 Réunion | EUR | 1.576 | 1.242 | 0.519 | 0.262 | 0.26 |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | EUR | 1.495 | 1.425 | 0.511 | 0.264 | 0.25 |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | SEK | 15.88 | 16.70 | 5.537 | 2.969 | 2.57 |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | CHF | 1.70 | 1.80 | 0.593 | 0.333 | 0.26 |
| 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | AED | 2.552 | — | 1.131 | 0.357 | 0.77 |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | GBP | 1.351 | 1.427 | 0.471 | 0.297 | 0.17 |
| 🇺🇸 United States | USD | 0.818 | — | 0.363 | 0.173 | 0.19 |
In the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates no diesel price is used, because the North American car runs on petrol only.
Does the cost saving include VAT?
Yes. Both fuel and electricity prices are consumer prices including VAT and all taxes, because that is what a driver pays at the pump and at home. The petrol comparison is a fixed amount per kWh for each country, so the cost saving does not change when you switch between "With VAT" and "Without VAT": that toggle applies only to the price breakdown.
What these figures are, and are not
- They are an estimate, carefully sourced. Every input comes from a named public source, and where a choice was available Monta took the conservative one.
- Avoided emissions are not a reduction in your carbon footprint. They describe emissions that did not happen because a combustion car was not driven. Under the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, avoided emissions are reported separately and cannot be subtracted from your own footprint.
- They are not a Scope 2 figure. Because we include the full fuel supply chain rather than power station combustion alone, these numbers do not match the Scope 2 definition used in CSRD and ESRS E1 reporting. If you need Scope 2 figures, ask us for your consumption by bidding zone and period and apply your own emission factors.
- No one has audited them. What Monta offers is a documented, conservative estimate with every source named.
- The counterfactual is a recent car. If the vehicle a driver replaced was older and thirstier, the real saving is larger than reported. If it was a hybrid, it is smaller.
- The United Arab Emirates uses the North American baseline. The 1,266 g figure is applied because the vehicle mix is closer to North America's, but it is a substitute rather than a measurement.
- Renewable share is not the figure reported under the Renewable Energy Directive. That one covers heating and transport as well as electricity, and gives much lower numbers. Nor is it supplier-specific: what a given charging station actually buys depends on its electricity contract and any guarantees of origin attached to it.
- The EV efficiency figure sits at the optimistic end of a defensible range. The 4.95 km/kWh comes from studies of 2021–2023 fleets, weighted towards home alternating current (AC) charging in mild weather. A network with more fast charging, colder sessions and heavier vehicles would see less. A more conservative figure would be between 4.65 and 4.95, and would produce a lower baseline and therefore lower avoided emissions.
- The cost saving assumes home electricity prices. At public or fast charge points, where electricity usually costs more, the real saving is smaller than shown. Where a charge costs more per kWh than the fuel for the same distance, there is no real saving.
- The cost saving uses national averages. It does not reflect the price at a specific pump or charge point, and it covers fuel and electricity only — not the purchase price, maintenance, insurance or vehicle tax.
- Some markets rely on estimates or partial data. Canada uses the latest official national electricity price (2023), brought to 2025 with the consumer price index. The UAE uses the Dubai residential tariff, because tariffs differ between emirates. Iceland uses 2025 pump prices, before fuel tax was replaced by a per-kilometre road charge in January 2026, so its saving is higher than it would be at today's prices.
Sources
| Figure | Source |
|---|---|
| Combustion car emissions, Europe | EEA — real-world CO₂ emissions from new passenger cars (OBFCM), corroborated by ICCT (2026) |
| Combustion car emissions, North America | US EPA — Automotive Trends and Fuel Economy Data |
| Fuel production and transport | JEC Well-to-Wheels report v5 — European Commission Joint Research Centre |
| EV efficiency | TNO 2022 R10409 and ICCT (2025) |
| Grid intensity and renewable share | Electricity Maps — methodology; Ember — Yearly Electricity Data (licensed CC-BY-4.0) |
| Réunion renewable share | EDF Réunion |
| Fuel prices, EU | European Commission — Weekly Oil Bulletin, prices with taxes |
| Fuel prices, other markets | Statistics Norway, UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, US Energy Information Administration, Statistics Canada, Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Gasvaktin (Iceland), UAE Fuel Price Committee, Préfecture de La Réunion |
| Electricity prices, Europe | Eurostat — household electricity prices, all taxes included |
| Electricity prices, other markets | UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, US Energy Information Administration, Natural Resources Canada, Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority |
Figures are for calendar year 2025, except Iceland and the United Arab Emirates (2024) and Réunion's grid intensity (2023), which are the most recent years published for those markets. Cost savings use 2025 prices. For the United Kingdom and Iceland, electricity prices cover the first half of 2025, the most recent period published.