EDF Pod Point Plug & Power tariff promises a £999 Pod Point Solo 3S home charger for just £499 upfront, with the rest of the cost spread over your electricity tariff. But is it really a cheap EV charger — or do you simply pay for it through higher energy bills? We did the maths.
If you’re buying an electric car, the cost of installing a home EV charger can be an unwelcome addition to an already expensive purchase.
The EDF Pod Point Plug & Power tariff offer therefore sounds attractive: get a Pod Point Solo 3S charger, including standard installation, for £499 upfront rather than its £999 retail price, then spread the remaining cost over a two-year electricity tariff.
There’s another eye-catching number: 6.49p/kWh overnight electricity, currently one of the cheapest EV charging rates available.
So is EDF effectively giving you £500 towards an EV charger?
Not quite.
But after comparing the tariff with Octopus Go, Intelligent Octopus Go, EDF GoElectric and E.ON Next Drive Smart, we found something interesting: the EDF Pod Point deal comes surprisingly close to doing exactly what it says on the tin.
How EDF Pod Point Plug & Power works
EDF’s offer combines two products:
- a Pod Point Solo 3S home charger, including standard installation; and
- a two-year fixed EV electricity tariff.
The untethered Solo 3S costs £499 upfront through the bundle. EDF currently lists the same charger at £999 installed when bought outright.
The remaining £500 isn’t waived. EDF says explicitly that it is spread over the two-year tariff.
The tariff then provides seven hours of off-peak electricity each night, currently advertised at 6.49p/kWh between 11pm and 6am.
So the important question isn’t really whether the charger costs £499.
It’s:
How much does the EDF tariff cost over two years compared with buying a charger outright and choosing another cheap EV tariff?
First, how much does an EV home charger normally cost?
£999 is a fairly credible benchmark for a fully installed smart EV charger, although there are cheaper and considerably more expensive options. Current advertised fitted prices include:
| Home EV charger | Typical installed price |
|---|---|
| Easee One | from £918 |
| Ohme ePod | from £932 |
| Ohme Home Pro | from £983 |
| Tesla Wall Connector | from £999 |
| Pod Point Solo 3S | £999 |
| Hypervolt Home 3 Pro | from £1,075 |
| Andersen Quartz | from £1,545 |
EV charger prices and installation requirements vary due to cable runs, consumer-unit work and other installation complications – get your own EV charger quotes online in just a few clicks.
There are also substantial differences depending on who supplies the charger. Octopus currently advertises charger installation from £949, while its Ohme Home Pro is listed at £1,199 installed. E.ON Next’s installed chargers currently start at £1,272.
But the broad conclusion is clear: around £900–£1,200 is a realistic price for many professionally installed 7kW smart home chargers.
So paying £499 today rather than roughly £1,000 is a meaningful reduction in the upfront cost of getting an EV. The question is where the other £500 goes.
We compared EDF Plug & Power with the leading EV tariffs
To find out, Smart Home Energy modelled a London household driving 7,000 miles per year.
We assumed:
| Household assumption | Our model |
|---|---|
| Annual EV mileage | 7,000 miles |
| EV efficiency | 3.5 miles/kWh |
| EV electricity | 2,000 kWh/year |
| Other household electricity | 2,700 kWh/year |
| Total electricity | 4,700 kWh/year |
| EV charging shifted overnight | 90% |
| Household electricity shifted overnight | 30% |
| Total off-peak consumption | 2,610 kWh/year |
| Daytime consumption | 2,090 kWh/year |
That represents an EV-owning household making sensible use of a cheap overnight tariff: charging the car overnight and moving some flexible household consumption — such as the dishwasher or washing machine — into the cheap period too.
We then compared current tariff rates for the London electricity region. Rates were retrieved on 1 September 2026 and tariffs change, so these figures are a snapshot rather than a prediction of future prices.
Which EV tariff is cheapest?
For our modelled London household, the results were:
| Tariff | Off-peak | Day | Standing charge | Cheap period | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octopus Go | 8.6p | 31.0p | 44.1p/day | 00:30–05:30 | £1,034 |
| Intelligent Octopus Go | 8.0p | 32.6p | 44.1p/day | 23:30–05:30 | £1,052 |
| EDF GoElectric | 7.0p | 34.4p | 44.8p/day | 22:00–05:00 | £1,066 |
| E.ON Next Drive Smart | 6.9p | 32.0p | 60.0p/day | 00:00–06:00 | £1,067 |
| Octopus Tracker | 20.9p | 20.9p | 36.5p/day | — | £1,115 |
| E.ON Next Drive | 8.5p | 33.1p | 60.0p/day | 00:00–06:00 | £1,133 |
| EDF Pod Point Plug & Power | 6.5p | 34.4p | 113.3p/day | 22:00–05:00 | £1,303 |
At first sight, that’s not great for Plug & Power. Octopus Go costs our household about £1,034 a year, while Plug & Power costs £1,303. That’s nearly £270 more every year.
But the unusual number isn’t the electricity price, it’s the standing charge.
The £1.13-a-day standing charge explains the deal
This is where the Plug & Power proposition becomes much more interesting.
