Charge Anytime FAQs

All the electricity you use will initially be charged at the normal rate you pay under your existing OVO energy plan. This is the rate that’ll be reflected in your live balance and on your bill. This is also the rate you'll be charged if you override your smart charging schedule at any point to use the Charge Now function – this starts charging your EV immediately, at your standard home electricity rate.

At the end of the month, we’ll work out how much energy you've used to smart charge your EV.

We'll use this information to credit your account in the first week of the following month.

Example

The Charge Anytime rate is 7p a kWh. And let's say your standard electricity rate is 26p a kWh.

We’ll credit you 19p for each kWh you’ve used to smart charge your EV. To make your smart charging rate 7p.

This means if you use 100 kWh of energy smart charging your EV, you’ll get £19 in credit back on your bill.

You can find out more about how we calculate your credit in our terms and conditions.

The app will ensure your car is being charged at the most efficient time possible when you smart charge. By putting your car’s details in the app, we can work out the best time to smart charge your car and, through the app, push a command to the car to start charging.

You can also override your smart charging schedule with the Charge Now function if you urgently need to top-up. This will be charged at your standard home electricity rate.

The app is also the perfect place to show you how much money Charge Anytime is saving you.

Yes, absolutely. Your car’s app will continue to work as it has always done. The only thing to note is that the Charge Anytime app will periodically instruct your car to start or stop charging when plugged in at home during your smart charging schedule. This is to maximise use of the greenest and cheapest energy on the grid, and means that if you manually set a charging schedule in your car’s app, it will be automatically overridden by the Charge Anytime app.¹

It’s free to remove Charge Anytime. To do this, go to the Charge Anytime app and select the green user icon on your account page.

After you select "delete account", you’ll be prompted to give feedback, then confirm by selecting "delete account" again.

We'll calculate your credit up to the date you leave and add it to your account the following month.

If you have any issues, please call us on 0330 175 9678 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, excluding bank holidays).

If you have any issues during, please drop us a line at [email protected], or on 0330 175 9678, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, excluding bank holidays, and we’ll be happy to help.

Please check that you can log in to your car’s app. If you’re unable to, or if your car’s app isn’t working, then the Charge Anytime app won’t work. You’ll need to find out why your car’s app isn’t working and fix it. Common reasons include:

• Your car’s app is suffering a technical issue – this will usually sort itself out in an hour or two.

• You have changed your username and password and need to log in again.

Please check that your car is able to connect to the internet when plugged in and charging at home. If your car can’t connect – either via wifi or an onboard cellular connection – then the Charge Anytime app won’t work as expected.

The Charge Anytime app connects to your vehicle in exactly the same way as your car’s app. The only difference is that the Charge Anytime app will periodically instruct your car to start or stop charging when plugged in at home – this is to maximise use of the greenest and cheapest energy on the grid.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Charge Anytime app does not interact with any other aspect of your vehicle, and it can only schedule your vehicle to start and stop charging when you’re at home.

If your plans change and you need your EV to start charging as soon as you plug it in, you can use the Charge Now function. This lets you temporarily override your smart charging schedule and fully charge your car as quickly as possible.

You can Charge Now by pressing the button in the app, or by using your car’s app or touch screen display to override the current smart schedule and force the car to start charging immediately. Just remember, you won’t receive the discounted Charge Anytime rate when using the Charge Now function. You'll pay your standard home electricity unit rate.

If you need to override your smart charging schedule to top-up your car immediately, you use the Charge Now function. You'll be charged your standard home electricity rate.

The Charge Anytime app only works when you’re plugged in and smart charging at home. When you’re away from home, you won't be able to get the cheaper rate.

In order to bring you the 7p a kWh rate, the Charge Anytime app will only let your car charge during the cheapest and greenest times. This often means that your charging will start sometime after you plug in. You’ll always receive a notification informing you of the scheduled start time. If your plans change, and you need your vehicle to start charging immediately, you can press the Charge Now button in the app. But you'll be charged your standard home electricity rate for this function.

Yes. It’s essential that you remove any previously programmed schedules from your wall charger as these will interfere with the Charge Anytime app.

We apply credit from EV smart charging to your account in the first week of every month. It will also appear on your monthly OVO energy bill under the heading "Charge Anytime Credit". The credit shown on your bill will be for the electricity you’ve used for smart charging your EV the previous month. So in the first week of September, we’ll apply your credit for August.

Your “Charge Anytime Credit” won’t impact your Direct Debit. In fact, you can even ask for these credits to be refunded to you once you’ve got enough of them.

You can email your query and any screenshots of your charging history to [email protected]  or call the Smart Home team on 0330 175 9678. Lines are open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, excluding bank holidays.

OVO can’t take responsibility for the quality of the data supplied by your home EV charging setup. Any inaccuracies will need to be taken up with your manufacturer.