vehicle-to-grid with FREE EV charging in the UK

[Bandersnatch]

 

https://octopus.energy/press/octopus-byd-turbocharge-ev-revolution-with-all-inclusive-car-and-charging-bundle/

 

One monthly payment of £299/฿13k gets you:

A BYD Dolphin on lease, enabled with Vehicle-to-Grid technology
A Zaptec Pro V2G charger
Guaranteed free home charging for your entire lease (Up to 12K miles/year)

 

All you have to do is agree to plug the car in 20 times a month for 12 hours at a time and during that time the car will be charged but also send power back to the grid.

 

This deal is currently only available in the UK but it's a sign of how EVs will use their "battery on wheels" to help make electric grids cleaner and motoring cheaper.

 

Here in Thailand I have two BYDs and I have their the bi-directional charging connected to my home solar which has meant I now don't have a grid connection. 

 

[KannikaP]

So you're going to spend 300 quid a month on a car which, for 2/3rd of that time, 20 days, you can only use it for 12 hours a day because the rest of the time it is charging. Yes I know, most cars are used for much less than 12 hours a day.

Why put more power into the car than you need, which is then put back into the grid. Why not charge until it is full, then then stop charging. Just asking because I do not understand the logic, someone please explain.

[Bandersnatch]

10 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Why put more power into the car than you need, which is then put back into the grid. Why not charge until it is full, then then stop charging. Just asking because I do not understand the logic, someone please explain.

 

The wholesale price of electricity changes during the day. When there is lots of renewables like wind and solar electricity prices can fall to zero or even negative when they have to switch off wind turbines. 

 

When demand is high and renewables cannot meet the demand then they have to switch on expensive gas turbines. 

 

This system charges the ev with cheap electricity and returns it to the grid when it's expensive.

[KannikaP]

31 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

When there is lots of renewables like wind and solar electricity prices can fall to zero or even negative when they have to switch off wind turbines. 

Surely the price COULD go negative when they switch the wind turbines ON !

Or when enough BYDs are pumping juice back into the net.

[Bandersnatch]

22 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Surely the price COULD go negative when they switch the wind turbines ON !

Or when enough BYDs are pumping juice back into the net.

 

Negative pricing means that generators have to pay to send power to the grid so that's why wind turbines are switched off.

 

Octopus Energy make money through arbitrage, they buy low and sell high. So they will be buying electricity when the wholesale prices goes negative not selling it back to the grid.

 

In the UK, electricity prices in the wholesale market are determined by marginal pricing,  which is set by the most expensive generator in a 30-minute period and that is usually gas turbine peaker plants.

 

If EV batteries and other electricity storage can displace gas turbines on the grid then electricity prices for consumers will fall substantially.

[KhunLA]

Might be a bargain in the UK, but would substantially increase our transport cost here in TH, since we have solar.   12 hr idle wouldn't be a problem, as long as plugging in was available if we were O&A, as I don't drive at night anyway.   Our car is idle usually from 1900 to 0900 hr daily anyway.

 

In TH, at ฿750k for a no frills comfy BEV, over 5 yrs, that's only ฿12.5k a month (no DP or Int), and  you own it.   So cheaper with every added year you own.   Instead of a new lease / purchase every 5 yrs.   Might work if you buy new cars every 5 years, and give the old ones away 

 

In the USA, I only got a replacement when the old one died, or I killed it.   In TH, traded in old for new, ~7 yrs at a time.  Keeping cost of transport below ฿10k a month, with one exception, which will balance out ... eventually 🙄

 

Even if we had to pay to charge at home, it would increase or cost, as not a replace the car every 4 or 5 yrs kind of family, and don't think most Thais are.

[Bandersnatch]

29 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Might be a bargain in the UK, but would substantially increase our transport cost here in TH

I agree solar in Thailand makes EV very cheap motoring. 

 

The BYD Dolphin in the UK starts around £26,000  ฿1,154,709 which is much more expensive than Thailand 

 

[KhunLA]

10 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

I agree solar in Thailand makes EV very cheap motoring. 

 

The BYD Dolphin in the UK starts around £26,000  ฿1,154,709 which is much more expensive than Thailand 

 

That's crazy pricing.  

 

Big Oil & auto makers basically ban BEV from CH into the USA.   To have solar installed cost 3X what we paid, and our price would be considered way overpriced now in TH, since prices have dropped.

 

USA starting to become 3rd world auto & energy market 

TH being way ahead on that curve ... damn embarrassing.

 

Nice entry price on the BYDs here, and no wonder MG sales have plummeted.   Only the MG4 selling, and the rest seem stalled.  Surprised S5 sales are poor, and guess the lifetime warranty isn't much of a selling point, as most expect to trade up within most battery warranty periods or 8 years.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

In TH, at ฿750k for a no frills comfy BEV, over 5 yrs, that's only ฿12.5k a month (no DP or Int), and  you own it.   So cheaper with every added year you own.   Instead of a new lease / purchase every 5 yrs.   Might work if you buy new cars every 5 years, and give the old ones away 

Assuming the car doesn't burn .......... taking your house with it.

 

But charging 2x the price for the car in the UK is a bit of a shocker.

It's almost as if the western governments don't really believe in climate change or green energy.

[Bandersnatch]

9 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

But charging 2x the price for the car in the UK is a bit of a shocker.

 

I am currently trying to help my brother in the UK into his first EV and like many he is considering leasing rather than  buying new.

 

Many buy using the salary sacrifice car scheme that allows employees to lease an EV by sacrificing a portion of their gross salary.