Electric Vehicle Energy Tariffs in the UK

An EV tariff is an electricity deal that charges less for power used at night, so a household can charge an electric car for a fraction of the daytime price. Most work as two-rate tariffs, where everything in the house runs cheaply during an overnight window, while others are add-ons that apply the cheap rate only to the car's charging¹. The rates on the main tariffs sit around 7p to 8p per kWh, against night rates of 15p to 17p on older Economy 7 style deals, and a full charge at home can cost less than £10³.

The reason so many households bother is straightforward. Government analysis found that an average-consumption household with an EV could already save around £330 a year by smart-charging on a time-of-use tariff compared with a static one⁵, and 62% of home EV charge points are now on an EV tariff⁶. In practice, 80% of EV owners surveyed use off-peak tariffs for home charging⁷.

What an EV tariff is

An EV tariff is, at heart, a time-of-use deal built around the hours when an electric car sits idle. They are typically two-rate tariffs, where electricity is cheaper at night, and several suppliers have introduced overnight, off-peak tariffs solely for EV drivers². The cheap power is not reserved for the car on every version: on a whole-home two-rate tariff the household can also use the cheap rate for other appliances, from washing machines to immersion heaters¹.

The second structure is the add-on. Here the household keeps its existing tariff and receives separate EV charging discounts, credits or other benefits on top, an arrangement the Energy Ombudsman sets out as a distinct category of EV deal¹¹. Some tariffs sweeten the offer further with credit for a number of "free miles", public charging network membership, environmental incentives or tickets to events¹². Most of these EV tariffs offer specialised features designed around helping EV owners save money when charging¹³.

What unites both structures is that the cheap period is one window of very cheap electricity in the early hours of the morning, timed for when the car is parked at home¹⁴. The supplier knows when that window is because the meter records when power is drawn, which is why a smart meter is required in most cases to access EV tariffs⁹.

Overnight rates: 7p and 8p per kWh on the main tariffs

The headline rates on dedicated EV tariffs cluster at the bottom of the market. Which? puts the home off-peak or EV rate at 7p per kWh, which works out at about 2p per mile based on the average tested EV efficiency of 3.18 miles per kWh³. EDF's overnight tariff for EV owners offers an average nighttime unit rate of 8.00p per kWh across all DNO regions, according to Tariff Watch reporting from September 2026⁴.

Those figures matter most when set against the alternatives. The same reporting notes that EDF's standard variable tariff, its Economy 7 equivalent, imposes a significantly higher night-time unit rate of 16.63p per kWh, roughly double the EV tariff rate⁴. The benchmark used in the Standard Assessment Procedure for homes from January 2026 puts a 7-hour tariff low rate at 15.00p per kWh¹⁵, and a current Click Energy Economy 7 price list in Northern Ireland shows a night unit rate of 17.291p¹⁶. An EV tariff's overnight rate is therefore not a marginal discount but a different tier of pricing altogether.

There is also a tax advantage that has nothing to do with the unit rate. Off-peak home electricity is taxed at 5% VAT, compared with 20% VAT on public chargers, so the price gap between home charging overnight and public rapid charging is wider than the unit rates alone suggest¹⁷.

Off-peak windows and how they differ

The cheap rate only exists inside a defined window, and those windows differ noticeably between tariffs. Time-of-use tariffs commonly place their lower rates overnight, often between 00:30 and 04:30¹⁸. Octopus Go, the supplier's original EV tariff, gives five hours of cheaper energy every night¹⁹. E.ON Next Drive offers 42 hours of lower-rate off-peak electricity per week, running 12am to 6am daily²⁰. Economy 7, the older cousin of these deals, is named after its seven-hour window at night, typically 12:00am to 7:00am, though times vary between suppliers²¹, and Economy 7 and Economy 10 tariffs generally use fixed cheaper periods with times that vary, around a midnight-to-7am span being typical²².

