Introducing Charge Anytime - next generation EV charging

Hey @Tjan90, 

Have you tried as @Nukecad’s suggested and followed the steps from this post?

If this doesn’t fix the issue then reach out to the team on 0330 175 9678 (option 2 for existing customers) or chargeanytime@ovo.com. They’ll check your account and troubleshoot the issue with you. 

I have today changed from a 2021 Xc60 recharge to a new Xc90 recharge, 2024 and am unable to match it to the charge anytime app. I don’t think I have a smart charger, mine is a Shell Home Advanced box. Help! I really want to be able to access the benefits of Charge Anytime. 

Hey ​@Squashwalnut 

Welcome to the OVO Online Community 😊
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For our compatible chargers, here's the link to find out more

For our list of compatible Charge Anytime EV’s, here’s the link to find them

Follow here for our frequently asked questions

Without a compatible charger, you should be using the Charge Anytime app not the Volvo app. 
 

Our list of compatible Volvo’s:
 

Volvo

• S60 Plug-In Hybrid (2019–2022)
• S90 Plug-In Hybrid (2018–2021)
• V60 Plug-In Hybrid (2013–2022)
• V90 Plug-In Hybrid (2018–2021)
• XC40 Plug-In Hybrid (2019–2022)
• XC60 Plug-In Hybrid (2018–2021)
• XC90 Plug-In Hybrid (2016–2022)
• XC40 Recharge Pure Electric
• C40 Recharge Pure Electric
• EC40
• EX40

Hi Emannualle. 
 

thank you for replying - so it appears I no longer have a compatible car or charger to take advantage of the charge anytime tariff. That is hugely frustrating and costly to me especially as only recent years of my car model are supported. Are there any plans to change this or is my only option to switch provider to one that does support my car?

My dad recently bought a VW ID.4 2021 and we had some issues with the OVO charge anytime app so decided to use the app provided by the charger temporarily. The app is showing that he used £105 in November which calculates to around 13p per kWh which seems about right.

However if we go on our OVO usage it’s showing we used £360 worth of electricity, we used £40 of electricity last year so even if we minus the £105 from the car it gives us 255 for household which is ridiculous.

When I called OVO they said it looks like it’s the car which would mean our app is showing inaccurate and then I was told we were getting charged 24p per kWh. This doesn’t seem right for home charging, when we got the car early November I saw that typical home charging is around 12-15p kWh, can anyone enlighten me here? And if I search about OVO rates nowhere do I see 24p.

Also we are charging at night 90% of the time.

I don’t recognise the figures in your post.

If you use Charge Anytime you will be charged 7p per kWh. The charge for electricity is 24p per kWh and you will be credited with the discount in your next bill. The breakdown is available to view online, on a monthly basis.

To qualify for Charge Anytime you must have a smart meter and either your car or your charger (or both) must be compliant ie one of those recommended such as Indra or Ohm (there are others). Details are available on the OVO website.

i used the Charge Anytime app originally when I registered my EV (a Hyundai Kona, one of those on the recommended list albeit in Beta testing) and it was not entirely satisfactory although I did get the credits. I installed an Indra charger, de - registered vehicle with OVO and installed the Kaluza app as per the recommendation of Indra support and it works perfectly.

from my bill,  broken down monthly and displayed online my discount appears and the sums displayed both before the Indra was installed and after suggest I am being charged around 7p per kWh as expected.

i have read your post a couple of times and hope I have understood the point you are making but as I said above I do not recognise the figures you quote. The discounted rate offered by Charge Anytime is not variable ( if it is then it must be by a very small margin). One final point is that after installing the Indra I was advised to ditch the Charge Anytime app which I did and so I rely on Kaluza and the data on my OVO dashboard online.

Hi, thank you for taking the time to respond, that’s very helpful. The figures I’m mentioning are just my general electric usage charges shown on my OVO account, they were just for context. And the 13p kWh is the rate shown on the Monta app that I was temporarily using. My guess is that the app was showing me inaccurate charging rate because it’s just the app given by the EV charging manufacturer.

We will start using the OVO Charge Anytime app and hopefully get the 7p kWh rate, we do have a compatible car which we checked.

And if I understand correctly, the standard rate is 24p kWh which we were being charged by not using the Charge Anytime app?

Thanks.

Yes that’s right. 24p per kWh is the standard rate that you pay for lighting, watching the telly, boiling a kettle etc. If you are paying that rate for charging your car then you are not getting Charge Anytime and most likely are overriding the app by instructing an immediate charge during the day when there is high demand and electricity is expensive.

I plug my car in during the day. Nothing happens. Then late in the evening when people are going to bed and turning the light out it kicks in - slowly at first - then during the night it charges my car at my chargers fastest rate  and the cycle finishes before sunrise. I mention this as your original post suggested that you were seeking a charge during the day. If that’s right and you were getting one, you were overriding Charge Anytime and paying the full rate.

i hope the techies at OVO agree with my interpretation of how the system works. 

Okay I see, it makes sense now. Basically because my dad is a full time Uber driver he needs his car to be charge reliably in the morning and we didn’t understand how the smart charging worked so even if we were charging overnight we would just override it which is why we were not getting the low rate, we thought just because we were charging it at night we would get the lower rate.

But we will try to use the scheduling/smart feature on the charge anytime app from now on and see how it goes, thanks again.

I think all you need to do is set an end time, plug it in and let it do the business over night.