A new vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tariff that guarantees free charging for drivers is now available from Octopus Energy.

The UK’s first mass market V2G tariff could save drivers more than £850 a year

It’s said to be the UK’s first mass market V2G tariff and could save drivers more than £850 a year, according to the business.

The tariff, which is still in beta, uses V2G technology and Octopus Energy’s Kraken tech platform to balance charging and discharging when it’s best for the grid. This means cars are charged up with cheap, green electricity during offpeak times, while their energy is discharged back to the grid when needed most.

Among the T&Cs, drivers need to plug in their car for roughly six hours a day. The rest of the process is automated, leaving drivers with guaranteed free charging.

There is a catch for now though. It’s not available to all EV drivers – only those with V2G-compatible electric cars and chargers available in the UK. There is currently only a limited number of models that have this capability – such as the Nissan Leaf and Kia EV9 – but the list is growing as carmakers design more and more models with V2G functionality. Volvo has made commitments to releasing V2G-ready models soon.

The tariff supports Octopus’ claim to be the UK’s leading energy supplier for EV drivers. It recently passed 200,000 customers signed up to its EV optimised tariffs – Intelligent Octopus Go and Octopus Go – making up roughly a fifth of electric car drivers on UK roads.

Alex Schoch, head of flexibility at Octopus Energy, said: “We recently moved past a million EVs on UK roads – a major milestone – but their true power for storing energy remains untapped. Once we reach 10 million electric cars on the road, we’ll have enough storage to power the entirety of Great Britain during peak times. All our drivers have to do is plug in regularly and their charging is completely free.

“EVs are going to be a major lever in our future flexible, green grid, but to get there we need to unlock the capabilities of their batteries. Now we have Octopus Power Pack, it’s over to car manufacturers to build the cars that are compatible with V2G technology.”

Customers can register interest in joining the tariff via this online form. The tariff works as a bolt-on that separates charging from the rest of the home and runs alongside each customer’s regular import tariff. Customers can also stack the benefits of payments for solar generation on top of this tariff.