EDF GoElectric and Plug & Power provide a particularly useful comparison because they’re from the same supplier and, for our London household, have the same daytime electricity price and the same seven-hour cheap period. But their standing charges are dramatically different.
Pod Point Plug & Power: 113.3p/day
EDF GoElectric: 44.8p/day
Difference:
68.5p/day
Now multiply that by the 730 days in the two-year Plug & Power contract:
68.5p × 730 = £500.05
That’s almost exactly the £500 difference between the £999 charger price and the £499 upfront payment.
In other words, the apparently enormous standing charge isn’t mysterious at all.
It’s effectively the other half of your charger.
And remember: Plug & Power actually has the cheapest overnight electricity rate of any of the general EV tariffs we compared, at 6.49p/kWh.
So describing Plug & Power simply as an expensive electricity tariff is misleading.
You’re paying for two things through the bill: electricity and an EV charger.
So is the EDF Pod Point charger really £499?
Yes and no. You pay £499 upfront.
But you’re effectively paying another £500 over the following two years through the tariff.
That makes it much more useful to think of Plug & Power as a form of charger finance bundled with an EV electricity tariff and, interestingly, the finance appears effectively interest-free when we compare it with buying the same charger outright.
The comparison that really matters: two-year total cost
Suppose you’re getting an EV and need a home charger.
You have two basic choices:
Option A: Pay £499 upfront for EDF Plug & Power and repay the rest through your energy bills.
Option B: Pay £999 for a Pod Point Solo 3S upfront and choose whichever EV electricity tariff you prefer.
Here’s what happens over two years in our model:
| Route | Charger upfront | Two years’ energy | Two-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| EDF Plug & Power bundle | £499 | £2,606 | £3,105 |
| £999 charger + Octopus Go | £999 | £2,068 | £3,067 |
| £999 charger + Intelligent Octopus Go | £999 | £2,104 | £3,103 |
| £999 charger + EDF GoElectric | £999 | £2,132 | £3,131 |
| £999 charger + E.ON Next Drive Smart | £999 | £2,134 | £3,133 |
That’s remarkably close.
The difference between the cheapest and most expensive route here is just £66 over two years.
Plug & Power is £38 more than buying the charger outright and taking Octopus Go.
But it’s £2 more than the Intelligent Octopus Go route, and actually comes out slightly cheaper than buying the charger outright and choosing EDF GoElectric or E.ON Next Drive Smart.
At this level of modelling, those differences are tiny and depend more on your tariff and how you charge, which you can compare with our EV Tariff Calculator — Are You Charging on the Wrong Tariff?
But what if you bought a cheaper charger? This is where the calculation changes. The Solo 3S isn’t the cheapest installed home EV charger available.
You can get an evec vecGO 2.0 7.4kW EV Charger fully installed for just £759.99 or the charger only from £319.99
So really you should be comparing charger + installation + electricity over the period you’ll actually use them.
Who does EDF Plug & Power suit?
The strongest case is someone who needs a home charger now but would rather not spend around £1,000 upfront.
You get a well-established 7kW smart charger with standard installation and a five-year warranty, pay £499 upfront, and effectively spread the balance across two years while receiving a very low 6.49p/kWh overnight rate.
But be cautious if your household can’t reliably charge overnight.
EV tariffs generally compensate for exceptionally cheap overnight electricity with relatively expensive daytime electricity. In our comparison, EV-tariff daytime rates are around 31–34p/kWh.
If most of your charging happens during the day, a cheap 6.49p overnight headline rate isn’t much use.
In our model, Octopus Tracker’s flat 20.9p/kWh rate provides a useful control showing why charging behaviour matters.
Is EDF Pod Point Plug & Power the best EV tariff?
There isn’t one universally “best EV tariff”, because the answer depends on your car, charger, mileage and when your household uses electricity – use our tariff checker to find the best tariff for your setup.
Notes
Rates: Tariff prices in this article were retrieved on 1 September 2026 for the London electricity region. Energy prices and available tariffs change.
Eligibility: We excluded tariffs that our model household wouldn’t qualify for. Octopus Snug produced a modelled annual cost of £966 but requires storage heaters; Octopus Cosy produced £1,052 but requires a heat pump. Neither is an appropriate comparison for a household whose relevant technology is simply an EV.
Octopus Agile: Agile is deliberately excluded. Because its electricity price changes every half hour, using an average unit rate would produce a misleading comparison for a household deliberately charging an EV overnight. A fair Agile comparison requires actual half-hourly consumption modelling.
Modelled consumption: These aren’t measured bills. We assume 90% of EV charging and 30% of flexible household consumption occurs during the relevant cheap period. Change those assumptions and the results change.
Plug & Power term: Plug & Power is a two-year fixed tariff and exit fees apply. Check the current terms before signing up.
After two years: Our analysis should not be taken to mean that the Plug & Power standing charge will automatically fall after month 24. Customers should confirm with EDF what tariff and charges apply when the fixed term ends.
Installation: Charger prices generally assume a standard installation. More complex electrical work, longer cable runs and other property-specific requirements can increase the installed price.
Affiliate disclosure: Smart Home Energy may receive a commission when users switch to some tariffs or products through links on our site. This does not affect how tariffs are ranked or the results of our comparisons.
