EV Car Charging - any off peak tariffs that you recommend?

rishishah

I have just put my toe in to the EV market and my car comes in a month.

I have been search and came across some tariff where you get charged very little for a few hours in the night (not Economy 7 and as long as you have a smart meter) for electricity but cannot find any site that does a thorough comparism of service offerings.

Can you recommend what tariffs you are on for your electric vehicle? I have a smart EV charging point which means i can turn it out at certain times of the day to make a good saving.

QrizB

Octopus Go (or the related Go Faster) is popular, although the prices have been hiked recently.

[Deleted User]

Octopus Go/Go Faster. Whether it works for you very much depends on your peak/offpeak usage ratio.

Verdigris

Most people here seem to use Octopus Go. There's an EV thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6072181/battery-electric-vehicle-news-thread#latest

Petriix

I'm on Go Faster from 9:30pm. Currently averaging about 75% off peak usage. Massively cheaper than anything else out there for my usage.

granddadsalmon

Our electric supplier EDF who we were moved to has EV tariffs which of course need smart meter however our meter is not compliant as it's a 1st generation they keep saying we need a 2nd generation bit fail to say when we we will get one, meanwhile we are not getting cheap overnight rates which since we got the EV in December 2021 is costing us unfairly to charge

Thrugelmir

granddadsalmon said:

Our electric supplier EDF who we were moved to has EV tariffs which of course need smart meter however our meter is not compliant as it's a 1st generation they keep saying we need a 2nd generation bit fail to say when we we will get one, meanwhile we are not getting cheap overnight rates which since we got the EV in December 2021 is costing us unfairly to charge

Global supply problems aren't new challenges. 

victor2

granddadsalmon said:

Our electric supplier EDF who we were moved to has EV tariffs which of course need smart meter however our meter is not compliant as it's a 1st generation they keep saying we need a 2nd generation bit fail to say when we we will get one, meanwhile we are not getting cheap overnight rates which since we got the EV in December 2021 is costing us unfairly to charge

Still cheaper than buying petrol though.

A lot of SMETS1 (1st generation) smart meters are being remotely updated by suppliers now to make them smart again.

My smart meters installed by BG in 2017 have just been made smart again by my current supplier (Eon Next). Well, the electricity one has, but not the gas one for some reason. Eon have said they weren't aware I had a smart gas meter and are now working on it!

AFAIK, suppliers do not get any recognition for replacing a smart meter with another one, as targets are based on replacing old "traditional" meters with smart ones. You could ask EDF if they intend to upgrade yours.

chris1973

victor2 said:

granddadsalmon said:

Our electric supplier EDF who we were moved to has EV tariffs which of course need smart meter however our meter is not compliant as it's a 1st generation they keep saying we need a 2nd generation bit fail to say when we we will get one, meanwhile we are not getting cheap overnight rates which since we got the EV in December 2021 is costing us unfairly to charge

Still cheaper than buying petrol though.

For the moment. But then lets not forget that petrol would be around 90p per litre if the Duty was removed from it and VAT reduced to 5% - which is currently the situation with EV's.

Eventually the £30 billion a year in fuel revenue loss will make itself felt and force the Government to add some kind of Duty and perhaps increase the 5% to 20% on the Electricity used for EV charging, or alternatively a mandatory black box to charge you per mile - perhaps also tiered based on time of day (e.g congestion) and type of road used for the journey. Either way its a huge unknown how they will get these losses back, but the Government aren't renowned for their charity and are hardly likely to wave goodbye to £30 billion worth of free cash each year with a big cheesy grin, so as more people stop buying fuel, the revenue loss will eventually become a problem, and it will be addressed.

So I certainly wouldn't be basing longer term running costs based on the current highly attractive Bait and Switch Period where you just pay for domestic Electricity and zero duty charges. Some of us remember the same pattern which made Diesel cars cheap to own in the early 1990's, and look at how well that turned out.

So if I bought an EV, I would be feeling rather cautious about the unknown hanging over it, because nobody knows how its going to pan out, and ultimately what its going to cost.