Ask any driver of a diesel or petrol car to what lengths they will go to to find a cheaper litre of fuel and the answers will be numerous.
But from customer loyal schemes to supermarket filling stations to avoiding motorway services, generally you’re only every talking about a few pence per litre of savings, here and there.
Give them the chance to make a saving of two-thirds when filling up and they’d be desperate for your secret. Thankfully though, for EV drivers, that’s the potential savings with some of the EV-specific home energy tariffs on the market.
Choose a reduced rate electricity tariff and your price for a kWh of electricity could drop from 27.69 pence (the standard rate from 1st January 2026) to just 7p or less. To put that in perspective, that’s the difference of a full charge in our long range Polestar 2 costing £5.74 or £22.70.
Generally speaking, charging an EV at home will double your overall household use of electricity (but will still be considerably cheaper then running a petrol or diesel car), so if you can reduce your car charging costs as much as possible, then that will make a big difference.
So how do you decide what’s the best home electricity tariff for you and what should you look out for? What are the factors that people often overlook and what is the best way to maximise the best value for money for the running costs of both your EV and your home?
Off peak energy tariffs – how do they work?
The first thing to remember is that, despite appearances, not all off-peak electricity tariffs are equal. Off peak tariffs are nothing new of course. Older readers will remember the old ‘Economy 7’ tariffs of the 1970s favouring those who were able to use their washing machines or dishwashers overnight.
The majority of EV tariffs are much the same with two simple peak and off-peak rates. A good example of this is the Octopus Go tariff which has five hours of off-peak, low-priced electricity from 00.30 until 05.30am, the other hours are at a higher rate.
Some energy providers even break it down so that there are five different periods – a high peak, a shoulder rate and then an ultra-low peak (the last often in the middle of the night), encouraging users to shift their usage away from the highest wholesale rates.
What do you need to know about dynamic energy tariffs?
So far, so simple, but the next generation of those off-peak energy tariffs are dynamic tariffs. Again, with Octopus, its dynamic tariff is called Intelligent Octopus Go. In the case of that tariff, it offers a guaranteed six hours of off-peak rates (from 11.30pm-05.30am) similar to the standard Go tariff, but as its name suggest, it boasts a dynamic ability too.
This means that if your EV is plugged into a compatible charger (such as those from Ohme) and requires a charge later on that night, then together Ohme and Octopus can push some or all of that charge to your EV during peak hours but still at the off-peak rate. This often occurs when there is a high level of renewable energy generation and supply is outstripping demand. In turn, by taking advantage of that renewable energy availability, this also relieves the demand on the grid later that day when your EV might normally have charged.
These types of dynamic tariff are only likely to become more popular as the drive towards Net Zero gains momentum and in turn help to maximise the use of renewable energy and to balance the grid. From the start of 2025for example, Germany legislated that all energy suppliers have to offer some form of dynamic tariff to customers.
The only drawback is that not all EV chargers can access these dynamic tariffs, which is why it’s so important to do your homework beforehand and choose a charger such as those from Ohme that can not only access those tariffs but enable you to also switch provider if you wish to do so at a future date.
So what do I need to look out for with off-peak and dynamic tariffs?
The first thing to say is that if you’re running an EV, then the chances are it’s highly likely that one or other of the EV specific tariffs on the market will enable you to reduce your overall running costs. And that’s true both for your car and, if you can push some appliances such as your washing machine and dishwasher into those times, then it will see your household bills reduced for those too.
However, there are two things to be wary of. The first is that the daytime rate of electricity is often slightly higher than the standard rate. That means if you work from home, a computer or occasional boiling kettle will be slightly more expensive, but the reality is that these aren’t enough to balance out those huge savings of charging your car.
A home EV charger can emit 7.4kWh in a single hour, boiling a kettle is 0.1-0.2kWh, while a washing machine takes 2kWh for a hot cycle. A hot tub might use 3-7.5kWh a day, but you’re unlikely to be using that every day. Charging your car far outweighs the daytime electricity usage of these items.
That’s the electricity usage, but you should also check the daily standing charge and compare that between energy companies too. This is a sneaky way that some of the energy companies have upped of late to increase their profitability, while still keeping the headline per kWh cost low.
I drive a plug-in hybrid, should I switch my energy tariff?
Here is where it’s a bit of a grey area. The simple answer is that it depends. For a PHEV with a smaller battery, it’s probably not worth switching. You simply won’t be getting enough of the benefit of the off-peak rates to off-set the higher costs during the day that we mentioned above.
Where that decision becomes slightly less black and white is with those PHEVs with a larger battery. If you’re often recharging the battery to maximise your electrical miles, then this is where you might need to do some calculations. A Range Rover PHEV for example has a 38kWh battery, which would cost either £2.66 to fully charge or £10.52. If you do that, say, 20 times in a typical month, then that’s a £160 difference, so it soon adds up.
The answer is to look honestly at the type and amount of mileage you’re doing and how frequently you’re expecting to charge as well as your household daytime usage.
Should I switch to one of the subscription services instead?
As mentioned above, all households have different needs and requirements but from what we’ve seen so far, the chances are probably not.
It’s true that the fixed rate monthly subscription services give you a peace of mind of knowing what you’re paying each month, but in reality the best rates are usually the standard off-peak and dynamic tariffs on the market.
Strictly speaking, the flat rate subscription services can match those tariffs, but it’s a thin tightrope – you need to maximise your charging while also not going above the stipulated maximum as there can be hefty penalty charges for doing so.