[UK] Octopus: Electric Juice Network

[stigmeister]

Some knob on twitter using the Electric Juice card

https://twitter.com/norfolkmustard/status/1306886936376889344?s=21

Nice and slick. Just frustrating if you have more than one EV and more than one driver, to need multiple cards dependent on who is driving rather than just using your own phone and one app. Octopus are doing some really good stuff though and this is still a step forwards for many people. Their work on the variable tariff side of things and API's is especially clever.

Just a shame Octopus isn't actually renewable energy, well certainly not 100%. It's REGO backed green washing of wholesale 'brown' energy. Only Ecotricity and Good Energy are 100% renewable in the UK, the rest is tantamount to a scam unfortunately. There is hope that Ofgen will change the rules soon post Brexit to ensure that is clear as at the moment most consumers understandably believe what the Energy company says, which they are allowed to under current rules (i.e. sell brown energy, badged as green using certificates from renewable energy generated elsewhere in the EU at another time....).

There is a reason Ecotricity and Good Energy electricity costs more, it's actually real time UK generated renewable energy. The rest isn't it's cheap brown energy with a certificate purchased for a few pence re-sold, which is a shame as I like Octopus, really innovative bunch of people and their founder is a nice bloke too!

 

[MrBadger]

Just landed, 3 more networks. Not heard of any of them.

The power of your Electric Juice card is expanding! We’re welcoming Hubsta, Plug-N-Go and Alfa Power on board this week, taking the total number of charge points on the Electric Juice Network to over 1,000.

 

[Jason71]

Just landed, 3 more networks. Not heard of any of them.

is there a map yet that shows the location of the chargers in the network? I did look but could not see one. I apreciate there are places where I can see a map of each individual supplier within the network? It would be nice to be able to filter by EJ on Zap Map for example

 

[m3gt2]

Over 1000 charging points! How many public chargers do we have now? Definitely a start but has a long way to go. I think we may find that the smaller charging networks will sign up to get exposure from Octopus?

 

[Fred2]

Overall map would definitely be useful - no good have a single card if i still need a zillion apps to find them.

I'm a bit confused by hubsta - a lot of the charging points I found on their 'find a charger' are ionity ones (eg cambridge, peterborough services). They seem to have some 7kw ones of their own

 

[NorfolkMustard]

 

[CMc1]

Think this is working out to be the biggest UK combined solution against contactless... good work Octopus

 

[DaSwede]

I'm really confused about all the excitement for EJ here. It appears to me that electric juice is becoming one of the most expensive networks out there (really close to ICE cars, if not more).

I mean, 36p/kWh is a total rip-off for a rapid charger! The Tesla supercharger network has got the pricing right ( for the convenience and speed) but all of these networks such as EJ, Shell and others are pretty much slowing down the move to fully electric vehicles. I hope they regulate the market soon so that no-one has to pay these ridiculous prices anymore.

Thick about it: 36p/ kWh could take you about 3.5 miles or so, making the cost to be over £1 for 10 miles. That is pretty much how much I paid for running my old diesel car!

I hope people will try to stay away from these networks and choose others. That way the networks will either have to lower their prices or go bust with their investment...

 

[CMc1]

I'm really confused about all the excitement for EJ here. It appears to me that electric juice is becoming one of the most expensive networks out there (really close to ICE cars, if not more).

I mean, 36p/kWh is a total rip-off for a rapid charger! The Tesla supercharger network has got the pricing right ( for the convenience and speed) but all of these networks such as EJ, Shell and others are pretty much slowing down the move to fully electric vehicles. I hope they regulate the market soon so that no-one has to pay these ridiculous prices anymore.

Thick about it: 36p/ kWh could take you about 3.5 miles or so, making the cost to be over £1 for 10 miles. That is pretty much how much I paid for running my old diesel car!

I hope people will try to stay away from these networks and choose others. That way the networks will either have to lower their prices or go bust with their investment...

