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We've saved a fortune! All about the UK's most popular EV tariff: Intelligent Octopus Go

Andrew Till / Mr. EV

87,059 views

We changed to Octopus Energy's Intelligent Octopus Go tariff about a year ago and, for us, it's saved a fortune. Here's what it is, how it works, and how you might be able to save some money as well.

Here's Octopus Energy's Fair Use Policy: https://octopus.energy/policies/smart...

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Chapters:

00:00 - You might feel naughty
00:57 - What is it?
02:01 - What you need
02:51 - Setting it up
03:49 - Using it
06:54 - The ol' bill
07:26 - The tariff
08:07 - Billing issues and API
09:17 - Comparing Octopus Go and Intelligent Octopus Go
10:22 - How much to charge the car?
11:45 - Tell me your stats!
12:05 - Conclusion and caveats
15:18 - Get £50 off Octopus and the usual "like, subscribe etc"

20 Comments

@MrEV Creator 1 year ago Pinned

How much have you saved with your tariff?

If you want to join Octopus, use this link to get us both £50: https://share.octopus.energy/free-sage-191

@gregcooper2719 1 year ago

I’d never considered Octopus until my employer announced the end of company cars, but moved to a car allowance and the option of Octopus Salary Sacrifice. No obligation to go on the IG tariff but I have done and run my dishwasher and washing machine overnight to save pennies.
I do a lot of miles but mainly within the Midlands so charging overnight at home is more than sufficient. I’ve gone from putting £250-£300 petrol a month into an Octavia to spending around £20 a month on electric, cost to my employer is around £80 per month for mileage, so we’re all saving

@iantaylor1172 1 year ago

I'm averaging 8.67p kWh peak/off-peak. Saving a fortune

@leegoodman297 1 year ago

I've been with Octopus energy since February with their intelligent Go tariff, I work nights so my Renault Zoe GT line gets plugged in at around 6.30am week day mornings. Typically Octopus will charge the car between 6.30 & 7.30am pause for an hour and then start again finally finishing at 11am or occasionally even midday. This means I get a 7p/kWh rate from 11.30pm until 5.30am followed by another 3 1/2 hours each morning. Add in my solar and storage battery to the equation and the result is truly staggering, my energy costs have halved compared to what I was previously paying British gas.

@MrDAVIDATKIN 1 year ago (edited)

We are on old fashioned Octopus Go, we have 2 EVs and it works fine for us. I did 12k miles last year, my wife did 3k in hers. In 2 years I've saved over £2000 on fuel and the better half is happy as she never needs to go to the petrol station. Would love to be on Intelligent Go but neither our cars or charger is compatible. The pay back on a new charger would be several years so just going to wait until this one breaks.

@martinwray7001 1 year ago

Saved an enormous sum since 2019 on octopus go and it's variations.

@howieb2001 1 year ago

We have a caravan in Devon, 100 miles away. Our last trip, 275 miles including local journeys, cost £5. Model Y Long Range covering 4 miles per kWh at £0.07 on Intelligent Octopus Go. They don't seem to mention these sorts of results in the Telegraph.

@benhanson3228 1 year ago

We've also been on Intelligent Octopus Go for a full year. In that time I drove an EV for 16,000 miles, and paid around £350 in electric for the privilege. For contrast, we used to spend £350 PER MONTH in petrol to do the same journeys.

@uttherkunst3806 1 year ago (edited)

You need a battery storage system with that amount of power usage. I pulled 400kWh from the grid in December 2024 and paid €20 for the month (not including the standing charge).

@BalintGulyas 1 year ago

I been on Octopus Go for 3y changed to Intelligent and saved around 30£/ month.. 2 Evs now and 2.5months done 3.2k with the new one - showing 500£ saving compared to Petrol car. Just amazing how you can use this Intelligent in your favour.

@rappermusician 1 year ago

our ageing leaf usually needs an average of about 50% top up each night at home on octopus go tariff so we get the 8.5p for 5 hours each night which generally covers it - that's about 10kwh so under £1 a day to run our leaf normally and we do between about 30 and 50 miles each day generally; call it 200 miles a week for a fiver - beat that gas guzzlers!

@phlomisjason 1 year ago

"Looking at APIs that I don't really understand..." LOL!!

@johnkeen2345 1 year ago

i've had my Ohme Home Pro now for nearly a year, of which I m very pleased with it. Since getting a Megane E tech, it knows and can set the charge percentage. Something that it couldn't do with my Ford Kuga Phev. Like you, the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble are all on night shift.

@alcrawford9390 11 months ago

Really good video mate. I need to change from my car being the device to the charger. Had loads of issues with the API on my Audi Q4. I hadn't realised about the daytime savings so long as the car is plugged in.

@chrisyates399 1 year ago

Just bought a Tesla model Y and switched from British Gas to Octopus. Paid £899 for an Ohme e-pod charger which they are due to install in 2 weeks - I'll then switch in the app to the intelligent tariff and be filling up for around £4!! I can't wait!

@WolfiesWheels 1 year ago

we've also had Octopus Go Intelligent for some time, and 2 EVs. it works brilliantly for us when combined with the solar and 13.2kw battery. We charge the battery overnight using the 7p rate, normally only about 10 kw to fill it so that's 70p. then in the day we export all the solar at 15p per kw so even running 2 EVs our electric bills in the summer are negative. So far this year we have around £350 charges in electricity and £426 back for exports. And around 8,000 miles done between the cars on home charging included in those numbers! It is of course all a bit man maths as I've not taken into account the cost of solar and battery installation !

@zzebedee1419 1 year ago

Due to lost records by electricity north west my house hasn’t yet been permitted a proper charger. This means that I’ve been using the granny for our extended range Mach e.
The down side of this is it take days to charge.
The up side is that while the car is charging I’m getting way more cheap house electricity than I otherwise would.
I’ve occasionally even gone so far as to not plug in or tell the car to not charge overnight so I can get cheap rate at the weekend day time while all the washing and drying is being done.
I do feel a bit dirty gaming the system like this though (sometimes)
I just worked it out and my average price per kWh for the whole of last month was 14.7p

@iainsmith3625 1 year ago

We have also been on IOG for a while. Its hard to say what we have saved as we have changed our usage pattern and have gone from 1 phev + 1 petrol car to 2 EVs and still haven't increased our standing order to octopus for 3+ years and are in credit going into the winter. We too 'milk the octopus' some days and run eveything when the car is charging! Keep up the good work!

@oleww50 1 year ago

I didn’t appreciate that the night rate would be used throughout the day when the grid is cheap, not just during the night! that really IS excellent! Thanks for the video. Off to switch my tariff 😅 (already on octopus sorry 😅)

@stevecade857 1 year ago

The thing to bear in mind is that the Zappi (and other EV chargers) are not used for fiscal metering so whenever you're charging on Intelligent Octopus Go any other household electricity use will be at the same off peak rate including those heat pumps. A friend had their oil boiler go kaput and required replacement. They used portable oil fired heaters (winter) to warm their home until it could be replaced. Their electric bill sky rocketed. If they'd plugged in their electric car to charge and triggered the off-peak rates their bill would have been a fair bit lower. Lowering the EV charger output current would of extended the charging period and helped maximise the off peak charging window as well.