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Kia EV and OVO Charge Anytime - when will this be eligible for direct to vehicle (D2V)?


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I had a Easee charger fitted as recommended by my electrician last year. I am due to take delivery of my Kia EV shortly. I am also a OVO energy customer.

 

Bizarrely I seem unable to take advantage of the anytime + tariff as i have neither a compatible charger or car. How can this be the case? Has it now come to the point where you choose the car and charger based on an available electricity tariff?! Com on OVO get Kia on board ASAP.

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Best answer by Tim_OVO 6 March 2023, 10:26

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Thanks for posting, @philipgh

 

I know OVO are hoping to work with as many EV manufacturers as possible to get Charge Anytime available. See the current list of eligible cars and chargers here

 

Here’s a related topic:

 

 

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Hi Tim,

It would be really helpful for customers of OVO if OVO could provide a bit more clarity around time frame. I have a Kia EV6 and would really like to know if and when I could start to use the Anytime+ tariff.

Giving me a list of cars that can use it doesn't help me and just frustrates me even more.

Thanks

I could not agree more. I have a Kia Niro and a Pod Point charger - both internet enabled via Kia Connect and the Pod Point app yet I can't take advantage of Anytime+. Are these on the plan to be included?

Cheers Tom

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Updated on 01/11/23 by Tim_OVO:

 

There are now two ways you can get Charge Anytime:

You must have an eligible EV or Smart Charger, we’re constantly looking into ways to broaden eligibility of this product so if your technology isn’t currently on this list keep an eye on our page for updates! 

 

Thanks for the feedback, @philipgh @Tom Salmon. I appreciate this. 

 

From my understanding, adding additional electric vehicles via direct to vehicle, and additional charges, means working with those companies and their technology to unlock Charge Anytime. As a result it’s very difficult to provide insight on time frames. I’m told that OVO are really keen to unlock Charge Anytime with any many partners as possible as fast as possible.

 

Have you considered asking Kia?

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Hi Tom,

 

Yes I have asked my dealer, waiting on a response.

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Kia cars work with the Intelligent Octopus offer so not unreasonable to think OVO will add them at some stage. 

 

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Hi Tom,

 

Yes I have asked my dealer, waiting on a response.

Hi Philip. Interested to hear what your dealer says

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I am changing to Octopus. If OVO can’t give a steer on when I will change suppliers.

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Just an update Octopus Intelligent now doesn't work with Kia cars!

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I think Octopus Intelligent and Ovo Charge Anytime , both being type of use tariffs, need the same APIs to get data from either the vehicle or the charger. If a vehicle or charger manufacturer hasn't made them available there’s not much the energy company can do.

You won’t have that with a ‘dumb’ time of use tariff - if Octopus still offer one of those?

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Tim apprecate you may not be able to give an exact date for Kia EVs, however you should be able to find out more details say roughly when the next set of vehicles are being added or whether we should expect Kia support in say 6 or 12 months.  

As it stands we dont have any information to make a decision on such as upgrading to compatible charger or moving to another supplier.  Is the expectation we have to keep checking back every week in the hope you’ve added them?  there isnt even a way to be notified when more cars or chargers are added as far as i can tell so we are all in the dark.

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Just an update Octopus Intelligent now doesn't work with Kia cars!

Philip,  which kia did you select?  i just tried with Kia EV6 LR 2WD and it said the car was compatible.

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Thanks for the feedback, @stephenjk - it’s been raised elsewhere on this forum that the charge anytime compatibility page could be more specific and detailed about what’s on the horizon. This has already been passed on to the OVO teams and Kaluza. 

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I have the EV6 GT line S 77kw AWD. Apparently Octopus is draining the EV6 rather than charging!  so they have removed it from compatible car list  at the moment.

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I have the EV6 GT line S 77kw AWD. Apparently Octopus is draining the EV6 rather than charging!  so they have removed it from compatible car list  at the moment.

 

Interesting @philipgh let’s hope EV manufacturers can sort out any blockers to these smart energy tariffs quickly!

