One of the UK’s leading energy providers is hiking costs for electric car drivers, just weeks after Chancellor Rachel Reeves slapped EV owners with massive tax hikes.
Octopus Energy has announced that it will restrict its cheaper electric vehicle tariff in the new year, in a move that could cost some drivers hundreds of pounds a year.
The company has written to customers to tell them that the discounted EV charging rate will be limited to six hours a day from January.
While the discounted rate at which drivers charge will not be changing, motorists could find themselves charging at times when prices are more expensive.
The Octopus Intelligent Go tariff, which is one of the most popular in the UK, controls when an electric car is charged for six hours at the cheapest rates available.
Drivers could also opt for the Octopus Go tariff and receive five hours of cheap energy every night, or the Intelligent Drive Pack.
This allows drivers to get unlimited smart charging for their electric vehicle for £30 a month through a Fixed or Flexible tariff.
This could have a huge impact on electric vehicle owners, especially if they drive larger cars that take longer to charge using a domestic 7kW charger.
Electric car owners could be hit with huge charges over the coming years
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OCTOPUS/PA
Owners of Britain’s most popular electric car, the Tesla Model Y, could see home charging costs jump to around £13, given that it can take more than 10 hours to fully charge the EV.
It comes just weeks after Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled new charges for millions of British drivers in the Autumn Budget.
The Chancellor finally unveiled a new pay-per-mile car tax scheme after weeks of speculation, with electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners being affected by the new changes.
The new financial year in 2028 will see electric car owners charged three pence per mile, while plug-in hybrid drivers will pay 1.5p for every mile they travel.
Octopus Electric Vehicles offers some of the cheapest EV home charging tariffs in the UK
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OCTOPUSRachel Reeves has been met with criticism from the electric car industry, after experts warned that motorists looking to buy a new vehicle could be put off from investing in a zero emission vehicle.
Alongside the pay-per-mile taxes, the Chancellor boosted the Electric Car Grant with an additional £1.3billion in funding, as well as a further £200million for EV charging.
Octopus recently surged past £2billion in funding for its electric vehicle division, with fresh backing from Lloyds, Morgan Stanley and Crédit Agricole CIB.
With the new funding, Octopus EV said it would be able to almost double its UK fleet from 40,000 to 75,000 electric vehicles.
Gurjeet Grewal, CEO of Octopus Electric Vehicles, said the new partnerships with brands would allow the company to bring more zero emission cars to UK roads.
A recent survey found that Octopus Energy recorded one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in an Ofgem survey.
The company recorded a 90 per cent overall satisfaction rating, 84 per cent customer service satisfaction rating and an impressive 31 per cent fewer complaints year-on-year.
Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy Group, said the company had bucked the trend and improved its service while scaling up.