Best EV Tariffs UK 2026: Compared and Ranked

The best EV tariff in the UK in 2026 depends less on which supplier has the lowest headline number and more on three details about your household: how many off-peak miles you actually need each night, how much electricity the rest of your home uses, and whether you have a smart EV charger.

From 1 April 2026, off-peak rates fell sharply across the market. Octopus cut Intelligent Octopus Go to a regional range of 3.49p-5.49p/kWh (Octopus, 2026). EDF set GoElectric at 6.99p/kWh on a 7-hour window (EDF, 2026). The Ofgem default-tariff cap dropped to £1,641/year for a typical dual-fuel direct-debit household — a 6.6% reduction (Ofgem, 25 February 2026). This guide ranks the eight major UK EV tariffs against those April-2026 figures and ends with a decision matrix so you can match the right tariff to your usage.

Every UK EV tariff in this list is a time-of-use product: you pay a low rate during a defined off-peak window (typically 4-7 hours overnight) and a higher rate the rest of the time. There are two broad shapes:

Whole-home off-peak tariffs — Octopus Intelligent Go, EDF GoElectric, E.ON Next Drive, British Gas EV Power, ScottishPower EV Saver. The cheap rate applies to all electricity used during the off-peak window, not just the EV. This means a dishwasher run, an immersion heater, or a battery-storage charge is also at the off-peak rate. The peak rate (typically 24p-31p/kWh) covers everything else.

Add-on smart-charging tariffs — OVO Charge Anytime is the main example. The home tariff stays unchanged and EV charging is billed separately at a flat smart-scheduled rate. The supplier moves the charge into the cheapest grid period it can find, so charging happens any time of day rather than in a fixed window.

Smart-scheduling tariffs like Intelligent Octopus Go go a step further: the supplier (not your home charger) controls when charging happens, optimising for the cheapest grid periods inside the wider off-peak window. That requires a compatible Tesla or one of a small list of supported smart chargers (Ohme, Wallbox, Hypervolt, Indra), per the Octopus eligibility list (Octopus, 2026).

All the tariffs below need a smart meter capable of half-hourly readings. Most also require monthly direct debit. Several have exit fees ranging from £50 (ScottishPower) to nothing (E.ON, Octopus).

Ranked by off-peak unit rate at the 1 April 2026 cap window. All rates are direct-debit, half-hourly-meter customers; regional variation noted where it materially affects the headline figure.

A small group of suppliers — SO Energy, Utility Warehouse, Cosy Octopus — also offer EV-aware tariffs, but none undercut the eight above on like-for-like off-peak rate at the time of writing. We cover them in the cluster's decision-by-supplier write-ups linked at the foot of this guide.

Intelligent Octopus Go

Off-peak rate: 3.49p-5.49p/kWh (regional, from 1 April 2026)
Window: 11:30pm-5:30am, 6 hours, every day
Eligibility: Compatible Tesla or supported smart charger (Ohme, Wallbox, Hypervolt, Indra)
Exit fee: none

The cheapest mainstream EV tariff in the UK and the largest by customer base. [Octopus controls the charging schedule](/blog/intelligent-octopus-go-six-hour-charge-cap/) directly through the car's API or the charger's API, slotting your charge into the lowest-cost half-hours inside the 6-hour window. The off-peak rate applies to your whole home for those hours, so a dishwasher run or immersion-heater top-up at 1am is on the cheap rate too.

The April 2026 cut took the example Hampshire region from around 9p to 5.49p/kWh — a 39% drop — with some regions now under 4p (Octopus / Infinity Energy, March 2026). The peak rate is roughly 24-25p/kWh, with a standing charge near 45p/day in the example region.

One thing to plan around: from March 2026, Octopus is rolling out a daily Charge Cap on Intelligent Octopus Go, limiting how many off-peak kWh the algorithm will schedule per day. If you're regularly charging more than ~50kWh overnight (very long commutes, multi-EV households), check the published cap before signing up (Octopus, 2026).

If your charger is on the [compatibility list](/blog/intelligent-octopus-go-compatible-cars/), Intelligent Octopus Go is the default recommendation for most UK EV households. View Octopus tariff details (affiliate link).

