Who is best now?

[tsedge]

Hi,

Now that Tomato Energy has gone splat, who is offering the best tariff for EV charging?

I don't have solar or battery (and won't for the foreseeable future as probably moving in a few months).

But I am soon to have 2 EVs to charge, so interested in long hours and best rate compromise.

Currently I am on Intelligent Octopus Go - but I don't use the Intelligent part, I just use the cheap rate core hours.

All suggestions welcome, thank you.

 

[MG Clive]

My mate had his new home charger installed on Friday, and after weeks of research, he's gone with Octopus Go, and from what he was telling me about Octopus Go, I don't think you can go wrong by sticking with them.

 

[Jomarkh]

If you are going to have two EV'S it maybe better to go for an EV add on tariff if you have a compatible EVSE

 

[Griffian]

We run two EVs off our Ohme Home Pro on OIG. Neither has API link, so we're 'charge to add' for both (MG4 & Fiat 500e) and have had no problems. The cheap electricity when dynamic charging during the say helps. Our average price for last month's 485kWh was 14.18ppkWh.

 

[5teep]

I have just today switched over to Eon's Drive Fixed tariff. They do two EV tariffs, Fixed and Smart. Smart gives you better rates @ 6.5p kwh cheap and ~28p standard, but Eon decide when the cheap rate is, when to charge your car and for how long. This doesn't suit my needs as I have an 87kwh battery in my work car that 'must' be fully charged by the morning and it can take 10 hours plus. So I went for the Fixed Drive tariff at 7.5p/30p which lets me decide when to start and stop, i.e. start at 10pm to finish at 8am and using the full 6 cheap rate hours inbetween. I can also run the washing machine etc overnight too for extra savings.
I plan to retire next year (hopefully) and I will not have the big battery to deal with after that so the smart tariff may be better then, or even none at all.

/edit I'm not certain whether the Smart tariff is that flexible, the blurb suggests it's also between Midnight and six am. Anyway it's as easy as clicking an icon to change if I want to.

 

[mystreet]

Here's mine.

 

[5teep]

Here's mine.

View attachment 41087

Lordy, I'm on the same tariff and paying 60p per day standing charge (

 

[tsedge]

Lordy, I'm on the same tariff and paying 60p per day standing charge (

That's regional variation for you, it needs sorting out... well unless you live in an area of high renewables in which case the argument is "let us pay miles less than the others!".

 

[m4rmite]

I'm on eon next drive v10
7.5p midnight till 6am
27.76p 6am till midnight
60p a day standing charge.
Run 1 ev for the last 4 years and now 2 evs since August.
All dandy as neither my car or charger are compatible with octopus.

 

[tsedge]

Thanks everyone, that is really helpful.

One thing I have always wondered is why somebody doesn't sell a 2:1 Type 2 splitter so you can plug in two cars at once, but still keep them separate so you charge only one at a time - ideally with remote control or a schedule to swap the two connections over. I guess it would be expensive to do well.

 

[Gomev]

Lordy, I'm on the same tariff and paying 60p per day standing charge (

That's because you live in 'Cruising', it's an expensive area.

 

[DBedford]

British Gas Electric Driver V17,
Off-peak - 7.9p/kWh (currently discounted to 3.9p, being revised 5.9p.
Peak - 28.19p/kWh,
Standing Charge - 41.45p
62% of our consumption is off-peak in October '25
(Very happy)

 

[Anon70]

With 2 cars another option (if you have the space) is to get some battery storage. Then on the days when the cars are not charging during the cheap rate periods you top up the batteries. You can then charge then cars outside of the cheap rate times using the batteries.

 

[Everest]

With 2 cars another option (if you have the space) is to get some battery storage. Then on the days when the cars are not charging during the cheap rate periods you top up the batteries. You can then charge then cars outside of the cheap rate times using the batteries.

I'm not convinced that would be cost effective - you'd need at least 30kWh of battery storage to put a decent charge into an EV, taking into account round trip losses of about 85% to and from the battery storage. And then a decent size inverter...

 

[tsedge]

I'm not convinced that would be cost effective - you'd need at least 30kWh of battery storage to put a decent charge into an EV, taking into account round trip losses of about 85% to and from the battery storage. And then a decent size inverter...

Yes good point, and actually I have plenty of capacity already at the cheap rate to charge 2 cars each week as we really don't do that many miles in total.

I'm not looking to invest in battery or solar as we are planning to move soon and it makes no sense to install that now.

 

[GaryMG4]

I haven't found IOG limiting wrt hours with 2 EVs, put 50% in the MG last night, 90% going in the Kia tonight both on greener nights. Tonights smart charge started just in time to cook dinner so an extra little win there too. Currently averaging around 15p kWh overall so not too bad.

 

[Porsche944]

E On Next that's who I went with. Useful as no car charger yet, using a granny lead so a none-linked supply seemed sensible.

 

[jasonh]

Ok, its been great with tomato energy while it lasted. shout out to johnb for the inspiration.

However i'm now looking at the rest of the tariffs, but i have an older dumb charger which has been great. Didn't really want to go with a smart charger as people have talked of unreliability with connection and failed units etc. However I may have to, to join the cheaper tariffs.

So what would you kind folks advise on, with regards to a new charger(easee, ohme etc) and of course the switching of tariffs.

We have 3 EV's in the household (all MG's !!!) with total annual mileage of around 25k.

I do think that something that is often overlooked with the tariffs is the standing charge, tomato was excellent with this. I also have looked at fused energy, but there doesnt seem any real world reviews (just people sharing their codes for money off).

Thanks in advance

 

[m4rmite]

Eon next drive don't need a smart charger, midnight till 6am on their latest tariff at 7.5p? Per kwh.
And it's household usage at this tariff so get the washing machine on, hot water, shower etc..

 

[Gadget Geek]

I found this comparison table on moneysavingexpert.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/ev-energy-tariffs/