Tariffs and grants / Supplier-specific tariffs / E.ON Next Drive

T-031·Tariffs and grants / Supplier-specific tariffs

E.ON Next Drive

Overnight EV-focused tariff with smart setup checks.

Tariff availability, rates and terms were checked on 22 July 2026. They are a dated snapshot, so confirm the address-specific quote before acting.

E.ON Next Drive is E.ON Next’s overnight time-of-use electricity tariff for households that charge an EV at home. It comes in two versions, standard Next Drive and Next Drive Smart, both fixed for 12 months with no exit fees. Both charge a low rate for every unit drawn from the grid overnight, not only the units that go into the car, and both need a smart meter set up to send half-hourly readings. The overnight window is midnight to 6am, seven days a week.

The two versions and what they charge overnight

Standard Next Drive quotes a headline overnight rate of about 9p/kWh for new customers. Next Drive Smart quotes about 8p/kWh and adds automated smart charging through the E.ON Next Home app. On the Smart version the app can schedule charging into extra low-priced daytime slots when grid demand is low or renewable output is high, and the low rate covers the whole home during those slots as well as overnight.

The rate a household pays depends on which tariff version it joined. The current public offer at this review was 9p per kWh for Next Drive and 8p per kWh for Next Drive Smart, both from midnight to 6am. Older contracts can carry different rates, so check the version on the welcome letter rather than applying the current headline to an existing account.

The current public offers are:

Version Overnight rate Window Peak rate Notes
Next Drive 9p 6 hrs, midnight to 6am regional quote Fixed overnight window
Next Drive Smart 8p 6 hrs, midnight to 6am regional quote Smart daytime slots can also receive the low rate

The overnight window covers the whole home

The low rate applies to all electricity taken from the grid between midnight and 6am, not just to EV charging. A washing machine, dishwasher, immersion heater or home battery charging in that window is billed at the overnight rate too. That makes the tariff useful to a household that can shift load into the early hours, and it is why some battery owners run their storage off it by scheduling a grid charge overnight through their inverter app.

On Next Drive Smart the whole-home low rate also applies during any daytime smart-charging period the app schedules, so it is not limited to the fixed overnight block.

Peak rate and standing charge

Outside the overnight window, electricity is billed at a day rate that varies by region and version. The standing charge also varies by postcode. Because the whole-home cost depends on those two figures as well as the cheap window, the tariff rewards households that can move a large share of their use overnight and does less for those with heavy daytime demand.

Eligibility and battery-only homes

Standard Next Drive requires the customer to own or lease an EV or plug-in hybrid. Beyond the vehicle, the customer needs a smart meter that can send half-hourly data to E.ON Next, consent to that data being collected, payment by monthly Direct Debit and an online account. Next Drive Smart adds a compatible EV or charger plus the E.ON Next Home app for smart charging.

A battery-only household should not assume it can join. E.ON Next’s current eligibility requires an EV, while its separate Next Optimise tariff is designed for supported solar-and-battery systems.

Smart meter and half-hourly data

A smart meter is mandatory for both versions, and it has to be sending half-hourly consumption data so the supplier can apply the right rate to each half-hour. A household that already has a smart meter can check its data-sharing frequency in the online account and opt in to half-hourly readings if it is not already doing so. E.ON Next fits a smart meter free for eligible homes. A new customer is placed on the Next Flex standard variable tariff first while the meter connection and data setup complete, which typically takes around two weeks.

Half-hourly data consent is required under data-protection rules. Withdrawing that consent while on a time-of-use tariff makes the account ineligible for the product, so the consent is a condition of staying on the tariff rather than a one-off setup step.

Smart charging and charger compatibility

Standard Next Drive needs no app and no particular charger. Any home charger works, including a basic 7kW unit with no smart features, and even a 3-pin EVSE cable. You set a charging timer on the car or the charger to fall inside the midnight-to-6am window and pay the overnight rate on what it draws.

Next Drive Smart runs its automated charging through the E.ON Next Home app, which connects through a compatible EV or charger, lets the customer set a target and ready time, schedules charging into cheaper periods and includes a boost function. Not every make and model is supported, so the eligibility checker is part of choosing the Smart version. The whole home receives the 8p rate overnight; extra daytime low-rate periods apply when E.ON schedules smart charging.

How Next Drive limits your export rate

For a solar or battery household, being on Next Drive restricts which E.ON export tariff you can pair with it. E.ON Next’s SEG tariffs treat time-of-use import tariffs as a special case. Next Export Exclusive v3, which pays 13p per kWh, excludes time-of-use import tariffs including Next Drive. Next Export Premium v3 at 17.5p requires solar or a battery installed by E.ON. That leaves Next Flex Export v1 at 6p per kWh, which is open to any customer, as the export rate a Next Drive household can pair with in-house.

Being on Next Drive therefore caps the E.ON export rate at 6p rather than 13p within the offers reviewed on 22 July 2026. A solar and battery owner has to weigh the cheap overnight import against giving up the higher in-house export rate. An export contract with another supplier may be possible, but its current eligibility and metering terms must be checked separately. The published E.ON exclusion is the rule to use, not a legacy or exceptional account arrangement.

Contract, switching and how export is paid

Both versions are fixed for 12 months with the overnight rate held for the term and no exit fees, so a customer can leave at any point without penalty. Switching in takes about five working days under the Energy Switch Guarantee, with a 14-day cooling-off period after the switch. At the end of the term the account rolls onto the then-current version of Next Drive or a standard variable tariff.

Export payments are less convenient than some rivals. By default E.ON Next pays export once a year by cheque. A customer can request quarterly payments by bank transfer instead by submitting bank details online. Reported customer experience is otherwise positive on the basics: an easy switch, a simple setup and responsive support over WhatsApp, set against an app that reviewers rate as less polished than Octopus and occasional smart-meter hiccups during the switch. The tariff is matched to 100% renewable electricity through purchased REGO (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin) certificates, and E.ON Next lists a one-year Zoom EV benefits subscription and a one-off Woodland Trust donation for fixed-tariff customers.

What the savings figures assume

Quoted savings are illustrative and depend heavily on how much load a household shifts into the cheap window, its region and its rates. E.ON Next quotes around £435 a year on Next Drive Smart against its standard variable tariff. A third-party review estimates about £333 a year on EV charging alone, based on 7,000 miles a year at 3.5 miles per kWh and 8p against a 24.67p peak rate. For a solar and battery home, Sunsave estimates roughly £663 a year in import savings, and pairs it with about £377 a year of export income at 16.5p; that export figure assumes an export rate Next Drive customers cannot get in-house, so it overstates what the tariff delivers on its own. Read any headline saving as a best case for a household that can move most of its use overnight.

How Next Drive compares with other EV tariffs

Next Drive’s main advantage against several rivals is the six-hour overnight window, longer than the shorter default windows on some competitors, combined with the whole-home rate. The comparison rates below are indicative rather than live prices, so check current prices.

Tariff Overnight rate Window Notes
E.ON Next Drive Smart ~8p 6 hrs Whole-home rate, works with any charger for the basic rate
Octopus Intelligent Go 8p 6 hrs Extra cheap slots when charging, needs a compatible car or charger
Octopus Go postcode rate 5 hrs Fixed window, no smart charging
EDF GoElectric 6.99p 7 hrs Fixed overnight window
British Gas EV Power 9p 5 hrs Fixed overnight window

Applies to

EV charging

Last reviewed

22 Jul 2026