EDF GoElectric

Off-peak rate: 6.99p/kWh
Window: 11pm-6am, 7 hours, every day
Eligibility: Smart meter with half-hourly consent; no smart-charger compatibility check
Smart-charging credit: £5/month bill credit (£60/year) when opted into EDF Smart Charging

EDF set the longest off-peak window of any UK EV tariff at the April 2026 launch — a full 7 hours, an hour longer than the Octopus and E.ON 6-hour windows (EDF, April 2026). For high-mileage drivers who run their EV's battery low enough that 5 or 6 hours can't refill it on a 7kW charger (~50kWh), that extra hour matters. The headline rate sits between the Octopus regional range and the 8.5p tier from E.ON / ScottishPower.

EDF's tariff is matched annually to 100% zero-carbon nuclear-generated electricity — relevant for buyers who want to avoid the gas-heavy grid mix during peak hours but are uncomfortable with renewables-only marketing.

There's no smart-charger compatibility list, so EDF works with any 7kW home charger or even an unsmart granny cable, as long as you can schedule charging inside the 11pm-6am window yourself.

Octopus Go

Off-peak rate: ~7-9p/kWh (regional)
Window: 12:30am-5:30am, 5 hours, every day
Eligibility: Smart meter; no smart-charger requirement

The non-intelligent sibling of Intelligent Octopus Go. Same Octopus brand, same cap-tracking pricing model, but a shorter 5-hour window and you're responsible for scheduling the charge yourself (in the car or in the charger app). The headline rate is typically 1-3p/kWh higher than IOG depending on region.

Right pick for: EV owners who don't have an Octopus-compatible smart charger but still want Octopus's customer service and tariff-cap tracking. If your charger is on the IOG compatibility list, IOG is always the better deal — it gives you a longer window and a lower rate.

E.ON Next Drive Smart

Off-peak rate: 8.5p/kWh
Window: 12am-6am, 6 hours
Peak rate: 30.87p/kWh
Exit fee: none

E.ON's variable-rate EV tariff. Off-peak applies to whole-home electricity in the window, like Octopus. E.ON publishes a £117/year saving figure vs the Ofgem cap based on a typical 8,000-mile/year EV (E.ON Next, 2026).

The 30.87p peak rate is among the highest in the EV-tariff field. That makes Next Drive Smart a strong choice for households whose evening usage is low (single occupants, working couples out during the day) but a poor fit for big families running tumble-dryers and ovens at 6pm.

E.ON also offers Next Drive Fixed — same 12am-6am window, but a higher 9.5p/kWh fixed off-peak rate that won't move with the cap. Good if you want price certainty for the cap period; a slightly worse deal in absolute terms.

OVO Charge Anytime

PAYG rate: 14p/kWh, smart-scheduled at any time of day
Standard plan: £27.50/month, includes 700 home miles + £120 public-charging voucher
Premium plan: £37.50/month, includes 1,000 home miles + £120 public-charging voucher

OVO took a different shape in November 2025 when the PAYG rate doubled from 7p to 14p (OVO, 2025). That repositioned Charge Anytime away from [competing with Octopus on raw rate](/compare/intelligent-octopus-go-vs-ovo-charge-anytime/) and toward two distinct propositions: (1) a flexible "smart-charge any time" PAYG option for drivers whose schedule means they can't always charge overnight, and (2) the monthly all-inclusive plans that bundle a fixed mileage allowance.

The maths only really works if you can use most or all of the included home miles each month. At Standard's 700 miles, that's 4.0p per claimed mile (£27.50 ÷ 700) — comparable to charging at IOG's mid-range rate of 5.49p on a 3.5 mi/kWh EV. Use only 400 of the 700 miles in a quiet month and the effective per-mile figure climbs to 6.9p.

Right pick for: drivers who can't reliably commit to a fixed overnight window — shift workers, multi-car households sharing a single charger, frequent travellers — and value paying a flat monthly fee for charging.

British Gas EV Power

Off-peak rate: 9p/kWh
Window: 12am-5am, 5 hours
Eligibility: Smart meter

British Gas's single EV tariff. A simple 5-hour 9p product with no smart-charger compatibility list and no monthly-plan complications. The off-peak window is 1 hour shorter than E.ON's and 2 hours shorter than EDF's, which limits how many kWh you can pull at 7kW per night to about 35kWh.

