Calling all PHEV owners !

[David3]

Did anyone sign up to an EV friendly tariff? I'm due to switch either today or tomorrow. I could only get Octopus Go which has a smaller window of 4 hours cheap electricity.

I was just about to ask a similar question, we're about to sign up tonight but I wanted to to ask if anyone has managed to sign up to the octopus intelligent tariff at 7.5ppkw without requiring a 7kw smart charger? For us the granny charger is plenty and to spend an extra £1000 for a 7kw that's not required seems stupid and not cost affective

[Yorkie]

You can't sign up to the 7.5p pkwh tariff unless you have their specific charger or a compatible car as far as I can tell. I do have a 7kw smart charger but I'm not eligible. The Octopus go is 9.0p pkwh but the window is only 4 hours from 00:30 - 04:30. I'd be surprised if there is much value to be had using the 3 pin charger, as you are charged more for your electricity than the standard tariff the rest of the time.

[David3]

You can't sign up to the 7.5p pkwh tariff unless you have their specific charger or a compatible car as far as I can tell. I do have a 7kw smart charger but I'm not eligible. The Octopus go is 9.0p pkwh but the window is only 4 hours from 00:30 - 04:30. I'd be surprised if there is much value to be had using the 3 pin charger, as you are charged more for your electricity than the standard tariff the rest of the time.

Thanks for the reply, I am reading it the same a compatible charger or car, I thought the Tucson was on the list now?
Does anybody know if the charger links to your smart meter or if they just want you to have a smart charger because you can set the charging times? It looks like we may end up with octopus go for now but still cheaper than the 24 ppkw we're paying at the minute

[NewMrP]

I went through the process of seeing if I could sign up for the deal. Entered my car and charger but was told I wasn’t eligible at this time. So it does seem only specific chargers are ‘connected’ to the scheme at present.

[David3]

Just spoke to octopus energy, you only need a compatible car or charger and at the moment the Hyundai Tucson isn't compatible but is under review, they have told me I can go with octopus Go and can transfer to intelligent octopus at any time when the Tucson becomes compatible or we decide to spend 1k on a 7kw charger, hope this helps
I forgot to mention that they have added a note to our account to let us know when the Tucson becomes compatible, her words were the Hyundai is on test at the minute so I assume that if you don't have a smart charger where you can control when you're charging times are then your car needs to be able to do this and this i what is being tested

[peteS]

I have Intelligent Octopus Go and has been mentioned, there's no direct support for our PHEV, but I use a Ohme ePod so IO is talking to that rather than the car. We actually use the "smart" IO setting for a BMW i3 with a 13 amp granny charger but there the i3 is known by IO so it ignores the granny charger and talks to the car. Once you've done a test charge, you can turn off the smart features and just use a schedule on the car if you want - the IO T&Cs just refer to having an EV configured, not that you have to use the smart features - there's been lots of chat on the Octopus forums about it.

However, I don't think you could get past the initial test charge without either a charger that IO knows (ohme or apparently soon zappi as well), or a car it knows.

Once you've got it working of course, it's great - 7.5p/kwh means about 2.5 pence per mile....

[PhilHornby]

I have Intelligent Octopus Go and has been mentioned, there's no direct support for our PHEV... We actually use the "smart" IO setting for a BMW i3 with a 13 amp granny charger but there the i3 is known by IO so it ignores the granny charger and talks to the car.

The 'talking to the car' cannot be via the Charge connector¹, so presumably the 'support for our PHEV' that is awaited will be a 3rd party Bluelink integration

¹(Of the pins in a Type-2 connector, all but two are for AC mains-related functions. The other two (CP+PP) only 'communicate' by very simple analogue means (the switching in of a resistor or two) - there is no comms. protocol, as such.

[ExTyke]

A few thoughts.

I'm sure I read in the IO terms that extended periods without intelligent charging will invalidate access to the tariff?

Currently the only compatible chargers are Ohme and Wallbox.

Yep, I'm guessing car integration must be by Bluelink.

I don't want to put a damper on things but since I got the car I've been told that both the Tucson and Zappi have been 'on testing' and the message hasn't changed in four months. I do hope that we get progress soon. I've recently heard that Zappi may be nearly ready to roll out but that wasn't from Octopus.

[Yorkie]

I switched on Thursday to Octopus GO. I did a test on Wednesday night before signing up and it worked using my Hypervolt charger and I did the same last night and it worked post switch. As part of the signing up process Octopus send signals to your SMART meter to make sure it is capable of sending half hourly readings. It said it could take up to 24 hours I think to complete the checks but mine was literally instant. I then received an email which gave me 28 days to agree to the switch by clicking through and agreeing to the terms. To charge the car I plug it in and use the app for my charger which allows me to schedule a time to start and finish. I'm assuming it works a bit like a smart plug.

[David3]

I switched on Thursday to Octopus GO. I did a test on Wednesday night before signing up and it worked using my Hypervolt charger and I did the same last night and it worked post switch. As part of the signing up process Octopus send signals to your SMART meter to make sure it is capable of sending half hourly readings. It said it could take up to 24 hours I think to complete the checks but mine was literally instant. I then received an email which gave me 28 days to agree to the switch by clicking through and agreeing to the terms. To charge the car I plug it in and use the app for my charger which allows me to schedule a time to start and finish. I'm assuming it works a bit like a smart plug.

Is this for intelligent octopus or octopus go? We signed up for octopus Go last night and was notified this morning that we're on it no fancy charger needed or compatible car but you only get 4 hrs at 9.5ppkw