The RAC and British Gas (BG) have joined forces on an overnight charger offer.
Following just weeks on from the RAC launching its market-leading electric vehicle (EV) leasing website, the new partnership means customers can have a smart 7kW home charge point installed by an expert British Gas engineer and take advantage of a bespoke electricity tariff with cheaper off-peak overnight charging. Many homes already have cheaper night time tariffs, but it will be interesting to see if electricity delivered after midnight GMT remains cheap once 10 million drivers are plugging in EV vehicles three nights per week.
Having a home charge point on a competitively priced electricity tariff makes running an electric car cheaper and greener, by making use of excess renewable energy when demand is low overnight, says BG.
However many drivers will plug in an electric car before they go to bed at say 10pm, which means in summer they will pay the normal rate until 1am on many night rate tariffs and plans.
Customers who want to have a home charge point installed via the RAC have the choice of two models – with either fixed or removable cables – made by one of Europe’s most established manufacturers of electric car chargers, Alfen. Both come with a three-year warranty and are installed by a British Gas trained EV installer. The Alfen Eve S-Line Untethered can be installed from £659* and Alfen Eve S-Line Tethered from £745.*
Both chargers can be controlled via a smartphone using the award-winning Hive app. This makes charging more convenient as it not only allows drivers to see if the car is plugged in and charging, it also helps them save money as they can choose to schedule charges to take place overnight when the electricity rate is cheaper. They can also easily look back at their daily, weekly and yearly charging, to see the cost and their electricity usage.
The RAC and British Gas partnership also gives customers access to a highly competitive home electricity tariff specially designed to make overnight electric car charging cheaper than with a conventional tariff. The RAC-e Recharge Electric Car Tariff saves customers money, with charging between 12-5am GMT costing just 6p per kWh. As charging can be scheduled easily via the Hive app, this could save up to £300 on a home electric bill. What’s more, British Gas will match 100% of the electricity used for this tariff to electricity from renewable sources. Prices can even be fixed until 30 June 2023.
In order to take advantage of the RAC-e Tariff, which has no exit fee, customers will need to have a British Gas electric smart meter installed so their off-peak charging can be tracked. If a property doesn’t have an existing British Gas smart meter, one will be fitted free of charge.
That’s going to be a great deal for British gas customers to offer something that they don’t get from other companies, if that is the case