Right pick for: existing British Gas dual-fuel customers who want a single-bill setup and are willing to trade a slightly higher rate for not switching supplier.

ScottishPower EV Saver

Off-peak rate: 8.5p/kWh (down from 9.5p in April 2026)
Window: 12am-5am, 5 hours
Exit fee: £50
Eligibility: Single-rate smart meter with half-hourly readings, monthly direct debit

ScottishPower cut EV Saver from 9.5p to 8.5p on 1 April 2026 (ScottishPower, 2026). The tariff is matched 100% green and is broadly similar to British Gas's 9p product but with the 8.5p edge. The £50 exit fee is the highest in this list and worth weighing if you might switch within 12 months — Octopus and E.ON have no exit fee at all.

Other tariffs worth knowing

Cosy Octopus isn't an EV tariff — it's optimised for heat-pump households with three off-peak windows across the day — but if you have a heat pump and an EV, it can sometimes work out cheaper than IOG depending on your charging pattern. We cover this in a dedicated comparison piece.

SO Energy and Utility Warehouse have EV-aware tariffs, but their rates and windows do not currently undercut the eight above on like-for-like terms.

Use the three inputs that matter most: monthly mileage, EV battery size, and whether you have solar. Find your row, then check whether your home charger is on Octopus's compatibility list — that's the gate that unlocks the cheapest tier.

If two tariffs both fit, default to the shorter contractual lock-in (Octopus and E.ON have no exit fees; ScottishPower's is £50; British Gas varies by product). The market is moving fast, and another April-style cut six months from now is not unlikely.

Five April 2026 changes shape this list and are worth knowing whether you're switching today or comparing the field:

• Ofgem cap fell 6.6% to £1,641/year for a typical dual-fuel direct-debit household (1 April-30 June 2026 window). Policy costs dropped £130 per direct-debit customer; wholesale costs dropped further (Ofgem, 25 February 2026).
• Intelligent Octopus Go off-peak cut to 3.49p-5.49p/kWh depending on region — a 39% drop on the headline rate. The cut tracked the Ofgem wholesale fall, not a one-off promotion (Octopus, March 2026).
• EDF GoElectric extended its window to 7 hours at 6.99p/kWh, which is now the longest off-peak window of any UK EV tariff (EDF, April 2026).
• ScottishPower EV Saver dropped from 9.5p to 8.5p on the same date, putting it level with E.ON (ScottishPower, April 2026).
• VED on EVs starts at £10 first-year then £200/year from April 2026, and the Expensive Car Supplement threshold for EVs rose from £40,000 to £50,000 — removing the £425/year supplement for many EVs (HMRC / DVLA, April 2026).

Ofgem also reported EV-tariff customer numbers grew 84% year-on-year to 653,000 (Ofgem retail-market state, January 2026), so this market is now sized to drive sustained competition between suppliers — expect more rate movement at the next cap day in August 2026.

Five things that catch people switching for the first time:

• Regional rate variation: Octopus Intelligent Go rates differ by region — the same 1 April 2026 cut took some regions to under 4p/kWh and others closer to 5.5p/kWh. Always check your specific postcode's rate, not the figure quoted in a national headline.
• The high-non-EV-usage trap: every whole-home off-peak tariff has a peak rate above the cap (24-31p/kWh). If your household uses more than about 5,000kWh/year of non-EV electricity outside the off-peak window, the peak premium can erase the off-peak saving. Run the maths against your last 12 months of half-hourly data before switching.
• The 6-hour Charge Cap on IOG: from March 2026 Octopus is limiting daily off-peak kWh on Intelligent Octopus Go. If you charge more than ~50kWh overnight regularly — long commute, multi-EV household, big battery — verify the cap before committing.
• Smart-meter delay: every tariff in this list needs a smart meter with half-hourly consent. If you don't have one, allow 6-12 weeks for the install before your switch goes live.
• App overlap: smart-charging households end up running the supplier app, the charger app (Ohme, Hypervolt) and sometimes the car app, all of which can issue conflicting schedules. Pick one to be the schedule authority and turn the others off.