MG4, Zappi and Octopus Intelligent Go

[Rolfe]

Up to now I always have paid the 7p rate, it will be interesting to see this months bill.

You'll be able to see in the app. Sometimes it shows up as peak rate at first but then changes to off-peak rate within a day or two.

 

[GaryMG4]

You'll be able to see in the app. Sometimes it shows up as peak rate at first but then changes to off-peak rate within a day or two.

True normally, but I have one day (26/10/25) still showing on the app without cost. That day used 53 kWh when I charged both cars on consecutive nights because I tried their 'Greener Nights' option although the bill did show them as off-peak.

 

[GaryMG4]

Worth also saying in the Ts&Cs, Octopus explicitly disclaim any liability due to damage causes by the slots and their fragmentation, mentioning any wear and tear caused is at the user's own risk.

Do you just set a schedule every night and plug in as and when? When you turn on smart charge for your compulsory charge do you have to delete the schedule first? Just thinking......

 

[tsedge]

Do you just set a schedule every night and plug in as and when? When you turn on smart charge for your compulsory charge do you have to delete the schedule first? Just thinking......

Yes, I have a schedule on the Zappi. I don't delete it when I connect to IOG for a smart charge, but I think it deletes the schedule automatically, so I have to recreate afterwards, but it is no big deal.

 

[LenEV2016]

Do you just set a schedule every night and plug in as and when? When you turn on smart charge for your compulsory charge do you have to delete the schedule first? Just thinking......

See something learned from a good debate

 

[Tig170]

True normally, but I have one day (26/10/25) still showing on the app without cost. That day used 53 kWh when I charged both cars on consecutive nights because I tried their 'Greener Nights' option although the bill did show them as off-peak.

Ours never shows cost until the bill - I think its down to the meter brand. We are relatively high usage users (Nov 25 month was 1400kwh) the good news is that from todays bill, as long as the car is plugged in and charging then the rate is 7p for both the house, battery & car, as its always been (its never failed todate). Today I'd been away so only had 10% battery, and plugged in around 15:00 (my default is ready by 05:30am, charge upto 25Kw at 3.67kwh) and it did exactly what I asked, albeit it finished around 19:30 (with a short break 18:00-18:30 as the schedule noted) - it also correctly detects when I'm charging the home battery, without the car plugged in.

 

[gary333]

I received my bill yesterday and always use well over 6 hours every time I plugin (unavoidable with the max speed of my Ohme being 2.25Kw real world). It’s always low rate for me when Octopus manage the charge.

Oh dear, come the end of January 2026 then what I’ve said above will no longer be the case . Looks like they’ll implement the option to restrict to 6 hours in their app to support this change.

Upcoming changes to Intelligent Octopus Go

Intelligent Octopus Go has always offered super-cheap power for your whole home every night and smart charging to let you charge cleaner for less.To keep our off-peak rates as low as possible, in 2026 we will be updating Intelligent Octopus Go to automatically apply the 6 hour limit for...

octopus.energy

 

[Tig170]

Oh dear, come the end of January 2026 then what I’ve said above will no longer be the case . Looks like they’ll implement the option to restrict to 6 hours in their app to support this change.

Upcoming changes to Intelligent Octopus Go

Intelligent Octopus Go has always offered super-cheap power for your whole home every night and smart charging to let you charge cleaner for less.To keep our off-peak rates as low as possible, in 2026 we will be updating Intelligent Octopus Go to automatically apply the 6 hour limit for...

octopus.energy

"Shortly, we’ll introduce an option to either limit your smart charging to 6 off-peak hours or to prioritise reaching the charger target of your vehicle", 6 hours a day is more than enough for everyone - personally like most if they could just limit the smart charging to 11:30pm to 5:30am, then I would be very happy.

 

[Rolfe]

It's possible to force that. I do.

 

[gary333]

"Shortly, we’ll introduce an option to either limit your smart charging to 6 off-peak hours or to prioritise reaching the charger target of your vehicle", 6 hours a day is more than enough for everyone - personally like most if they could just limit the smart charging to 11:30pm to 5:30am, then I would be very happy.

Not enough for me with my Ohme 3 pin purchased through Octopus so looks like I’ll need to buy a new charger. Thankfully, the Ohme I purchased has more than paid for itself.

 

[Tig170]

It's possible to force that. I do.

Same here, nevertheless Octopus causes terrible problems when it starts outside of the 11:30-5:30am period.

