Octopus Energy launches unlimited smart EV charging bolt-on for £30
Octopus Energy has announced an unlimited smart EV charging packing for its customers on a standard electricity tariff.
The £30 subscription for the ‘Intelligent Drive Pack’ covers one electric car for unlimited overnight smart charging. Users can select a ‘ready by’ time from between 4am and 11am, when the grid is at its greenest and energy prices are amongst their lowest.
The standard smart tariff through the Octopus Go tariff is just 8.5p per kilowatt hour during the off-peak hours of 00:30-05:30. This makes Octopus Go one of the more competitive home charging tariffs available to EV drivers in the United Kingdom.
To access the Intelligent Drive Pack, Octopus Energy customers on a standard tariff will require a working smart meter and be on the Octopus Fixed or Flexible Octopus home tariff. A home charger and one of the 280 EVs compatible with the Intelligent Drive Pack are two further essentials.
Should users wish to charge outside of the 04:00 – 11:00 timeframe, they can do so by using a boost function on their Octopus app to charge at their normal home energy rate, which is not included in the £30 monthly fee.
According to the energy provider, Intelligent Drive Pack users pay two-fifths (41%) of what petrol car owners typically spend on fuel each month.
Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, chief product officer at Octopus said: “You can’t even get a nice meal out at a restaurant for £30 anymore – but you can get a whole month’s worth of driving.”
Octopus launched the Intelligent Drive Pack for customers who wish to switch to make the transition from a combustion-engined car to an EV, but do not want the hassle of changing their home energy tariff.
