Power up, pay less: Octopus Energy launches cheaper EV charging
‘Plunge Pricing’ launched for first time on the public EV charging network
New scheme could save drivers up to £250 a year on public charging costs
Follows in the footsteps of the world-first ‘Agile Octopus’ smart tariff, where customers can get paid for using electricity when the grid is green
Electric car drivers in Britain can benefit from cheaper public charging when green energy is abundant thanks to a groundbreaking innovation from Octopus Electroverse.
‘Plunge Pricing’ events happen when cheap renewable generation is high and demand is low, so wholesale electricity prices fall. Drivers using Octopus’ Electroverse get discounts for taking excess energy off the grid at these sunny and windy times.
Electroverse has so far trialled five of these events at over 7,500 charge points across brands like IONITY, Osprey, Blink, Be.EV, GeniePoint and Raw.
Discounts to date have ranged from 15%-45% per kWh. There is even potential in the future for drivers to get paid to charge up their car when wholesale prices go negative.
Octopus expects to have dozens of ‘Plunge Pricing’ events over the next year, with plans to expand the innovation across even more charge point brands into the future.
Hundreds of customers have already taken part and saved £6.50 on average on a single charge. Electric car drivers could save up to £250 a year as a result of this new service.
This is the latest benefit offered by Octopus Electroverse’s revolutionary ‘one card, one app’ model which is making public charging easier and cheaper than ever before. It is the UK’s largest EV roaming service, nearly tripling its customer numbers in the last year alone and giving customers access to more than 700,000 chargers across the UK & Europe.
It comes after Octopus first pioneered ‘Plunge Pricing’ back in 2018 with its ‘Agile Octopus’ smart tariff linked to wholesale electricity prices.
‘Agile Octopus’ was the world’s first tariff to unlock time-of-use pricing, enabling customers to save money when wholesale prices drop – and even make money when they go negative. Over the last year, the tariff has seen almost 300 ‘Plunge Pricing’ events.
Matt Davies, Director of Octopus Electroverse, said: “This is a massive milestone: for the first time drivers can power up and pay less on the public charging network when green energy’s abundant. It isn’t your average discount - it’s revolutionising public charging and something that could never be done with petrol. We’re geared up to work with more charge point brands so we can bring this to even more people.”
The company’s cutting-edge tech platform Kraken allows all of this innovation - such as people to charge EVs in their driveways when it’s cheapest and greenest. Its popular smart EV tariff ‘Intelligent Octopus Go’ has seen tenfold growth in 12 months. And just this year, it launched the UK’s first mass market vehicle-to-grid tariff – Octopus Power Pack – enabling free home charging.
Now Electroverse users can join the millions of Octopus Energy customers utilising smart tariffs and ‘Saving Sessions’. These customers have been able to take an active part in the flexible, green grid of the future and have saved more than £100 million while doing so.
This is the latest step by Octopus to help rapidly accelerate the roll-out of clean electric transport - and comes as its Octopus Electric Vehicles division has powered ahead to become the UK’s largest EV-only leasing business.
Electroverse customers get notified up to 24 hours before a ‘Plunge Pricing’ event by email, push notification from their app (customers should ensure their app notifications are turned on to receive these), and through Electroverse’s social media.