Electric vehicle home charging points

Hi @elaine-moi and welcome to the OVO online community,

Great to hear about your recent EV purchase in spite of the difficulties you’ve had with the installation of of a home charging point. Just to clarify was this EV charging point arranged with us? If so this might be something to discuss with the smart home team by emailing smarthome@ovoenergy.com. They should be able to confirm the exact preparatory work that might need to be arranged with an electrician before the charger can be installed.

We’ve got plenty of happy EV drivers here, who I’m sure would recommend opting for a greener set of wheels once any initial set-up issues are resolved. Why not check out some of their EV reviews below:
 

• Electric Vehicle (EV) Review Topic Hub EV Review

I am now out of contract and pay the variable price about 31.8 per kwh. Now thinking about an electric car but I cannot see charging price even after looking at the Ovo site.

So if I buy an EV how much will i pay to charge?

You should look at the OVO drive option

You'll pay whatever your current tariff is.

There are tariffs available that offer periods of cheaper electricity and some of these are aimed at EV owners. E.g Octopus Go has very cheap electricity for 4 hours at night.

There are some "smart" ev tariffs that offer cheaper electricity just for your EV. These are only available with certain cars and/or chargers, as they need to capture data about when you car is charging. Octopus Intelligent and OVO Drive + Anytime are examples of these smart tariffs.

I bought my Nissan Leaf 40kw Tekna in December 2020 and because of those “interesting times” I had to wait three months for my Indra SmartPro charger to be fitted. At least I had plenty of time, granny charging through an open window, to change my order to a tethered charger so I didn’t have to faff around with a cold wet cable in future.

I was originally on Ovo’s Drive Anytime tariff of 5p/kWh, then it went up to 10p/kWh (still a huge saving) and now Charge Anytime of 7p/kWh. I drove 2,533 miles in June which cost me £40.42! I love driving my Leaf so much that I’m a volunteer driver seven days a week, driving over 100 miles a day, most days, and charging every night.

Hey @Gingernut49,

So glad to hear you love driving your Nissan Leaf, 2,533 miles in June for £40.42 is mind blowing! 

What advice would you give a community member looking into buying their first EV? Anything you’d have done differently?

Definitely go for an EV if you can charge at home. The savings are amazing. I’m only on a state pension so I couldn’t afford to buy petrol. There’s hardly anything to go wrong so one just has to check tyres, windscreen washer and the 12v battery.

I’d advise (as with all cars) to buy one second-hand as the savings are amazing over new. I love my Leaf but if you’re public charging regularly then maybe it’s better to go for one that uses CCS charging rather than Chademo. I’ve never had a problem finding a Chademo public charger but they aren’t as common as CCS and cars that need CCS have more choice, including being able to use Tesla chargers.

I bought mine outright as my Aunt Vera left me some money - all EVs were very expensive when I bought it and since then the prices have dropped, so those paying in instalments have lost out. I’m 74 and keeping my “Vera” for the rest of my life.

ps to benefit from Ovo’s Charge Anytime tariff, one has to have a smart meter and a compatible charger. Not all car manufacturers are compatible (Nissan isn’t) but I can have it as I installed through Ovo.

This is brilliant @Gingernut49, really helpful! If you’d every like to write a blog post let one of the forum team know & we can get this published for you, it might be really helpful to other community members. The forum is a great place to discuss green tech, & doesn’t have to be related to OVO products. 

I know what a blog is but I’m not sure how it would differ from what I’ve already written. Can’t you write it, based on what I’ve said? I’m driving all day again today, as yesterday, so I don’t really have time.

I completely understand @Gingernut49. What you’ve written is really helpful to other users, so thank you. 🤗