Renewable energy supplier Bulb has launched the UK鈥檚 cheapest off-peak electric car tariff and promised to simplify how people charge their vehicles.
Electric car sales are soaring in the UK, with new registrations up 186 per cent last year compared to the year before, leaving energy companies scrambling to offer dedicated services for drivers.
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has opened a beta product for its customers that brings together several features in one app, from ordering a fast home charger to tracking financial and carbon dioxide savings. It can also talk directly to the car to schedule charging for the early hours of the morning when energy demand is low, to reduce pressure on electricity grids.
The company says its service works with 75 per cent of electric car models available in the UK today, including those by Tesla and BMW, though notably not yet one popular model, the Nissan Leaf.
鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing lot of people switching away from petrol and diesel and into electric vehicles and I think that鈥檚 a really positive step. But it needs to happen much more quickly,鈥� says Hayden Wood, one of Bulb鈥檚 co-founders.
At 4p per kilowatt-hour for charging between 2am and 6am, Katie Hickford at energy analyst Cornwall Insight says Bulb鈥檚 tariff appears to be the cheapest off-peak tariff in the UK market, undercutting those by big suppliers including EDF Energy and British Gas. The pricing should make the product 鈥渧ery competitive鈥�, says Laura Thomson at the website . The day rate is 20p per kWh.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not unique in what they鈥檙e offering but the way they鈥檙e tying it all up together, that all-in-one [element], is comprehensive,鈥� says Hickford on Bulb鈥檚 product. Igloo Energy , but it doesn鈥檛 have all the same features. More services are coming. Good Energy it says will offer a longer off-peak period than rivals, while Ovo Energy is taking a different approach, with different rates for charging a car to powering a home.
Wood is convinced electric cars will soon provide a significant service to UK electricity grids to help them cope with more intermittent wind and solar power. 鈥滻t makes no sense to have gigawatts of battery capacity in people鈥檚 cars and not being used to help balance the grid,鈥� he says. The company is considering offering such vehicle-to-grid services in the future.