 

[gary333]

Now, from reading the history of this thread I can now see you have found a quirk in your Zappi setup that allows you to do something that isn't possible with Ohme chargers (or at least mine). There's no option to facilitate timed charges and circumvent the Octopus integration.

Looks like I was wrong here too. There’s an option in the Octopus app under Devices which appears to let you turn smart charge on and off. Not tried it yet, but will.

 

[GaryMG4]

Over the last month or so I have been trying greener nights, this resulted in some really odd schedules and strange charging patterns with many breaks and restarts. This seems to have confused my MG4 causing it to constantly reset maximum charge to 100%. In an effort to stop it going above 80% I requested smart charge to add whatever percentage it would need to reach 80% on one occasion it stopped at 75% another 84% but on both occasions it appears to have used more kWh than the percentage requested would imply. Last night I turned off smart charge and scheduled 5 hours from midnight. The car was at 30% with a max of 80% and guess what, the car stopped the charge at 80% after completing a balance charge just before 5am having added 31.41kWh. I know correlation isn't causation but it looks like the MG4 really doesn't like how smart charge now works.

 

[GaryMG4]

Not enough for me with my Ohme 3 pin purchased through Octopus so looks like I’ll need to buy a new charger. Thankfully, the Ohme I purchased has more than paid for itself.

I didn't realise you could get IOG with a three pin charger.

 

[tsedge]

Over the last month or so I have been trying greener nights, this resulted in some really odd schedules and strange charging patterns with many breaks and restarts. This seems to have confused my MG4 causing it to constantly reset maximum charge to 100%. In an effort to stop it going above 80% I requested smart charge to add whatever percentage it would need to reach 80% on one occasion it stopped at 75% another 84% but on both occasions it appears to have used more kWh than the percentage requested would imply. Last night I turned off smart charge and scheduled 5 hours from midnight. The car was at 30% with a max of 80% and guess what, the car stopped the charge at 80% after completing a balance charge just before 5am having added 31.41kWh. I know correlation isn't causation but it looks like the MG4 really doesn't like how smart charge now works.

That's good detective work and useful for others, thanks.

Yes, this is one problem with the recent product changes. Fair enough I suppose as it is "beta", but I doubt the MG4 is the only car/make to struggle with this.

 

[gary333]

I didn't realise you could get IOG with a three pin charger.

Octopus used to sell it themselves for both Go and Intelligent Go. It’s the same unit as a normal Ohme 7Kw charger, but is fully restricted so you can’t chop plug off and change to full power

https://www.electricpoint.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2744a43aec172f111f8d70aa521a60e0/o/h/ohme-go-3-pin-type-2-ev-charger-2.jpg

 

[GaryMG4]

That's good detective work and useful for others, thanks.

Yes, this is one problem with the recent product changes. Fair enough I suppose as it is "beta", but I doubt the MG4 is the only car/make to struggle with this.

Our older Niro doesn't seem to be affected by the change, although it may just be hidden.

 

[GaryMG4]

Octopus used to sell it themselves for both Go and Intelligent Go. It’s the same unit as a normal Ohme 7Kw charger, but is fully restricted so you can’t chop plug off and change to full power

https://www.electricpoint.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2744a43aec172f111f8d70aa521a60e0/o/h/ohme-go-3-pin-type-2-ev-charger-2.jpg

I guess there's a good case for wanting 18 hrs charging then as an Octopus supplied charger puts an unfair restriction on those purchasers. On a similar vein my Zappi is a 3 phase version, although we are not 3 phase, does that mean if I was on 3 phase I would get a potential 6 x 22kWh (car permitting)?

 

[mg4mc]

Maybe, but IOG often sets the max charge rate for some slots lower than 7kW. I guess it would depend on how much extra demand they want to create at any particular time.

 

[gary333]

Maybe, but IOG often sets the max charge rate for some slots lower than 7kW. I guess it would depend on how much extra demand they want to create at any particular time.

Someone on SpeakEV has asked Octopus what happens in this scenario, as it's a valid concern.

If the customer has requested 6 hours @ 7Kw then you'd expect c.42kWh to be delivered. If they drop the charge to 16A for an hour of that charge then you'd only be getting 38.5kWh so be charged full rate for the remaining 3.5kWh for something that was beyond your control.

I presume this is why the mention putting in a limit for 6 hours within the app, however this will just push people to turn off Smart Charging as what's the advantage to the customer of letting the car mess around at random times of the day, as it looks like the time outside off peak hours will only be for the car anyways (as they are going to calculate the difference from charging logs).