Why EV owners need a different lens
An electric vehicle adds a large, movable chunk of electricity use to your home — often the single biggest load in the house. That changes what a good plan looks like. For a typical home, you want low usage rates across the board. For an EV home, you want a plan that lets you charge that big load in a cheap window, even if other rates are only average.
The upshot is that the plan that was best for you before you bought an EV is often not the best afterwards. The whole shape of your usage has shifted toward a schedulable overnight or daytime block, and the plan should be chosen to reward exactly that.
The plan features that matter for EVs
- Dedicated EV tariff
- Some retailers offer a special super-low rate for a set overnight window aimed at EV charging. Powerful if your car can charge in that window.
- Time-of-use (TOU) tariff
- Peak, shoulder and off-peak rates. A low off-peak rate overnight suits EV charging, provided you keep other big loads out of the peak.
- Controlled load / dedicated circuit
- A separately metered circuit at a lower rate. Some homes wire an EV charger to one, though it may limit when charging can occur.
- Solar feed-in rate
- Still matters for EV owners with solar — it sets the true cost of daytime solar charging and the value of any surplus you export.
- Daily supply charge
- The fixed daily fee. A low one helps every household; a high one can quietly erode an attractive EV rate.
How to choose an EV plan the right way
- Work out when you can realistically charge — overnight, during the day on solar, or a mix. Your charging window drives which tariff type suits you.
- If you can reliably charge in a set overnight block, look hard at dedicated EV tariffs and low off-peak TOU rates.
- If you have solar and can charge by day, weigh the value of charging from surplus solar against any overnight rate.
- Check the rest of the plan — daytime usage rates, supply charge and feed-in — because your non-EV load still runs on those.
- Cost the whole thing against your real usage with the EV load included, not just the headline EV rate. This is the step most people skip.
The trap of the headline EV rate
Retailers know EV owners shop for a cheap charging rate, so a plan may advertise a very low overnight EV rate while carrying higher daytime usage rates, a steeper supply charge, or a lower feed-in tariff. If your household uses plenty of power outside the EV window — and most do — those other rates can quietly cancel out the overnight saving.
The only way to see through it is to compare on your total bill, with every part of the plan costed against your actual usage pattern. A plan is only the best EV plan if it is cheapest across everything you use, not just the hours you charge the car.
How EnergySorted finds your best EV plan
EnergySorted is independent and takes no retailer commissions, so it has no reason to push a plan with a shiny EV rate and hidden costs elsewhere. It costs all 16,000-plus plans against your real usage — EV charging load, household load and solar feed-in together — and ranks them on the total you would actually pay.
That matters most for EV and solar households, because so many comparison tools ignore solar feed-in and treat EV charging as generic usage. EnergySorted values your feed-in on every plan and reflects your charging pattern, so the ranking you see is the genuine bottom line for your home. Upload a recent bill, tell it how you charge, and it will surface the plan that makes your EV cheapest to run — then it is worth re-checking each year as EV tariffs and feed-in rates keep moving.