[Janoula56]

Hi

I am considering an EV for my change of car next year. We are currently with Octopus and due to change fixed deal in December this year. However I have read something by Martin Lewis that suggests Octopus are changing their charges which will almost double? I can obviously choose another Octopus fixed deal for now, but come June next year I will need to add an EV facility. Looking at British Gas they offer a free charging for up to (8K I think) miles per year, but only if you have a HIVE charger. Is that an option with Motability? If not, which company would I be best to set up a new fixed rate this December and then add on an EV rate come June. Sorry if that sounds confused but I am !

Topic

[Falcon1]

I am with octopus on their octopus go intelligent tariff and its terrific. The cheap energy at night is useful as we have solar batteries that charge. I am not aware of any significant price hike though.

2024 Skoda Enyaq estate- 85x Sportline plus in Race Blue. Extras: Supernova 21 inch wheels, Maxx Pack, Transport Pack, Heat Pump and Pano Sunroof.
Ordered 31/10/23, Delivery 27/3/24

[tvs]

Octopus go intelligent tariff for me too. Still charge @ 7p on cheap overnight electricity, for the whole house as well. Also if I plug the car in during the day it will charge at that rate out of hours when demand is light on the network. Only costs us £3.50 to top up with 50kwh charge!

Switch onto this tariff when you get your EV.

2024 - KIA EV6 GT Line AWD
2019 - 2024 BMW X1 2.0d X Drive Sport Auto
2017 -2019 Audi Q3 2.0d Quattro Sport Line Plus
2005 - 2017 Honda CRV Exec 2.0d

[Janoula56]

A query on charging please. Do you have to have whatever charger motability decide? Have read some concerning posts elsewhere on the safety of some. Also are all chargers compatible with all energy providers and do they all have the app option. Any advice appreciated. Its some months away but I am trying to find out all I can as currently we have the Quashqai E power which we love but they have now ended the extra 2yrs we thought we had coming, so we no longer have the finances for up front payment like we did before when we sold our own old car. We love driving electric mode on our car, but easy to fill it up with unleaded too. This charger system is all new to me. Thank you.

[kdwolf]

Unless things changed,  Motability fully pay for a standard installation of Ohme Pro charger.  It is ugly,  the plastic to hang the cable on is feeble and will break if pressed too hard,  but it does its job.

With regards to the energy provider, I had Octopus Intelli Pro, but this April moved to E On as they have better night tariff and for one hour longer.

I haven’t heard of any change in December,  which you mentioned – would be good to understand what it is about, but the question is if it is fixed tariff and you cannot switch  to their intelligence Pro in June or leave them entirely without paying a heafty fee.

One advise from me, based on my personal experience only,  don’t count on June- you may not see your new car for months due to various delays.

Sent from a mobile device.
Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.

Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 PHEV July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)

[Oscarmax]

Janoula56 wrote:

A query on charging please. Do you have to have whatever charger motability decide? Have read some concerning posts elsewhere on the safety of some. Also are all chargers compatible with all energy providers and do they all have the app option. Any advice appreciated. Its some months away but I am trying to find out all I can as currently we have the Quashqai E power which we love but they have now ended the extra 2yrs we thought we had coming, so we no longer have the finances for up front payment like we did before when we sold our own old car. We love driving electric mode on our car, but easy to fill it up with unleaded too. This charger system is all new to me. Thank you.

The Kia Niro 2 with a 64kWh battery zero AP, worth a punt before they are all gone, plus you will still have your £250 good condition bonus.

Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.

[kezo]

Janoula56 wrote:

A query on charging please. Do you have to have whatever charger motability decide? Have read some concerning posts elsewhere on the safety of some. Also are all chargers compatible with all energy providers and do they all have the app option. Any advice appreciated. Its some months away but I am trying to find out all I can as currently we have the Quashqai E power which we love but they have now ended the extra 2yrs we thought we had coming, so we no longer have the finances for up front payment like we did before when we sold our own old car. We love driving electric mode on our car, but easy to fill it up with unleaded too. This charger system is all new to me. Thank you.

