Charge Anytime with Kia

Hey ​@NI68L !

Want some good news? If you’ve got a compatible Charger, you can hook up ANY vehicle you want and get the same benefits - even if the EV itself isn’t compatible.

Some Kia vehicles are compatible as part of Beta trials. However, using the Charger method is STRONGLY recommended instead as it’ll give you a far more reliable experience.

Hope that helps!

​@Blastoise186  that’s what I had hoped for, thank you. A further couple of questions if I may-

1. you mention ‘some Kia vehicles are compatible as part of Beta trials’ is the Beta trial open to everyone and are there a list of Kia vehicles? 
2. so the ‘charge anytime’ is not limited to the OVO recommended chargers, is there a list of chargers.

If possible I would like to ensure both car & charger are compatible if possible!

Many thanks in advance

Lucky man. Terrific car, the Kia EV6 and with a compatible charger available expect a full charge from nearly depleted for under £4. Don’t forget that the credit is made in arrears on your electricity account. Check your energy hub on the OVO app to track your usage.

​@BobTom & ​@Blastoise186 thank you both a truly useful forum for a change, I really appreciate your thoughts and help.

Hey ​@NI68L,

Welcome to the community 🎉

A very exciting time for you and you’ve already had some great advice from ​@Blastoise186 and ​@BobTom. I’ve shared a couple of links below that might be helpful with more information on Charge Anytime. 

Once you get your shiny new EV let us know and we can add an EV badge to show off on your profile. This helps others know you’re part of our growing EV community! 

Interesting read. I’ve been waiting over a year for kia and ovo to get this running :(

Whats the downsides to joining the beta ?

Anything as bad as car not starting, charging etc.

Well… Erm…

There’s a lot… Mostly because Hyundai/Kia has terrible software - BlueLink is one of the most broken platforms possible and we cannot make ANY promises that it’ll work with Charge Anytime at all because BL is so unreliable.

in the answer to  ​@Stryke78  mail are you ​@Blastoise186  suggesting Kia’s on board software is no good? Or just the software link between a Kia Car and Charge Anytime is no good? 

I have now invested in a OVO recommended ‘Charge Anytime’ charger and as previously mentioned hope that once fitted and then I have the car that the charger does the intelligence back to OVO and ‘Charge Anytime’ which in an earlier post was the recommended route?!?

I trust I understood this correctly.

It’s BlueLink as a whole, so partially the car software and partially the cloud/software platform on the Hyundai/Kia side. Charge Anytime runs most integrations through a platform called Enode which acts as a gateway to all the manufacturers.

I can tell you that BlueLink is broken for literally every Smart Charging setup across Europe, not just Charge Anytime…

You can probably figure out where this is going...

I have been chatting with Kia re settings in the Kia app to allow it to work with direct to vehicle charging with OVO…they advised the following

‘Please make sure that when you go to the section of the app where you set up charging times, the toggle is 'On' for the option 'Off peak tariffs only' and not on for the 'Off-peak tariffs prioritized' (or if the present sets there fit your preferences according to the tariff plan that OVO provides).

Is this correct as I imaging OVO would not just choose off peak periods..more when the grid is less busy? What should I have set in the Kia app (formally Kia Connect app)

Hi ​@WileyC ,

I’d say turn both options OFF in the vehicle - Charge Anytime will manage those anyway and while it does try to use off-peak periods, it will use peak if it absolutely has to.

I wonder if the new Kia app (released a few weeks ago and combines legacy apps like Kia connect and Kia Charge) will do a better job on the integration with OVO. 

I’m cautiously optimistic that it might help a bit. But I can’t say for sure.

If you’re OK with beta testing it and reporting back, we’re cool with that. But that’s the best I can think of right now.

Keep us posted with how you get on, the Charge Anytime are always looking for feedback so they can make improvements 😊

After what can only be described as  *edited by moderator* today with OVO and their announcement 

I've followed the instructions, my car is on the beta list and low and behold it's not working 

App is connected, car is plugged in and it doesn't recognise it 

So if anyone can shed some light it would be appreciated before I look to exist without charges for an absolute farce of a service, solution and package from OVO.

Hi ​@Kenyanscott ,

Blastoise186 is a Forum Volunteer on the OVO Forum. He does not work for OVO

I’d suggest checking with the team for that one as they may need to do some diagnostics. The issue may be down to the Kia integration but I can’t say for sure.

Please call them on 0330 175 9678 in the morning

Then they have lost another customer

I purchased the ohme because they allowed it to be for integration,  and now they don't offer it a month after I got it.

They knew this was happening and never told anyone 

This is shameful from Ohme and OVO.

Inevitably each blames the other ( and if that doesn't work,  blame the car manufacturer) leaving the poor customer in the middle to pick up the bill.

Was planning to fit a Hypervolt EV charger and wonder if they will fall out! 

Just shameful.

Hypervolt is already running just fine on the new setup - it’s actually said to be the strongest and most reliable integration with Charge Anytime out of all of them.

I don’t see that one ending anytime soon...

The problem here is that Im trying to make a decision on chargers...the Ohme or the Indra. Clearly Ohme not supported anymore (but I prefer it to the Indra) so I would have to use the direct to vehicle connection method for charge anytime and all the problems that seem to come with that. I also worry that if OVO cant get this to reliably work it will never make it out of Beta or worse support is pulled completely by OVO for direct to vehicle.

Or do I get the Indra which is supported for direct to charger (avoiding the problems everyone seems to be having with Kia).

As all Kias use the Kia Connect app (or now the new Kia app that combines the legacy Kia apps like connect and charge) are there any Kia users on this forum that are using the direct to vehicle connection method using the new app with any success?

Many thanks all!

No worries - it’s also worth looking at Hypervolt and Andersen too by the way.

We’ve not seen much in the way of Andersen users on the Forum, but we do know that a lot of folks love Hypervolt and we’ve seen some pretty good results too.

Hypervolt Support have also been really good at helping out - their team is probably the most responsive out of all of them, with Indra coming a close second.

Either way, please check out ALL supported Chargers before making your decision! If you have a Kia, then tbh you’re better off going down the Charger route anyway.

You’re the first user we’ve seen using the new Kia app, so I’m afraid I can’t summon anyone else right now. We’ll keep an eye out for any others just in case they stop by though.

I looked at Hypervolt (and liked that unit the most) but they only support wi-fi connectivity and my basement garage needs a 4G connection if its to connect with the hypervolt app and hence OVO. Indra supports a 4G connection fob (as an add-in).

It does seem that if you dont park your car on your drive that is in range of your home wi-fi it gets difficult very quickly to install home charging and have it work with the energy supplier tariffs….one of the reasons I was also keen on direct to vehicle was that the Kia has 4G connectivity as standard (for the life of the 7 year warranty) so it does away with the charger needing to talk to the internet.

Gotcha! Thanks for clarifying - but I hope you didn’t mind the suggestion anyway. :)

In that case, I’d say go down the Indra route. That way, you’ll get the better experience and will avoid the issues with Ohme and Kia.

All suggestions welcome. This whole home charging thing is not straightforward and you really need to look at specs of chargers, cars, internet connectivity etc...etc.

Ban on ICE vehicles by 2035 in the UK - cant see it happening unless we come up with better charging solutions.