@Bowly101 since having an EV we have been with Octopus but only on their go faster (5hours) and then reduced to 4 with Go but a full charge required 8.5 hours this is because we had a Stellantis vehicle they don’t link with. So we wanted a vehicle that could be linked with their Intelligent tariff this gives 6 hour of low price 7.5p from 11.30 to 5.30 but like yours they take over when you plug in and create a charge plan which maybe within or outside of these hours but you will still only pay the low rate unless you override to immediate charge. The benefit then is that you still always get the 6 low hours as well regardless of their charge plan. This also works well as the new car only takes 5 1/2 hours for full charge this is where often people fail to realise big battery and long range cost more hours so many have a battery that can only be half charged cheaply at home.
That’s what we’re with, Octopus Intelligent. So far, so good – at first it was a little odd to not immediately charge the car but wait for them to decide when it’s charging, but so far (6+ months) there wasn’t a single time where the car wasn’t charged by the time we set it to (8am).
Of course the bonus is that if they decide to charge in the middle of the day, the entire house goes to cheap electricity.
I will say though, it’s not quite correct that you can’t charge big battery rigs “cheaply” at home, you very much can unless you’re driving 200 miles every single day. You can’t charge them fully in one go, but you can certainly space it over two days. I’m not quite certain how Octo Intelligent works with high capacity packs that aren’t ready within the 6 hours, i think you do get “extra” charge depending on availability. Highest we had was 9 hours of cheap electricity within a 24 hour timeframe.
In regards to money..
We picked our car up on the 10th of february this year, with barely any petrol in it of course. We refueled for £51 (Super/E5, not normal). We since then drove 3300 miles in total, the total petrol cost was £110, and electricity around £70 (there’s one month in there without EV tariff, makes it hard to judge accurately). Less than £200 for 3300 miles for certain though. The current “since refuel” numbers are the following.
In our “old” car, a 2019 1.5 TSI SEAT Ateca, we spent slightly over £700 in the same timeframe.
Now, of course, we are basically the perfect use-case for PHEVs – we can do many of our journeys within the around 34 miles of (real) range we get. The few that we can’t, are still “reasonably” economical – we drove a 150 mile roundtrip to Bristol to pick up parents in law, got 82mpg on that trip. Which i thought was pretty great considering we were driving the vast majority of that trip at absolutely not 80mph on the motorway.
I’m still a little wary of full EVs, though i do think we’ll do the leap on the next car – but for certain, in a similar situation as we are in, a PHEV is just by far the best option. Potentially even better than a BEV if you can’t get a good deal and have to charge on stupendously expensive fastchargers on a longer journey.
PS: our numbers could’ve been much better too – we potentially could’ve made it with just that one refuel from pickup over the 3300 miles – it’s just that if you have a reasonably powerful car, you tend to.. you know, you tend to be a little liberal with the right foot.
edit: forgot to mention, the tank currently sits at 35% and 130 miles left, after 1250ish miles.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.