The deeper difference is between fixed and dynamic windows. Economy 7 and Economy 10 use fixed cheaper periods, while newer EV and tracker tariffs can be more dynamic and usually work best with a smart meter². On a fixed-window tariff the household knows exactly when the cheap rate starts; on a smart or dynamic tariff the supplier may shift the cheap hours around the night's demand, which is covered in the section on smart charging below.

Intelligent Octopus Go: smart charging within a six-hour window

Octopus currently offers three EV tariffs¹⁹. The best known is Intelligent Octopus Go, where the supplier charges the car at times when energy is at its cheapest to save the household as much as possible, rather than simply opening a fixed cheap window¹⁹. Octopus's own support pages describe six hours of super cheap smart charging each day within a continuous overnight window of 23:30 to 05:30, though the maker's pages phrase the allowance slightly differently, one describing six hours each day and another up to six hours every 24 hours for the EV¹⁹.

Billing follows the smart charging rather than the clock. Because the supplier decides when the car charges, the household plugs in, sets a target, and the cheap rate is applied to the charging the supplier actually schedules. That is the model the smart charging tariffs page examines in detail: control passes to the supplier in exchange for the lower rate.

Octopus also offers an add-on in the same family, the Intelligent Drive Pack, which is an add-on to an existing home energy tariff where customers pay an extra monthly subscription fee for unlimited smart charging¹⁹. For homes with solar and a battery, Intelligent Octopus Flux works differently again: a two-rate tariff with matching import and export prices, automated battery management that charges the battery when power is cheapest, and exporting between 4pm and 7pm²³. A comparison of the two Octopus EV tariffs is on the Intelligent Octopus Go vs Octopus Go page.

E.ON Next Drive: a year of fixed prices, 12am to 6am

E.ON Next's EV tariff is a more conventional proposition. Next Drive offers 42 hours of lower-rate off-peak electricity per week, delivered as a 12am to 6am window every day²⁰. Unlike the dynamic Octopus model, the window is fixed and predictable: six hours a night, every night, at a lower rate than the daytime price.

The rest of the tariff is a one-year fix. The maker states that Next Drive offers fixed energy prices for one year and no exit fees, providing peace of mind and flexibility²⁰. That combination matters for a household weighing an EV tariff against the options on the fixed vs variable tariff question: the off-peak rate is locked for the year rather than moving with the price cap.

Eligibility conditions apply. E.ON Next states that customers should check eligibility criteria, such as needing a smart meter that sends half hourly readings and paying by Direct Debit²⁰. The half-hourly reading requirement is stricter than simply having any smart meter, because the supplier needs granular data to bill the off-peak window accurately. More on the wider eligibility rules in the section below, and the E.ON Next tariffs page covers the supplier's other deals.

EV Optimise: ScottishPower's add-on and its credit

ScottishPower's EV Optimise works on the add-on model: the household keeps its existing ScottishPower tariff and EV Optimise provides the smart charging benefit on top. The Energy Ombudsman describes this structure as one where consumers keep their existing household tariff but receive separate EV charging discounts, credits or other benefits¹¹. ScottishPower's support pages detail how the arrangement works in practice, including the credit mechanics and the cancellation process²⁴.

The credit side is worth understanding before signing up. When a household cancels EV Optimise, it loses access to its smart charging history, so any details worth keeping need to be saved beforehand; any outstanding credit then appears automatically on the next bill²⁴. Changing cars is not a transfer: a household that wants to change the car used with EV Optimise needs to cancel its current setup and sign up again with the new car²⁴.

Timing also behaves differently from a plain off-peak window. It can take up to 20 minutes from plugging the car in at home for the smart charging session to start²⁴, which is normal operation rather than a fault. In Scotland, energy efficiency programmes include helping people get on the right energy tariff, which is the wider context in which add-ons like this are promoted²⁵.

Eligibility: meters, chargers and vehicles

The eligibility rules are consistent across the market in one respect: a smart meter is required in most cases to access EV tariffs⁹. The Energy Ombudsman puts it precisely: "For many EV-specific tariffs, particularly smart or time-of-use tariffs, you will need a working smart meter."¹¹ The same guidance is clear that a smart meter is not needed simply to charge an EV, but without one a household may not be able to access some EV-specific tariffs¹¹. Energy Saving Trust confirms that these types of tariffs typically require a smart meter²⁶.

