Best electricity tariff for EV switching today

[matchboy1976]

I’ve just spoken to Octopus and the only tariff they are offering is 4 hours at 7.5 overnight. That’s not a massive saving, especially when you have to consider the peak rate is higher than most and you’ll also have to pay off what you owe with your current supplier.

Sponsored

 

[darth_maul_80]

I’ve just spoken to Octopus and the only tariff they are offering is 4 hours at 7.5 overnight. That’s not a massive saving, especially when you have to consider the peak rate is higher than most and you’ll also have to pay off what you owe with your current supplier.

I think it’s a fixed tariff though (can’t remember how long for but given Octobers impending price rise it could work out long term…though you have to do your maths)

 

[matchboy1976]

I think it’s a fixed tariff though (can’t remember how long for but given Octobers impending price rise it could work out long term…though you have to do your maths)

Correct, but only 4 hours out of 24 (with the other 20 being higher than my current tariff) means the saving is minimal and not worth changing to be honest. May as well ride it out till prices come down next year. Either way it’s a massive saving over petrol

 

[Kippax]

I’m with Bulb on their variable tariff. They estimate this is what I’d pay annually if I switched to their EV tariff. Their assumption is that I’d use 37% of my electricity between 2am-6am which is odd given that’s only 17% of the day? Anyhow, I need to do the maths as I’m obviously using electricity from 2-6 and when I do start charging the car on top…(expecting delivery in September).

 

[Fish Fingers]

I’m with Bulb on their variable tariff. They estimate this is what I’d pay annually if I switched to their EV tariff. Their assumption is that I’d use 37% of my electricity between 2am-6am which is odd given that’s only 17% of the day? Anyhow, I need to do the maths as I’m obviously using electricity from 2-6 and when I do start charging the car on top…(expecting delivery in September).

I have just had my renewal from Octopus and over the last 12 months our usage has been surprising. 52% standard tariff / 48% cheap rate (Taycan charging).

I think we are typical energy users as our bills are always about an 'average household' - was £120pm jumping to £200pm.

Octopus Go. 4 hrs Cheap rate.

1 EV (Taycan) / 9k miles pa / solely charged at home.

3 bed town house / 2 adults / both wfh.

 

[Kippax]

I have just had my renewal from Octopus and over the last 12 months our usage has been surprising. 52% standard tariff / 48% cheap rate (Taycan charging).

I think we are typical energy users as our bills are always about an 'average household' - was £120pm jumping to £200pm.

Octopus Go. 4 hrs Cheap rate.

1 EV (Taycan) / 9k miles pa / solely charged at home.

3 bed town house / 2 adults / both wfh.

Interesting. Did your bills jump to £200 per month due to charging the Taycan or the energy crisis?

 

[Ross]

‘Always be charging’ should be
‘Always be charging between 00.30 and 04.30’

Octopus Go is a massive saving over regular tariff.
I have been Go customer for 2 years.
I have Taycan and Etron.
Combined 15,000 miles a year.
95% charging cheap rate at home.
I am still on 5p/15p at the moment. Going to 7.5p/34p soon.
My cars are ‘dumb’
Podpoint charger only allows charge at cheap rate.
I consistently use 8kw a day expensive rate. That will cost me 50p more a day over a 28p standard tariff.
When I use 30kw at night charging cars and using washing machines I save £6.
I charge my cars much more often than every 12 days so the savings are huge!

 

[Fish Fingers]

Interesting. Did your bills jump to £200 per month due to charging the Taycan or the energy crisis?

Price increase.
I actually switched to Octopus Go exactly when I got the car and its due for renewal on 8th August (attached).

Gas is a separate contract.

The interesting thing is that charging the Taycan is nearly half our annual electricity usage!

 

[Fish Fingers]

Interesting. Did your bills jump to £200 per month due to charging the Taycan or the energy crisis?

Whilst Octopus had provided this data and I was working stuff out, I also decided to check how much the electricity cost increase for the Taycan compared to petrol cost increase if I had my old M2.

All else being equal (mileage etc) the Taycan will cost £85 pa more than a year ago for home electricity.

The M2* would have been £760 pa more for petrol than a year ago.

