Which EV-friendly energy tariff?
Discussion
After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing I've finally got an EV on order through my work company car scheme.
This was all going pretty well until the 'energy crisis' we're told to anticipate over the winter. My current home energy tariff comes to an end at the end of December and I had fully intended on going on to EDF's "Go Electric" tariff which gives 4.5p/ kWh off-peak. Trouble is; this is now an incredibly expensive tariff in general, standing charges and the gas cost associated with this are around £140/ month more than I'm currently paying, or over twice (currently £110 / month).
I have gas central heating and under the Go Electric Tarrif the unit costs in kWh are almost double compared to the 'standard variable' tariff I'll move to by default if I don't choose an alternative.
I get the feeling (at least for now) I'll be best off just sticking with the standard variable tariff until this hopefully resolves itself - I would be protected by the ofgem price cap, correct?
I've never really had to pay much attention to this in the past, tending to just move every 24 months to the cheapest supplier. But I plan to charge a Tesla Model 3 overnight and I understand this will add around 2000 kWh of electricity to my annual consumption.
I've done all the necessary stuff behind the scenes preparing the property for an electric charge point (not yet installed however) and have changed to a smart meter to keep my supplier options open.
What is the best thing to do in my situation? Sit tight? 20.87p / kWh doesn't strike me as a cheap way to 'fill' an electric car.
This was all going pretty well until the 'energy crisis' we're told to anticipate over the winter. My current home energy tariff comes to an end at the end of December and I had fully intended on going on to EDF's "Go Electric" tariff which gives 4.5p/ kWh off-peak. Trouble is; this is now an incredibly expensive tariff in general, standing charges and the gas cost associated with this are around £140/ month more than I'm currently paying, or over twice (currently £110 / month).
I have gas central heating and under the Go Electric Tarrif the unit costs in kWh are almost double compared to the 'standard variable' tariff I'll move to by default if I don't choose an alternative.
I get the feeling (at least for now) I'll be best off just sticking with the standard variable tariff until this hopefully resolves itself - I would be protected by the ofgem price cap, correct?
I've never really had to pay much attention to this in the past, tending to just move every 24 months to the cheapest supplier. But I plan to charge a Tesla Model 3 overnight and I understand this will add around 2000 kWh of electricity to my annual consumption.
I've done all the necessary stuff behind the scenes preparing the property for an electric charge point (not yet installed however) and have changed to a smart meter to keep my supplier options open.
What is the best thing to do in my situation? Sit tight? 20.87p / kWh doesn't strike me as a cheap way to 'fill' an electric car.
Sit tight, by definition the price cap is pretty much cheaper than any of the non-capped tariffs available. The only other option I can suggest is asking them to move you to the Eco2020 version of their Standard Variable (price cap) tariff - it's a little more expensive on peak, but the offpeak rate is much cheaper, and it applies from 9pm to 7am weeknights, and from 9pm Friday to 7am Monday. If you've got a functional smart meter they should be able to do it over the air.
Blue Oval84 said:
Sit tight, by definition the price cap is pretty much cheaper than any of the non-capped tariffs available. The only other option I can suggest is asking them to move you to the Eco2020 version of their Standard Variable (price cap) tariff - it's a little more expensive on peak, but the offpeak rate is much cheaper, and it applies from 9pm to 7am weeknights, and from 9pm Friday to 7am Monday. If you've got a functional smart meter they should be able to do it over the air.
I think the Eco2020 tariff is end-of-life. I asked a to switch over to it a couple of weeks ago and they said it's not possible.I don’t see a cost effective solution to this.
I placed an order for a new EV last week - then a colleague who’s with the same supplier as me (I recommended them) and pays almost identical monthly amount, received a call from them as his rate is ending next month. They apologised almost immediately before advising him that their ‘best deal’ was about £140 a month more than he is currently paying.
He’s shopped around and managed to get it cheaper but still £100 more a month. My deal ends in April, just in time for the price cap set to rise by over 40%. So even though I’d drop onto their standard tariff, I’m still looking at massive hike in my bill and quotes I’ve managed to get are approx. £110 more per month!
Could I have picked a worse time to decide to make the switch to EV? I’m considering cancelling the order and waiting but are things going to get any better? It’s a decent deal and ticked all the boxes for me, but I might be better sticking with my diesel for a while longer. Typical!
Staying put is probably the best thing to do, but it’s still going to be a horrendous hike in April.
I placed an order for a new EV last week - then a colleague who’s with the same supplier as me (I recommended them) and pays almost identical monthly amount, received a call from them as his rate is ending next month. They apologised almost immediately before advising him that their ‘best deal’ was about £140 a month more than he is currently paying.
He’s shopped around and managed to get it cheaper but still £100 more a month. My deal ends in April, just in time for the price cap set to rise by over 40%. So even though I’d drop onto their standard tariff, I’m still looking at massive hike in my bill and quotes I’ve managed to get are approx. £110 more per month!
Could I have picked a worse time to decide to make the switch to EV? I’m considering cancelling the order and waiting but are things going to get any better? It’s a decent deal and ticked all the boxes for me, but I might be better sticking with my diesel for a while longer. Typical!