The good news on meters is that they are broadly compatible. Smart meters work with Economy 7 tariffs, fixed rate tariffs and newer time-of-use tariffs, and they allow a household to switch tariffs without changing the meter²¹. Octopus's EV tariffs follow the same pattern: a smart meter is needed to sign up to most, if not all, EV tariffs, because suppliers need to be certain they can record when energy is used¹⁹. Installation eligibility may vary depending on the home and, for renters, the tenancy²⁷.

Equipment conditions go beyond the meter. Some tariffs are only available with certain equipment installed, such as an EV charger or solar panels²⁸. On the vehicle side, the basic rule is that the household must own or lease an EV²⁹. For those without a charger yet, landlords and flat tenants can get a government grant of up to £350 towards a home EV charger, reducing the installation cost to as low as £650²⁹. The EV tariff eligibility page works through these conditions in detail.

Does the low rate cover the house or just the car?

This is the fork in the road that decides what a tariff is worth. On a whole-home two-rate tariff, the cheap overnight rate applies to everything the house draws during the window, so the household can also use the cheap power for other appliances¹. On an EV-only add-on, the cheaper rate applies just to the car's charging, with the rest of the house billed as before¹¹.

The whole-home version creates a genuine opportunity beyond the car. A household that shifts washing machines, dishwashers and other loads into the window is effectively buying all its controllable electricity at the EV rate, the strategy explored on the shifting electricity use to cheap rates page. With an off-peak tariff, a full charge can cost less than £10⁸, and at 7p per kWh the home off-peak rate works out at about 2p per mile³.

The trade-off runs the other way too. Peak costs per unit typically increase a little on such plans, so households with higher electricity consumption during the day may end up worse off overall¹². A home full of people during the day, or one that cannot shift its usage, may pay more for its daytime electricity than it saves overnight. Where off-peak or peak pricing has been displayed for a tariff, that pricing is part of the standard EV tariff rather than an option available to all customers¹², so the rates a household sees quoted are the standard offer, not a best case.

What households actually save

The savings figures come from several angles and do not all measure the same thing, so it is worth separating them.

• Around £330 a year is the government's estimate of what an average-consumption household with an EV could already save by smart-charging on a time-of-use tariff compared with a static one⁵.
• £680 is the figure Energy UK attributes to EV chargers used with a time-of-use tariff, in a table of savings that assumes EV ownership³⁰.
• Less than £10 is what a full charge can cost on an off-peak tariff⁸.
• About 2p per mile is the running cost at the 7p home off-peak rate, based on average tested EV efficiency of 3.18 miles per kWh³.

The £330 and £680 figures differ because they measure different households and assumptions, and neither is a guarantee for any particular home. What drives the saving in practice is how much of the household's electricity can be moved into the cheap window, and how much the peak rate rises in exchange. The VAT position helps too: 5% on off-peak home electricity against 20% on public chargers widens the gap¹⁷.

Take-up suggests the sums work for most owners. Zapmap's annual survey found 80% of EV owners use off-peak, renewable electricity tariffs for home charging⁷, and 62% of home EV charge points are on an EV tariff according to Ofgem consultation analysis⁶. Away from home, EV charge cards can be used with multiple networks and let a driver manage payments in one account, with some offering time-limited discounts on charging³¹.

Charger bundles, credits and deadlines

Several suppliers and charging companies sell the charger and the tariff together, and these offers carry deadlines worth noting before signing anything.

• ScottishPower's EV charger bundle offers a 6p per kWh EV Optimise charging rate for a year with an EV charger purchase, and the offer ends on 25 November 2026²⁴.
• ScottishPower is also running £50 off a Wallbox EV charger, available until 11.59pm on 3 December²⁴.
• Pod Point's Plug & Power EV tariff bundle closed on 30 November 2025³². The bundle spread the charger cost over a two-year tariff, and exit fees applied if the tariff was cancelled within those two years³².

