OVO launches UK’s first EV charging subscription

Energy giant OVO has announced the UK’s first all-in-one EV charging subscription, covering home and public charging for a fixed price.

The OVO Charge Anytime plans start at £27.50 per month and the firm claims they could deliver savings of up to £460 per year while costing less than half a tank of petrol.

Customers who sign up for one of the plans get a fixed allowance of home charging every month along with “vouchers” for public charging. OVO says that based on the charging habits of EV drivers with home chargers, the combination is enough to cover the home and public charging use of drivers covering between 8,400 and 12,000 miles per year.

The regular Charge Anytime package costs £27.50 per month and includes 700 miles of at-home charging per month (based on efficiency of 4m/kWh). It also delivers public charging vouchers worth £120 per year which OVO says is enough to cover the on-the-road charging spend of an average UK driver. The vouchers can be used at more than 400,000 chargers across UK and Europe.

For higher-mileage users, the Charge Anytime Premium subscription costs £37.50 per month. It comes with the same £120 allowance for public charging but expends the at-home allowance to the equivalent of 1,000 miles per month at 4m/kWh.

Both charging subscriptions also include home charger insurance and the Premium package adds a free annual battery health check from ClearWatt and a 15% discount on tyres from Kwik Fit.

For lower-mileage drivers the energy provider also offers a pay-as-you-go plan which offers a reduced domestic rate of 14p/kWh on EV charging and allows smart charging at any time day or night.

OVO estimates that compared with a driver paying the standard variable rate for home energy and 80p/kWh for public charging, its new packages offer savings of between £400 and £460 per year, as well as being a third of the annual fuel costs of a petrol car.

OVO research found that while half of drivers intend to go electric with their next car, more than three-quarters (79%) said they wanted charging across home and public networks to be simpler.

Alex Thwaites, director of EV at OVO, said: “We need to make EVs the easy choice for drivers. This means making them super affordable to run and simple to charge. Charge Anytime monthly plans offer the best of both worlds – the flexibility to charge anytime, from anywhere, with the confidence of knowing exactly what you’ll pay each month.”