Janoula56 wrote:

A query on charging please. Do you have to have whatever charger motability decide? Have read some concerning posts elsewhere on the safety of some. Also are all chargers compatible with all energy providers and do they all have the app option. Any advice appreciated. Its some months away but I am trying to find out all I can as currently we have the Quashqai E power which we love but they have now ended the extra 2yrs we thought we had coming, so we no longer have the finances for up front payment like we did before when we sold our own old car. We love driving electric mode on our car, but easy to fill it up with unleaded too. This charger system is all new to me. Thank you.

Motability have partnered with Ohme, so in the majority of cases you will get an Ohme charger & standard installation. Ohme chargers meet the relevant safety standards hwever, some are installed better than others.

There are two energy suppliers who offer intelligent type charging tariffs, which is Octopus and OVO. Ohme chargers will only work on Octopus intelligent tariff, but a vehicle can also be compatible and the charger not. Almost all energy suppliers offer a basic 2 rate overnight tariff which you can be used with any charger eig EON Nextdrive.

All chargers installed after June 2022 have to be Smart chargers and will also have App controll. You will find energy suppliers also have their own Apps for intelligent tariffs.

If 75-80% of your journeys are local and you can charge at home on a cheap overnight tariff, an EV will be in most cases cheaper to run. Public chargers are expensive and can be more expensive than running your E-Power.  Depending on the charging speed of the public charger will determine how long you will have to wait for it to charge upto 80%, in comparison to 5 min filling your E-Power with fuel.

 

 

 

[reluctantcripple]

I have the Ohme Home Pro as fitted by Motability last year. I’ve just moved to Octopus Intelligent Go 12M fixed. The Ohme app doesn’t have that Octopus tariff registered,  so I manually set the dual tarrifs in the Ohme app; peak 29p,  off peak (11:30pm – 5:30am) 7p. The Ohme app can be set to charge only at off peak rate by setting the price cap, so it wont charge at rates above your cheapest rate.

blah, blah, blah

[peterbosher56]

I have Ohme Ipod charger fitted and OVO as energy supplier through the VW 10,000 free mile and guaranteed 7p cheap rate. However, found it difficult to get the Ohmn app to work as it doesn’t recognise OVO?  I currently use it as a dumb charging point controlling it through the OVO app and the Skoda app. The difficulkty is that sometimes the charger doesn’t seem to want to communicate with the car when plugged in?

Any ideas?

PeterB

[reluctantcripple]

I’m having similar issue after swapping to Octopus. Previously the Ohme charger had my EDF tariff in its database so could select that tariff. It doesn’t have my new tariff and even though I’ve manually added the dual rates it isn’t happy. The Octopus app wouldn’t play nicely with the Ohme app or my car after I paired both in the Octopus app. The Ohme price cap function isn’t working.

I’m hoping that at some point Ohme will update its database and I’ll get back to ‘smart charging’.

blah, blah, blah

[kezo]

reluctantcripple wrote:

I’m having similar issue after swapping to Octopus. Previously the Ohme charger had my EDF tariff in its database so could select that tariff. It doesn’t have my new tariff and even though I’ve manually added the dual rates it isn’t happy. The Octopus app wouldn’t play nicely with the Ohme app or my car after I paired both in the Octopus app. The Ohme price cap function isn’t working. I’m hoping that at some point Ohme will update its database and I’ll get back to ‘smart charging’.

I would advise using Ohme app only and not Octopus app.

peterbosher56 wrote:

I have Ohme Ipod charger fitted and OVO as energy supplier through the VW 10,000 free mile and guaranteed 7p cheap rate. However, found it difficult to get the Ohmn app to work as it doesn’t recognise OVO? I currently use it as a dumb charging point controlling it through the OVO app and the Skoda app. The difficulkty is that sometimes the charger doesn’t seem to want to communicate with the car when plugged in? Any ideas?

OVO community forum is best place to ask.

[Author]

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