Abstract This paper studies a distributed charging model based on day-ahead optimal internal price for PV-powered Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station (PVCS). Considering the feed-in-tariff of PV energy, the price of utility grid and the forecast model of PV based on back-propagation neural network (BPNN), a system operation model of PVCS is introduced, which consists of the profit model of PVCS operator (PO) and the cost model of EV users. The model proposed in this paper can be designed as a Stackelberg game model, where the PO acts as the leader and all EV users participated are regarded as the followers. An optimization strategy based on heuristic algorithm and nonlinear constrained programming are adopted by the PO and each EV user, respectively. Moreover, a real-time billing strategy is proposed to deal with the errors from the forecasted PV energy and the expected charging arrangements. Finally, through a practical case, the validity of the model is verified in terms of increasing operation profit and reducing charging cost.