9k pa / *30 mpg / *RAC petrol price stats

https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time

 

[Kippax]

Whilst Octopus had provided this data and I was working stuff out, I also decided to check how much the electricity cost increase for the Taycan compared to petrol cost increase if I had my old M2.

All else being equal (mileage etc) the Taycan will cost £85 pa more than a year ago for home electricity.

The M2* would have been £760 pa more for petrol than a year ago.

9k pa / *30 mpg / *RAC petrol price stats

https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time

That’s really useful, thanks for sharing.

 

[simonc]

Also be aware that the Octopus Go (and basically any other variable time tariff that isn't economy 7) require a smart meter and if you don't currently have one there is no guarantee when the new supplier will be able to fit one. With Octopus you would be stuck on a "dumb" tariff until they got round to getting a smart meter installed, which could be months!

 

[grahamsimmonds]

I’m on the Bulb EV rate. 8.69p off peak and 35p peak. 43p standing charge. I have had 6 kWP of Solar and a Tesla Powerwall for the last 5 years and a MyEnergi Zappi 2 plus the solar excess water heating Eddi unit. I also have 50 solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall at work. We recently installed two Zappi 2s which are set to charge from excess solar only.

The bottom line is we permanently remain off grid during the peak period all year round and only use the off peak when we charge either our two EVs or the Powerwall during the winter. My wife’s car is charged from s solar excess and my Taycan is charged from solar excess at work.

We stayed off grid at home entirely in June form both electricity and gas and just paid the standing day charges. This month we have charged the cars several times off peak to fill them ready for a long journey. It costs £2.43 for 28 kWh when we do this.

There is no better feeling driving a car capable of a 0-60 of 2.4s around on free, green energy. Or taking it to Goodwood track day and doing 150 mph down the Lavant kink, powered by solar.

 

[David Derbyshire]

How many KWH do you think you will use in a year charging at home? I am currently with Shell Energy, they do not offer a EV tariff but rate is 28.455p and standing charge is 43.39p/day. Looking on the Octopus iste just now they seem to be offerring slightly longer off peak rate

Apparently, this is not available for Taycan unless lots of us request it then they might make it available.
Only four hours off-peak currently (sorry!).

David

 

[JasMK]

will octopus intelligent work with taycan? it only mentions jaguar, tesla and VW but I'm guessing it might)

So I switched to Octopus Intelligent a few days ago after doing the maths, here's some observations;

1) An overnight charge of 69kWh cost £28.68 on the 33p previous tariff, after the switch the next charge was a 92kWh charge for a long trip that cost £9.21
2) The Ohme app does the management, so it tried to fully charge between 11:30pm and 5:30am but knew it wouldn't hit the target SoC so used the higher rate of 41p before and after the 10p 6 hour period.
3) You need to set a timer in the Ohme app to manage it, I'm not sure it really checks the SoC with the Taycan as the API isn't currently supported - going to try an 85% charge tonight and see. Taycan is set to Direct charge but maybe an 85% profile might switch off the charging?
4) You can only get this rate from Octopus if you have an EV, Smart Meter and up to date mobile device. They do a test charge after the switching process has started to ensure you have all the required components then they settle your existing electric bill and switch you to the new rate.
5) Adding a battery as part of a solar install would enable you to fill the battery at 10p rates and use it during the day, of course you don't need solar, and the ROI might still be a few years...
6) Still worthwhile to set timers for washing machines etc to run after 11:30, this does requires some careful dialogue with the person in charge of the domestic processes as they apparently have existing routines...
7) It's still in Beta, they use some back end control software (Kracken?) and don't have many APIs currently, also limited charger support.

Time will tell if this was a good choice or not, regardless my experiences with Octopus have been great, they are such a contrast to the way utility providers behaved before. I have also had a quote for solar and battery from them which seems reasonable (£10k)

Will post updates on how well the Taycan schedules work out...

 

[BigBob]

Thanks

What does the Ohme app actually do?

To capture the overnight rate, I'd be inclined to just use the built in timer on my EVSE (Wallbox Pulsar). Or is it not as simple as that?

Sponsored