 

What charger do you have?

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I have the Easee Home charger.

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Yes utter frustration here too! Thought after all the delivery delays, the least of my problems as an existing OVO customer would be the compatability of my new Kia Sportage plug in and existing charger.

So a quick fix is needed here and in the meantime I’m sticking to the old fashioned plug in - granny charger!

I too have an Kia EV6 and an Easee charger, that's not compatible presently with OVO.

What I find most annoying is that I have both the car and the charger integrated into my Home Assistant, using the open API's of Kia and Easee I even have a Glo CAD that gives me 30 second energy readings.

 

Right now I'm still on an old fixed rate tariff, at 18p per kWh so I'm not feeling the full pain of charging at home.  

As no time based incentive is offered, I presently charge when I want, at the full 7.4kw my charger offers even if the 'Carbon Intensity on the national grid is High' at the time.

 

Obviously if I had the incentive of a reduction in cost to myself, I would adjust my behaviour.  Our cars and chargers both offer the ability to schedule the times and energy rate at which we charge within their respective apps, so why the insistence on having to use something that OVO deems compatible or wants to control themselves astounds me.  Allowing us to to program them ourselves to our own financial benefit to take advantage of a time based tariff seems a no brainer, why over complicate and throw yet another middleman system/subscription into the mix if you don't really have to.

 

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@Dabar I believe that time of use EV tariffs from the likes of Octopus offer the sort of thing you’re looking for. Hopefully we’ll have that Kia compatible with Charge Anytime’s ‘direct to vehicle’ integration in no time!

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Hi,

New to forum and was wondering if anyone has any idea when the kia niro ev and sync ev charger will be added to compatible list for cheap rate charging,  take delivery of vehicle Aug/Sept so hopefully by then

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Hi @Colzee and welcome to the OVO Forum. It’s great to have you. 

 

We explained there that:

 

adding additional electric vehicles via direct to vehicle, and additional charges, means working with those companies and their technology to unlock Charge Anytime. As a result it’s very difficult to provide insight on time frames. I’m told that OVO are really keen to unlock Charge Anytime with any many partners as possible as fast as possible.”

 

Fingers crossed this is up and running in Aug/Sep!

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Charge Anytime - Can KIA publish a timescale/roadmap for when other EVs will be supported? Currently I am checking every day waiting for more news to see if my EV will be supported. Trying to avoid being forced to change supplier to get on an EV tariff,  to have OVO announce that my car is supported on Charge Anytime weeks later.  Even just a schedule of dates when newly supported EV’s will be announced would help. 

The absence of information makes it very hard to have confidence that Kaluza are actually working to bring more EV’s and Chargers into the program. I know this has been asked before, but two months has passed and the information vacuum is growing.

Specifically I have a Kia EV6 and Hypervolt charger.

 

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Hi @JellyBean and thanks for the post. 

 

There’s a similar topic on this here: 

 

 

Where we advised that:

 

adding additional electric vehicles via direct to vehicle, and additional charges, means working with those companies and their technology to unlock Charge Anytime. As a result it’s very difficult to provide insight on time frames. I’m told that OVO are really keen to unlock Charge Anytime with any many partners as possible as fast as possible.

 

What charger have you got, @JellyBean?

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@Tim_OVO  thanks for the reply, I have a Hypervolt 2.0 charger. I still don’t understand the ‘difficulty providing timeframes’ piece. If there is no engagement with any other potential partners then the statement is disingenuous. However if there is active engagement then there must be a roadmap. It may be that there is no desire to publish this, but that is quite different to it being ‘difficult to provide insight’. Someone knows what the current plan is!

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Hi @JellyBean I totally understand your perspective there. 

 

We can’t commit to any kind of timeframe for any specific manufacturer as we’re reliant on them and Kaluza. Any date would be a guess and not fully in our control to stick to. 

 

Of course the level of detail available internally is greater than what we can share on a forum, but I can see that Kia is on the list for EVs where a connection with Kaluza is possible but it would be a poor user experience.

 

I hope that helps.

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