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.

[Unamerican]

I thought that posts which are so clearly simply adverts were banned here?

[Unamerican]

To whom do this poor souls have to make this “sacrifice”? 
Or perhaps this is just a tax avoidance “scam” (oops, “wise measure”)

[Bandersnatch]

39 minutes ago, Unamerican said:

To whom do this poor souls have to make this “sacrifice”? 
Or perhaps this is just a tax avoidance “scam” (oops, “wise measure”)

 

You give up "sacrifice" some of your gross salary each month to pay for your EV lease, so you pay less tax.

 

It's a government incentive not a scam.

 

Gross Salary £1,000

Tax 20% £200

Net Salary £800

EV lease £300

Balance after paying EV Lease £500

 

Salary Sacrifice:

Gross Salary £1,000

EV lease £300

Tax 20% £140

Net Salary £560

Balance after paying EV Lease £560

 

40 minutes ago, Unamerican said:

I thought that posts which are so clearly simply adverts were banned here?

 

Vehicle to Grid has the potential to revolutionize electricity grids around the world. Anybody who understands that would see this as a very exciting development not an advert.

 

In the UK, there are approximately 40 million licensed vehicles on the road. If only 10% of them were part of a V2G scheme it could add 200GWh of grid storage.

 

The UK has only 7GWh as at the end of 2024

[KhunLA]

20 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

Anybody who understands ...

... nuff said 

[digger70]

On 6/24/2025 at 9:10 AM, Bandersnatch said:

 

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

You believe that?   Not going to happen .

[PETERTHEEATER]

As I understand, the UK grid does not have the capacity to 'store' excess power imports. The government pays wind turbine operators around GBP 3 million a year to shut them down when the grid is at capacity.

[Bandersnatch]

1 minute ago, digger70 said:

You believe that?   Not going to happen .

 

Did you read my explanation of how the UK electricity wholesale market works?

 

I assume not,  so here it is again.

 

On 6/24/2025 at 9:10 AM, Bandersnatch said:

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.

 

So for every half hour period that gas peaker plants don't need to be switched on then the wholesale price is set by a cheaper form of energy.

 

For reference Gas Peakers plants charge 114 £/MWh and offshore wind is 44 £/MWh in 2025 

[Bandersnatch]

2 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

As I understand, the UK grid does not have the capacity to 'store' excess power imports. The government pays wind turbine operators around GBP 3 million a year to shut them down when the grid is at capacity.

 

Yes. I felt the topic was complicated enough without going into Contract for Difference agreements with the wind generators.

 

Adding more V2G EVs to the grid means that more of the excess wind power can be used to charge those EVs instead of switching the turbines off. 

 

[digger70]

20 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

Did you read my explanation of how the UK electricity wholesale market works?

 

I assume not,  so here it is again.

 

 

So for every half hour period that gas peaker plants don't need to be switched on then the wholesale price is set by a cheaper form of energy.

 

For reference Gas Peakers plants charge 114 £/MWh and offshore wind is 44 £/MWh in 2025 

You can say and Explain whatever  you like .

Electricity will Not get cheaper . Maybe cheaper to Generate but not cheaper for the public.

They been saying for years that they are going to  supply the public with cheaper electricity, right. Has that happened No ,the only thing that is happening is that the price  for electricity for  the public is going Up. Their excuses are Everything that they need and use to produce the electricity  cost More . AMEN 

[Bandersnatch]

4 hours ago, digger70 said:

You can say and Explain whatever  you like .

Electricity will Not get cheaper . Maybe cheaper to Generate but not cheaper for the public.

They been saying for years that they are going to  supply the public with cheaper electricity, right. Has that happened No ,the only thing that is happening is that the price  for electricity for  the public is going Up. Their excuses are Everything that they need and use to produce the electricity  cost More . AMEN 

 

Currently the cost of electricity in the UK is effectively linked to the price of Gas due to Marginal Pricing. I do agree that prices have gone up in recent years but I do not agree that they will never go down. I have already explained how reducing the use of gas will cause prices to fall. 

 

 

 

 

Another way that electricity prices can fall is if energy is priced locally through a zonal pricing system. The government is considering this reform right now. 

 

Currently there is a single national market for electricity with all regions paying the same. With zonal pricing areas with plenty of renewable generation, like Scotland and the north will end up with some of the cheapest electricity in Europe. 

 

Currently not on the table to be discussed by the government is an even more granular approach to electricity pricing called Nodal Pricing that would give cheaper electricity to any community accepting renewables to be built in their location.

 

It would also allow NIMBYS  (Not In My Back Yard) to object to new renewable projects and pay for the privilege with higher local electricity prices.

 

 

[IsaanT]

On 6/26/2025 at 2:54 PM, digger70 said:

You believe that?   Not going to happen .

It's an excellent idea and will be feasible once there is a greater proportion of EVs AND their owners participate in V2G schemes.  As such, it's not going to happen any time soon but it will be too hard to ignore the opportunity in time.

The problem in the UK is that the gas turbine power stations are run up to fill in supply where necessary and cope with peaks because it's a form of generation that can be turned on and off relatively quickly.  However, as has been pointed out, they are very expensive to run (and maintain).  If enough V2G capacity was available it could serve the same purpose and the gas generation plants wouldn't be required.

Lastly, there appears to be little spending on long-term infrastructural improvements in the UK so what better than to get the customers to provide their own through V2G?