MSE Guide - Electric vehicle energy tariffs

Tiredofworking

Hi, not directly related to this but hoping I don't get too much abuse for posting this here.
More interesting than the tarrifs for domestic energy, why is it that a single sector are exempt from compliance with the energy price cap? I'm specifically looking at why people who sell electricity through little boxes at the roadside (EV chargers) are allowed to charge whatever they want for electricity.

Would it be possible for MSE to champion a campaign to regulate the shocking prices charged (no pun intented) for commercial EV charges.
A starting point of suggesting tieing them to the energy price cap would undoubtedly get their attention.

If their prices weren't so utterly outrageous they would get far more custom, and normal people wouldn't be funding people who get company fuel cards. That's just before anyone tells me I have a choice - if I don't like the price don't use them - we're all paying the rate indirectly in the elevated costs of goods and services (caused by people charging at fast chargers because they don't care because they aren't paying for it).

Mini rant over
😀 

Gerry1

There are two problems.

• VAT on electricity supplied by roadside chargers is 20% rather than the 5% charged on domestic supplies.  If the government were serious about net zero they'd make it 5%.
• If the price cap applied to roadside chargers no new ones would be installed, and existing ones would soon go the way of phone boxes.  The modest profit allowed would not pay for the installation and running costs.

In reality these are the good old days: the loss of fuel duty will not be tolerated forever.  When most people have EVs the electricity they use will have fuel duty imposed, whether charged at home or at roadside chargers.

mmmmikey

In addition to @gerry1 points, when you buy electricity at an EV charging point, you're not just paying for electricity. You're also paying for the installation and maintenance of the infrastructure that delivers it - i.e. the charging point itself. And the electricity you buy will often be at peak/daytime rates rather than cheap/night rates which has to be factored in.

With relation to tax more generally have you seen what's happening to car tax for EVs and high-value cars in a couple of weeks time - ouch!

Gerry1

mmmmikey said:

With relation to tax more generally have you seen what's happening to car tax for EVs and high-value cars in a couple of weeks time - ouch!

I've never paid VED on mine, but I'm resigned to paying £20 on 1 March 2026...😈

Exodi

mmmmikey's posts reflect my view.

While it certainly rubs me up the wrong way that I'm compelled into paying 79p/kWh at a motorway services instead of ~30p/kWh (or mostly 6.7p/kWh on EV tariff) at home - I understand that I can't be simultaneously angry that there's seemingly not enough EV charging infrastructure.

If you don't allow these companies the ability to make a ROI on the equipment being installed, they won't install it.

koru

A couple of recommendations about ways to get a comparison that is more tailored to your individual circumstances:

1. Anyone who is with octopus and has a smart meter can use a variety of apps which will download your actual electric usage every half hour and calculate what you would’ve paid on each of the octopus tariffs. An example is the Octopus Compare app, which also has the capacity for you to input a tariff manually, so you can compare with some other energy companies. But I don't think it can cope with tariffs that only apply to the electric used charging the EV.

You can therefore get an idea of which sort of tariff is likely to be best for you. If you are not with octopus yet, you would need to join and then wait a while to build up enough history of usage for it to give you reliable information.

In my case, I already have a heat pump, but my EV only arrives in a few weeks time. I am therefore not eligible for the octopus EV tariffs yet, but I can already see that if I had been on Intelligent Octopus Go the last year this would be the cheapest tariff for me, even without taking into account any EV charging. This must be because the heat pump is working hardest overnight when it tends to be colder, so IOG pays off because of the low overnight rate. So, for me, a crucial part of an EV tariff is that it applies to all household usage overnight, not just the EV. If I didn’t have a heat pump, other criteria would matter more.

2. There is a free modelling tool that a guy called Tim has published: https://timandkatsgreenwalk.co.uk/ 
It is aimed at taking into account solar export, but you can just set this to zero if you don’t have solar panels. Similarly, set batteries to zero if you don’t have them. This confirmed that for me IOG would be the cheapest tariff with eon Next Drive a close second. It even shows that I could save a few extra pounds by switching to eon over the summer to take advantage of their higher solar export tariff and then switch back to IOG the other half a year.