Honda e:Progress is a domestic fast charging system for your electric car. It uses 100 percent renewable electricity from Octopus Energy.
No, the Honda e:Progress system charges at a nominal 7.4kWh, the same as most home charging points.
This is a smart car charger, which Honda suggests is unlike anything else currently on the market. By paying a small subscription (it's free for the first 12 months) the charger searches out the times of day when electricity is cheapest and charges your car battery then.
This can happen because wholesale electricity costs vary all the time. They are highest when the demand is high - typically from late afternoon through to early evening - and lowest in the depths of the night.
Other factors affect the cost of electricity, too. If it's very windy or we have long periods of sunshine, wind turbines and commercial solar generation will provide surplus power to the grid. The e:Progress system can grab some of that to charge your car more cheaply.
It's true! If the national grid is generating more electricity than it can sell, there will be certain times of day when you can charge your car for nothing.
What's more, in cases of extreme supply over demand, you can even get paid to use electricity. Honda e:Progress will ensure your charging times make maximum use of this amazing benefit.
You do need a specific tariff and supplier: the Agile tariff from Octopus Energy.
There's an e:Progress smartphone app, which you can download from the usual sources. This lets you control the whole charging process. It's a bit glitchy at present, but is getting better all the time.
Charging schedules can be overridden at a touch on the app. Cleverly, you can also pre-set a minimum charge level. If you always want, say, at least 50 percent capacity in your battery, e:Progress will ensure a charge to that level happens straight away when you plug your car in. It then calculates when is the best time to put in the remaining 50 percent before you need the car next.
Absolutely. The Honda e:Progress system is a universal domestic EV charger.
Aside from the £1 a week charged after 12 months for the service, you'll need an Alfen charger installed at home. These are rather expensive, but Honda currently has a £475 cashback offer running. This brings the price down to a highly competitive £474 installed, or £574 with a tethered cable.
The price also takes into account the £350 UK government grant for a home charger - but remember this disappears at the end of March 2022, except for those in rented accommodation or living in flats.
Sadly, at the moment there are. With the crazy fuel prices that we've seen through much of 2021 (and likely well into 2022), there have been no bargains to be found on a flexible electricity tariff such as Agile Octopus.
In fact, the Agile tariff has been bumping along at its maximum rate of 35p per kWh for some time now, making the whole e:Progress flexible pricing model unviable at present. However, things will change, and with the likelihood of sensible prices returning, the medium-term prognosis looks much brighter.
There is. If you choose the Octopus Go tariff, you can recharge between 00:30 and 04:30 at 5p per kWh. That's enough time to fill a Honda e from 20 percent to 100 percent. Outside of the low rate, it's 24.25p per kWh, although some early adopters will still be on a lower rate of around 16p per kWh. To put that in context, the standard flat rate as we write this is around 18p per kWh.
None of this is likely to last beyond April 2022, when the government price cap will change and the cost of all our electricity seems certain to rocket.
No, you have to get a smart meter installed first. There is usually no cost for this.
This concept allows your car, when plugged in, to sell some of its electrical charge to the national grid at peak times, while at the same time making sure that you have a full battery when you need it next.
It's all down to clever juggling of charging and discharging schedules. While it was once mooted the Honda e would have this capability, sadly that is not the case.
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