It’s more of a backup should I be stranded with a low SoC and need to use of these chargers. Saves the hassle of downloading apps and “signing up” especially if low mobile signal etc.
Also some use these networks regularly as they have no alternatives

 

[NewbieT]

Think this is working out to be the biggest UK combined solution against contactless... good work Octopus

Everyone’s on the land grab. Plugsurfing, Chargepoint, Zap-Map. I’m not sure I’d call EJN the biggest (yet). They have a few more to sign up first! They do have the advantage they sell ?half? the charge points their electricity. Vertical integration in action.

 

[DaSwede]

It’s more of a backup should I be stranded with a low SoC and need to use of these chargers. Saves the hassle of downloading apps and “signing up” especially if low mobile signal etc.
Also some use these networks regularly as they have no alternatives

I agree. Use these networks only in an emergency situation but avoid like the plague for using as a charging solution!

 

[CMc1]

Everyone’s on the land grab. Plugsurfing, Chargepoint, Zap-Map. I’m not sure I’d call EJN the biggest (yet). They have a few more to sign up first! They do have the advantage they sell ?half? the charge points their electricity. Vertical integration in action.

I forgot about ChargePoint. Zap-Map is tiny so far (and relies on mobile data, which I think will be its flaw)

 

[CMc1]

Anyone managed to get a second card ?(those with two EVs in household)

 

[Medved_77]

Octopus Energy Adds IONITY To Electric Juice Charging Network

IONITY just added to Octopus Electric Juice network. That's a big step forward.

 

[btc1k]

I'm really confused about all the excitement for EJ here. It appears to me that electric juice is becoming one of the most expensive networks out there (really close to ICE cars, if not more).

I mean, 36p/kWh is a total rip-off for a rapid charger! The Tesla supercharger network has got the pricing right ( for the convenience and speed) but all of these networks such as EJ, Shell and others are pretty much slowing down the move to fully electric vehicles. I hope they regulate the market soon so that no-one has to pay these ridiculous prices anymore.

Thick about it: 36p/ kWh could take you about 3.5 miles or so, making the cost to be over £1 for 10 miles. That is pretty much how much I paid for running my old diesel car!

I hope people will try to stay away from these networks and choose others. That way the networks will either have to lower their prices or go bust with their investment...

You hope for regulation which reduces the cost, which then erodes or destroys the investment case for private companies to provide the infrastructure, whilst believing that forced lower prices won't cause that to happen because the companies will go bust on making the investment if they don't?

 

[JupiterMan]

Octopus Energy Adds IONITY To Electric Juice Charging Network

IONITY just added to Octopus Electric Juice network. That's a big step forward.

to save people clicking the link, Octopus offer a 5% saving on Ionity rates, so instead of rip off 69p it costs 65.5p - so not worth it IMHO.

 

[ACarneiro]

Worth for the convenience. 69p is better than being stranded

 

[Medved_77]

to save people clicking the link, Octopus offer a 5% saving on Ionity rates, so instead of rip off 69p it costs 65.5p - so not worth it IMHO.

Ionity prices are still ridiculously high, but I thought the big step forward was the ability of Octopus to add the larger networks to its scheme, hopefully more will follow.

A solution that requires a single RFID card, where fees are added to my monthly home electricity bill is very appealing to me. As yet, I've not used the scheme due to the sparse availability of supported chargers.

 

[MrBadger]

Looks like Octopus / Electric Juice have developed an app, some details in thumbnail.

Currently beta for early adopters. I can't join programme as my phone is too old to support iOS 13, needed for TestFlight. Hopefully the final product will be supported on older phones.

 

[Medved_77]

Installed it earlier today. Not much to it bar a map and some filters.

Tried to login, was directed to the Octopus login page with the apps browser, entered credentials but wasn't directed back to the app automatically. Closed the browser but profile hadn't been linked in the app, so doesn’t look like I can use it just yet.

Have submitted feedback.