Sunita Somvanshi
Octopus Energy has launched a new subscription service called “Intelligent Drive Pack” that offers unlimited smart home charging for electric vehicles at a fixed price of £30 per month. This first-of-its-kind offering in the UK aims to make EV ownership more predictable and potentially more affordable, particularly for drivers who rack up significant mileage.
How It Works
The Intelligent Drive Pack works as an add-on to a standard Octopus Energy electricity tariff. To use the service, customers need:
- A working smart meter
- A standard Octopus Fixed or Flexible tariff
- One of approximately 280 compatible EV models or home chargers
Once signed up, Octopus manages when your car charges, typically scheduling it overnight when electricity is cheaper and greener. Customers can set a “ready by” time between 4am and 11am to ensure their car is charged when needed.
For charging outside these scheduled windows, customers can use a “boost” function in the Octopus app. However, electricity used during these boost sessions isn’t covered by the £30 subscription and is instead billed at the customer’s standard home energy rate.
The Cost Equation
While £30 per month for unlimited charging sounds attractive, the math reveals it’s primarily beneficial for high-mileage drivers.
Octopus claims drivers using their subscription will pay just 41% of what petrol car owners typically spend on fuel each month. This comparison is based on the 2023 average UK driving distance of 7,600 miles annually.
However, this same average-mileage driver using Octopus’s existing Intelligent tariff (at 7p per kWh) would pay just £11.08 monthly in a typical EV that gets 4 miles per kWh – nearly £19 less than the flat subscription fee.
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According to calculations from Electrifying.com, this subscription will only make financial sense if you drive more than 20,571 miles per year in an efficient EV. For less efficient electric vehicles achieving 2.5 miles per kWh, the break-even drops to 12,480 miles annually.
Industry Context
Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Chief Product Officer at Octopus Energy, emphasized the value proposition: “You can’t even get a nice meal out at a restaurant for £30 anymore – but you can get a whole month’s worth of driving! Intelligent Drive Pack is a completely new way to save – perfect for drivers who want predictability, flexibility and great value rolled into one.”
The Intelligent Drive Pack joins Octopus’s existing EV tariff, Intelligent Octopus Go, which offers charging rates of 7p/kWh plus six hours of reduced-cost energy for the rest of the home. That tariff has already attracted more than 260,000 customers across multiple countries including the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, New Zealand, and the US.
What This Means for EV Adoption
With more than one million electric vehicles now on UK roads and over 1.5 million charging devices installed at homes and workplaces according to Zapmap, new pricing options like this give drivers more choices for how they pay for charging.
The fixed monthly fee model addresses one of the common concerns for potential EV buyers: unpredictable charging costs. For high-mileage drivers, the Intelligent Drive Pack could significantly reduce transportation costs compared to both petrol vehicles and traditional pay-per-kWh EV charging.
The service represents another step in making charging infrastructure more accessible and affordable as the UK continues its transition away from internal combustion engines.
Current Octopus customers on the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff can either keep their existing service or switch to the new Intelligent Drive Pack, depending on which better suits their driving patterns and energy needs.