Staying put is probably the best thing to do, but it’s still going to be a horrendous hike in April.
spaceship said:
I don’t see a cost effective solution to this.
I placed an order for a new EV last week - then a colleague who’s with the same supplier as me (I recommended them) and pays almost identical monthly amount, received a call from them as his rate is ending next month. They apologised almost immediately before advising him that their ‘best deal’ was about £140 a month more than he is currently paying.
He’s shopped around and managed to get it cheaper but still £100 more a month. My deal ends in April, just in time for the price cap set to rise by over 40%. So even though I’d drop onto their standard tariff, I’m still looking at massive hike in my bill and quotes I’ve managed to get are approx. £110 more per month!
Could I have picked a worse time to decide to make the switch to EV? I’m considering cancelling the order and waiting but are things going to get any better? It’s a decent deal and ticked all the boxes for me, but I might be better sticking with my diesel for a while longer. Typical!
Staying put is probably the best thing to do, but it’s still going to be a horrendous hike in April.
The problem is that most people are on existing discounted fixed tariffs, which were set when leccy was cheaper. So changing to an EV rate now means a price increase. If they were on a "current" leccy tariff since the wholesale increases, then the EV tariff would look more appealing.I placed an order for a new EV last week - then a colleague who’s with the same supplier as me (I recommended them) and pays almost identical monthly amount, received a call from them as his rate is ending next month. They apologised almost immediately before advising him that their ‘best deal’ was about £140 a month more than he is currently paying.
He’s shopped around and managed to get it cheaper but still £100 more a month. My deal ends in April, just in time for the price cap set to rise by over 40%. So even though I’d drop onto their standard tariff, I’m still looking at massive hike in my bill and quotes I’ve managed to get are approx. £110 more per month!
Could I have picked a worse time to decide to make the switch to EV? I’m considering cancelling the order and waiting but are things going to get any better? It’s a decent deal and ticked all the boxes for me, but I might be better sticking with my diesel for a while longer. Typical!
Staying put is probably the best thing to do, but it’s still going to be a horrendous hike in April.
PushedDover said:
Also keen to hear and learn as an EV ordered - so new to this minefield...
If you're on a fixed tariff right now, the problem is that any move to a tariff which is cheap overnight will be matched with a typically monster hike to the daytime rate.Regardless of your move to EV, this price hike lies in wait for whenever your fixed term ends, so the real question is: is it worth jumping ship before the end of your fix, to a new tariff.
It's worth finding out whether the cheap rate applies to your entire household, or if it's just for the EV charging (I seem to recall Ovo would provide a 'cheap rate' by linking up to the API in your charger or the car, and then issuing you a bill credit for the amount of power you used to charge the car). Other providers (Octopus Go, and - I believe - EDF's electric car tariff) offer the cheaper rate for all power consumed in the cheap window, so if you're able to run other large power consumers in that time then it could be useful (think tumble dryer, dishwasher, etc).
Sadly though, the current wholesale prices for electricity and gas are just grim. No provider is immune to feeling that pinch, so there's a lot of prices raising. Both in terms of domestic electricity, and the price that charge point operators will be paying for their supply - a couple of them are notching their prices up too.
Diesel and Petrol are also rising too, unfortunately, so it's not necessarily the safe haven to stick with either of those. Hopefully this winter is an anomaly, and some normality is starting to return by summer of next year...!
I was on the EDF Go-Elecrric98 tariff up until recently. It had a cheap off-peak rate from 9pm to 7am and also from 9pm Friday through to 7am Monday. This was a fixed rate tariff.
When it ended a few weeks ago I rolled over to their variable rate capped tariff that has the same off-peak hours. This EDF variable capped rate tariff is called ECO20:20. I have never been on this tariff before. The off-peak rate is 12.8p per kWh but I expect this to increase to about 17p on 1st April when all cap tariffs increase for all suppliers.
I can’t find anything cheaper than this at the moment. I’ll search again in October when the next cap period starts.
When it ended a few weeks ago I rolled over to their variable rate capped tariff that has the same off-peak hours. This EDF variable capped rate tariff is called ECO20:20. I have never been on this tariff before. The off-peak rate is 12.8p per kWh but I expect this to increase to about 17p on 1st April when all cap tariffs increase for all suppliers.
I can’t find anything cheaper than this at the moment. I’ll search again in October when the next cap period starts.
Anybody thinking Ripple, for the longer term?
https://rippleenergy.com
(PS - looks like I have a referral code if anyone is interested ...DM me)
https://rippleenergy.com
(PS - looks like I have a referral code if anyone is interested ...DM me)
Edited by EV Beano on Tuesday 22 February 09:54
EV Beano said:
Anybody thinking Ripple, for the longer term?
https://rippleenergy.com
(PS - looks like I have a referral code if anyone is interested ...DM me)
I've actually just bunged a little into this, although their offer makes it clear this should be considered more an investment into advancing renewable energy and less about making money.https://rippleenergy.com
(PS - looks like I have a referral code if anyone is interested ...DM me)
Edited by EV Beano on Tuesday 22 February 09:54
Interestingly the future price expectations seem to suggest a few expensive years then a gentle decline in prices as renewables start to take over.
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