Credits and perks are the softer side of the same sales effort. Some tariffs provide credit for a number of "free miles" in the EV, while others provide public charging network membership, environmental incentives or tickets to events¹². The EV charging bolt-ons page covers the add-on market, and the Pod Point Plug & Power page has the full history of that bundle.

Solar panels, batteries and EV tariffs together

A home with solar panels and a battery is not shut out of cheap overnight charging, but the standard EV tariff is rarely the best fit. Energy Saving Trust sets out the options for these homes: a dedicated solar and battery tariff, or a good Smart Export Guarantee tariff matched with a dynamic import tariff or an Economy 7 tariff¹⁴. The dedicated option has a hard condition: solar panels and a battery are both needed to get it¹⁴.

For homes with a heat pump as well, the guidance is to consider a solar panel and battery tariff if a good SEG cannot be obtained from a company with a good import tariff, especially with a bigger than average solar system or a smaller than average heat pump¹⁴. The EV tariff with solar and battery and solar and battery import tariffs pages work through these combinations.

One wrinkle affects solar households in particular. Under the proposed Energy Smart Appliance Regulations, the Government's position is that those with solar panels cannot charge their vehicles optimally through solar and still have a randomised delay of up to 30 minutes, which renders the optimised charging schedule through solar less effective³³. The timeline for randomised delay changes for EV charging is expected to take place at the end of 2027, in line with other energy smart appliances³³. Octopus's Intelligent Octopus Flux, with its matching import and export prices and automated battery management, exporting between 4pm and 7pm, is one tariff built around this kind of home²³.

Switching and what to expect

Switching to an EV tariff is, in most cases, a switch of tariff rather than of supplier, since several suppliers now run overnight off-peak tariffs for EV drivers¹⁰. The practical steps and the wait depend on the household's starting point.

1. Check the meter. A working smart meter is needed for many EV-specific tariffs¹¹, and some, such as E.ON Next Drive, require one that sends half hourly readings plus payment by Direct Debit²⁰.
2. Check the equipment. Some tariffs are only available with certain equipment installed, such as an EV charger or solar panels²⁸.
3. Check the vehicle. The household must own or lease an EV²⁹.
4. Confirm installation eligibility. Smart meter installation eligibility may vary by home and tenancy²⁷.

Once on the tariff, behaviour changes a little. Smart charging tariffs such as E.ON Next Drive cost less if you charge at a particular time of day, and the cheaper rates are the same every night, so the charging time only has to be set once²⁰. Sessions may start late: with EV Optimise, up to 20 minutes can pass between plugging in and the session starting²⁴. Cancelling an add-on such as EV Optimise removes access to the smart charging history, with outstanding credit appearing on the next bill automatically²⁴. The exit fees and tariff contract terms page covers what leaving a fixed EV tariff can cost, since E.ON Next Drive charges no exit fees²⁰ while bundled deals may³².

What an EV tariff means for energy independence

An EV tariff is one of the few tariff choices that increases a household's control rather than surrendering it. The cheap overnight window lets a home run its car, and on whole-home versions its appliances, at a fraction of the daytime price, cutting the running cost of a full charge to less than £10⁸ and the cost per mile to about 2p³. The government's estimate of around £330 a year saved by smart-charging on a time-of-use tariff⁵ is money that stays in the household rather than going to a supplier's peak-rate pricing.

The dependence that remains is real, though, and it is worth stating plainly. A smart EV tariff hands scheduling control to the supplier: the supplier charges the car at times when energy is at its cheapest¹⁹, which means the household depends on the supplier's systems, its app and its decisions about when the car charges. The tariff itself depends on the grid's overnight surplus, so it is a bargain built on the existing network rather than an escape from it. Households that want to cut that dependence further pair an EV tariff with solar and a battery, using a dedicated solar and battery tariff or a SEG tariff matched with a dynamic import or Economy 7 tariff¹⁴, so that some of the car's energy comes from the roof rather than the wire. The tariffs and energy independence page sets out the full picture.