What is an EV

tamste

Sounds simple .. a vehicle that is powered by electricity, but what does it include when one is looking at supply tariffs. Most EV tariffs require you to have an EV, but they don't give great definitions for what an acceptable EV is. Apart from the usual car / van, there are electric motorbikes, golf buggies, mobility scooters, milk floats, etc.. Would all these be considered EV's if applying for an EV tariff, many of which have very cheap TOU rates?

Netexporter

Good question. I have assumed it covers any vehicle that has a registration number. Anecdotal evidence, mainly from this forum, is that suppliers don't always ask for proof of EV ownership.

Keep_pedalling

Some of these tariffs require you to have a compatible EV or charge point, which would rule out every non car or van on your list except higher end motorcycles that can be charged from a fast charger. The other things do not have sufficient battery capacity to make it worthwhile so it would be pointless using an EV tariff for those anyway. 

lohr500

Keep_pedalling said:

Some of these tariffs require you to have a compatible EV or charge point, which would rule out every non car or van on your list except higher end motorcycles that can be charged from a fast charger. The other things do not have sufficient battery capacity to make it worthwhile so it would be pointless using an EV tariff for those anyway. 

For those with a high off-peak consumption and/or battery storage, EV tariffs can make sense even without owning an EV. Often the off-peak EV unit cost is lower than the regular Economy 7 off-peak cost.

E.ON Next Drive is a good example, where they offer 7 hours of whole house off-peak electricity at 6.7p per kWh. No requirement for a specific charger. Until recently this tariff was open to those with solar or battery storage and no EV. But I gather they have now made it a requirement to own or lease an EV.

tamste

lohr500 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Some of these tariffs require you to have a compatible EV or charge point, which would rule out every non car or van on your list except higher end motorcycles that can be charged from a fast charger. The other things do not have sufficient battery capacity to make it worthwhile so it would be pointless using an EV tariff for those anyway. 

For those with a high off-peak consumption and/or battery storage, EV tariffs can make sense even without owning an EV. Often the off-peak EV unit cost is lower than the regular Economy 7 off-peak cost.

Which is why I was wondering what would be acceptable as an EV.

MWT

tamste said:

lohr500 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Some of these tariffs require you to have a compatible EV or charge point, which would rule out every non car or van on your list except higher end motorcycles that can be charged from a fast charger. The other things do not have sufficient battery capacity to make it worthwhile so it would be pointless using an EV tariff for those anyway. 

For those with a high off-peak consumption and/or battery storage, EV tariffs can make sense even without owning an EV. Often the off-peak EV unit cost is lower than the regular Economy 7 off-peak cost.

E.ON Next Drive is a good example, where they offer 7 hours of whole house off-peak electricity at 6.7p per kWh. No requirement for a specific charger. Until recently this tariff was open to those with solar or battery storage and no EV. But I gather they have now made it a requirement to own or lease an EV.

Which is why I was wondering what would be acceptable as an EV.

For those suppliers who check, there isn't really any wiggle room, it is a car or other similar sized vehicle, but that can include a plug-in hybrid so it doesn't have to be a full EV.

For the rest they will be expecting the same but you may not get noticed if they do not check, but it really will be obvious from the usage pattern if they care to look...

tamste

Do suppliers get credit for providing EV tariffs? Wondering why they are often lower than any other TOU tariff.

QrizB

tamste said:

Do suppliers get credit for providing EV tariffs?

No.

tamste said:

Wondering why they are often lower than any other TOU tariff.

Dumb EV tariffs (where you get free choice of when to charge) are priced a bit like E7, so your supplier offers you the cheapest times of day for EV charging then charges more than the SVT for the rest of your energy use. They expect the average user to buy enough daytime electricity that any shortfall in EV hours is compensated for.

Smart EV tariffs allow your supplier to schedule your EV charging for the cheapest hours of the day, based on the known half-hourly prices.

Netexporter

tamste said:

Do suppliers get credit for providing EV tariffs? Wondering why they are often lower than any other TOU tariff.

It helps to flatten the supply/demand curve by shifting reliably large quantities of off-peak electricity. It saves windfarms having to be constrained at night, which costs money. Grid demand varies between about 20GW to 40GW over a typical day. The ideal would be that it ran at 30GW all the time. Much cheaper to operate.

tamste

If its all about flattening supply/demand, why don't they offer the same tariff to those that could charge batteries to use that electric during the day, or charge storage heaters, both of which help flatten demand?
I have been considering installing batteries for this purpose, but the numbers don't make it worthwhile on an E7 tariff, but would on an EV tariff.

With an E7 use of ~12000 kWh per annum, I could buy a used EV moped for less than I would save in the differential between my TOU tariff and the EV tariff IF the moped would be classed as an EV for tariff purposes. Don't have to tax/insure/use it .. just own it.

MWT

tamste said:

If its all about flattening supply/demand, why don't they offer the same tariff to those that could charge batteries to use that electric during the day, or charge storage heaters, both of which help flatten demand in the overnight period

It is all about control and flexibility.

This time of year they can often make the best use of the controllable load by charging cars during the day when solar and wind together are at a high point.

Storage heaters are no help in the summer and even in winter they will not always be as useful as it can be harder to avoid the overnight peaks which do still occur. 

Home batteries are rarely anywhere close to the capacity of the EV batteries and are a lot harder to control, and this is very much about control, the suppliers need to be able to turn the charging on/off at will to let them respond rapidly to changing market opportunities.