Home charging an EV - too expensive for most.

astroL

Just before I bought my EV, the home cost of charging was 17p/kwh.  A couple of weeks after we bought ours, and paid for a home charger to be installed, EonNext forced us on to a new tariff costing 37p/kwh.  Charging at home is no longer an option. We need to drive to a local Tesco etc to be able to afford to charge it.  The repetition of the phrase 'charging at home is cheaper' (in the MSE weekly letter) rings hollow.  Yes, a few people can get an overnight lower cost tariff but changing suppliers has become difficult.

Lawrence

Mstty

I don't think you can be forced on an above cap tariff 37p kWh is definitely above cap. You can be offered above cap rate fixed but certainly not forced.

Ultrasonic

Sounds like you need to switch tariffs back to one more suitable for an EV. I'd check out what Octopus has to offer in the first instance.

astroL

Mstty said:

I don't think you can be forced on an above cap tariff 37p kWh is definitely above cap. You can be offered above cap rate fixed but certainly not forced.

I accept that my phrasing was bad. Our contract ran out and we were given only two options - stay on p.a.y.g. (with warnings being thrown at us) or fix for 12 months. We felt obliged to go for the fixed.  Its a no-win situation.

Lawrence

MattMattMattUK

astroL said:

Just before I bought my EV, the home cost of charging was 17p/kwh.  A couple of weeks after we bought ours, and paid for a home charger to be installed, EonNext forced us on to a new tariff costing 37p/kwh.  Charging at home is no longer an option. We need to drive to a local Tesco etc to be able to afford to charge it.  The repetition of the phrase 'charging at home is cheaper' (in the MSE weekly letter) rings hollow. 

That makes no sense, commercial chargers are in the 35-60p per kWh range. 

astroL said:

Yes, a few people can get an overnight lower cost tariff but changing suppliers has become difficult.

Everyone can get an overnight charging tariff, Octopus's is currently 7.5p per kWh.

astroL said:

Mstty said:

I don't think you can be forced on an above cap tariff 37p kWh is definitely above cap. You can be offered above cap rate fixed but certainly not forced.

I accept that my phrasing was bad. Our contract ran out and we were given only two options - stay on p.a.y.g. (with warnings being thrown at us) or fix for 12 months. We felt obliged to go for the fixed.  Its a no-win situation.

Lawrence

Unfortunately you made a choice to choose an expensive tariff, even more so when you have an EV tariff with very low rates. When did you sign up, do you have a cooling off period? 

mysteryUser

astroL said:

Mstty said:

I don't think you can be forced on an above cap tariff 37p kWh is definitely above cap. You can be offered above cap rate fixed but certainly not forced.

I accept that my phrasing was bad. Our contract ran out and we were given only two options - stay on p.a.y.g. (with warnings being thrown at us) or fix for 12 months. We felt obliged to go for the fixed.  Its a no-win situation.

Lawrence

It's in the energy providers interest to sell you a high price fix. It's probably not in your interest to accept it. I do feel the actions of some providers has been a bit underhand lately. Does it have a fee for leaving it?

I believe Octopus will accept you as a customer if you phone them and ask for their OctopusGo tariff. 

For most people it's best to not fix and just default to the price caps. 

Where I am, one of the most common public charging networks are charging around 33p, which is cheaper than your home tariff but is more than the current price cap for non home fixes. 

astroL

MattMattMattUK said:

astroL said:

Just before I bought my EV, the home cost of charging was 17p/kwh.  A couple of weeks after we bought ours, and paid for a home charger to be installed, EonNext forced us on to a new tariff costing 37p/kwh.  Charging at home is no longer an option. We need to drive to a local Tesco etc to be able to afford to charge it.  The repetition of the phrase 'charging at home is cheaper' (in the MSE weekly letter) rings hollow. 

That makes no sense, commercial chargers are in the 35-60p per kWh range. 

astroL said:

Yes, a few people can get an overnight lower cost tariff but changing suppliers has become difficult.

Everyone can get an overnight charging tariff, Octopus's is currently 7.5p per kWh.

astroL said:

Mstty said:

I don't think you can be forced on an above cap tariff 37p kWh is definitely above cap. You can be offered above cap rate fixed but certainly not forced.

I accept that my phrasing was bad. Our contract ran out and we were given only two options - stay on p.a.y.g. (with warnings being thrown at us) or fix for 12 months. We felt obliged to go for the fixed.  Its a no-win situation.

Lawrence

Unfortunately you made a choice to choose an expensive tariff, even more so when you have an EV tariff with very low rates. When did you sign up, do you have a cooling off period? 

I can switch elsewhere at no cost.

Lawrence

victor2

astroL said:

MattMattMattUK said:

astroL said:

Just before I bought my EV, the home cost of charging was 17p/kwh.  A couple of weeks after we bought ours, and paid for a home charger to be installed, EonNext forced us on to a new tariff costing 37p/kwh.  Charging at home is no longer an option. We need to drive to a local Tesco etc to be able to afford to charge it.  The repetition of the phrase 'charging at home is cheaper' (in the MSE weekly letter) rings hollow. 

That makes no sense, commercial chargers are in the 35-60p per kWh range. 

astroL said:

Yes, a few people can get an overnight lower cost tariff but changing suppliers has become difficult.

Everyone can get an overnight charging tariff, Octopus's is currently 7.5p per kWh.

astroL said:

Mstty said:

I don't think you can be forced on an above cap tariff 37p kWh is definitely above cap. You can be offered above cap rate fixed but certainly not forced.

I accept that my phrasing was bad. Our contract ran out and we were given only two options - stay on p.a.y.g. (with warnings being thrown at us) or fix for 12 months. We felt obliged to go for the fixed.  Its a no-win situation.

Lawrence

Unfortunately you made a choice to choose an expensive tariff, even more so when you have an EV tariff with very low rates. When did you sign up, do you have a cooling off period? 

I can switch elsewhere at no cost.

Lawrence

There you go then.

Or you could go back to a petrol car and the associated running costs...

Bibou22

Switch to octopus, I pay 7p to charge my EV overnight. Make sure you use a referral code too.

[Deleted User]

Bibou22 said:

Switch to octopus, I pay 7p to charge my EV overnight. Make sure you use a referral code too.

I think you mean 7.5p/kWh. I have no doubt that this will increase in October, if not earlier, as Octopus has long said that it is losing money on its EV tariffs.

Before switching to Go, it is worth people sitting down for a few minutes to work out their peak/Offpeak usage ratio. A number of EV owners have carried out this calculation and calculated that a standard E7 tariff ( with its longer offpeak period) gives them a lower overall cost. It really depends on EV usage and how much of the daily load can be shifted to the cheap period.

grandadgolfer

That explains why my local Tesco always have drivers fast asleep in cars on the 7kw fast charging charging points then