OCTOPUS HAVE SERIOUS COMPETITION! Time to Switch EV Tariffs?

long last it looks like octopus energy have some real competition in the electric vehicle energy Market within the past year or so we've seen an increase in the number of smart tariffs offered by the big electricity and gas companies and even a company named after a popular fruit is now in the mix as well well if we've got an octopus why can't we have a tomato as well in this video I'll be breaking down some of the most popular electric vehicle tariffs on the market currently and after my loyalty to octopus over the past 3 or 4 years will not be tempted to change to something else stay tuned to find out [Music] hi everyone I'm Danny V Sola and on this channel you can follow my journey all things electric vehicles energy tariffs solar panels and much more make sure you subscribe to the channel to follow my journey and if you find this video useful please give it a like in this video I'll be looking at octopus Energy's closest competition on the market and seeing whether or now is a good time to switch to a different tariff let's start with the style of the sh octopus over the past few years they really have have been Market leading in terms of innovative energy tariffs designed for a vast array of use cases whether you have solar panels and a home battery and electric vehicle a heat pump or just want a tariff that tracks the wholesale rate of electricity they've got you covered while it's not perfect the customer service that I've experienced with octopus has been absolutely fantastic they've always been really quick to respond and the service has been stre ahead from anything else I've ever had from any energy companies on the market and they amazing smart tariff intelligent octopus go provides cheap cheap electricity for 6 hours overnight along with additional hours depending on when the grid is green as well uh for just 7 P per Kow hour which makes charging my Tesla Model 3 around about5 for a charge from empty to full and if you have a home battery you can also charge that on the cheap rate as well which means you can use a lot of your home consumption on that cheap rate I'll link a spreadsheet in the description and you can compare all of these tariffs for yourself and decide which one is best for you but bear in mind the standing charges and the rates may differ per region and it's likely that these rates will change over time as well I'm recording this video as of September 2024 so the chances are some of these tariffs will have changed prices over the next few months now at long last some of the other energy companies on the market are realizing that they need to offer more in terms of smart tariffs with the ever increasing number of electric vehicles on the road as well and the likes of Aon OVO and others are now offering quite competitive tariffs on the screen now I've broken down some of the most competitive tariffs on the market at present and I'll let you all decide for yourselves which one works best for you so if we take a closer look at the spreadsheet I've arranged these by the cheapest off peak price at the top and the most expensive at the bottom so as you can see the cheapest now is tomato energy they are offering 6 hours of cheap electricity at just 5 P per kilowatt hour between 12 and 600 a.m. next is good energy again a relatively small company five hours cheap five hours with the cheap rate electricity at a price of just 6.75 P per kwatt hour and again between 12 and 5 a on next Drive offer the most cheap hours at 7 hours and that off peak price is 6.9 P per Kow hour and that's between midnight and 7:00 a.m. now intelligent octopus score would usually be at the top of this list in the past it's now fourth and they are still offering a minimum of six cheap hours and that price is currently 7 P per kilow hour and they offer that between 11:30 P.M and 530 a.m. overall charge anytime is for electric vehicles only and this works in a slightly different way so they offer the cheap hours at any time at 7 P per kilowatt hour and they provide a reduction on your Bild depending on when you've charged your electric vehicles the Scottish Power EV Sera offers five cheap hours at 7.8 p and again that's between 12 and 5 a.m. British gas EV tariff offers again 5 hours for just 7.9 P per kilow hour again between 12 and 5 a.m. ecotricity V tariff is again 5 hours at 8 p per kilowatt hour and that's between 12 and 5:00 a.m. apart from when the clocks go back and that then it becomes 1 and 6 a.m. octopus goore is another one of octopus's popular EV tariffs and this offers now 5 hours with previously 4 hours at 8.5 P per kilowatt hour and that's between 12:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. EDF also offer two tariffs so one is the go electric at 5 hours cheap rate and that's 9 P per Kow hour between the hours of 12 and 5 a.m. and the EDF evolve as well 5 hours at 11.28 P from our region between 12: and 5:00 a.m. and I've also added the current price cap for the Northeast based so the same rate all day but this is currently 21 P per kilow hour so much more expensive than the rest and I've also created this chat as well just to look at and compare the cheap hours and the off peak price so ideally what we want to see here is the blue dots quite high up the chart and the red dots quite low down so as you can see tomato energy there leading the way on the left hand side so lots of competition so overall what's my thoughts and will I be switching away from octopus well I think it's fantastic to see the increased competition in the market now bringing more options to customers and hopefully it starts a bit of a price Waring turn as well I think it's about time the other energy companies offered smart tariffs to catch up with octopus the Tomato deal imput particular is very impressive price-wise although there is a bit of uncertainty around whether they can maintain this price and also the customer service that they provide is pretty unknown at the moment so it'll be interesting to see whether they can keep up this rate and also handle the influx of new customers as well and right now for a few pens per kilowatt hour difference I don't think I'll take the risk of switching to a relatively unknown company there are other factors such as standing charges and the day rate which may differ for each tariff that I've compared on this video but I wanted to focus on the cheap times when you're likely to charge your EV so what's my plan then well right now I'm planning on staying with octopus as I mentioned earlier I've always been really impressed with the customer service that they offer they're still in my opinion the market leaders in terms of smart tariffs and electric vehicle tariffs I don't think there's anyone else offering the intelligence of intelligent octopus core in terms of offering additional Windows above and beyond those 6 hours when the grid is greenest and I really approve of what Greg Jackson the CEO of octopus is doing in terms of transforming the energy Market there's also other perks such as the octopus points that they do and this gives you access to free things such as hot drinks and free cinema tickets as well only a small thing but I think overall it adds up to the overall experience and feeling valued as a customer of octopus they're also quite quick to usually respond price-wise as well so I think we might see some reduction at some point although not guaranteed and this was recently demonstrated when they dropped the Ates for the off peak times for intelligent octopus Gore and their octopus goore tariffs from 7/2 P to 7 P for intelligent octopus Gore and around 9 P to 8 and 1/2 P octopus Gore and if you'd like to switch to octopus yourself for one of these EV tariffs it'd be great if you could use the code that's on screen now if you use this you get £50 credited to your account when you join octopus and I also get £50 as well which helps to support the channel thank you to everyone that's used this code so far it really is appreciated without doubt though I will be keeping an eye on the competition as time goes on and if there is a compellent tarff that comes out alongside great customer service as well I could be tempted to switch right now though I'm staying put and this is despite my smart meter not working as well which I might do a video on shortly if you're interested in seeing more about smart meters and what's happening with mind then make sure you subscribe to the channel to keep up with that on another note you may notice that I've given the place a bit of renovation recently let me know in the comments what you think hopefully you like it and you might be able to see in the background just over my shoulder there there's an AI image that I've created of my Tesla Model 3 Performance and whilst I don't approve recently of a lot of stuff that comes out of Elon musk's mouth I do certainly love the image that it was able to create and I think it looks great on the wall there let me know your thoughts in the comments thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one [Music]