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As the name suggests, these are energy tariffs aimed at owners of electric vehicles (EVs) that use their home electricity to charge their car. 

There are generally two types of EV tariffs:

• Two-rate tariffs, that offer cheaper electricity overnight. The most common, and typically the cheapest type of EV tariff, offers two different electricity rates depending on the time of day, with much lower rates at night. This means you can charge your car – or run your dishwasher, washing machine etc (there are often no stipulations on what you can use the cut-price electricity for) – very cheaply overnight. 
  
  Though prices are high right now, if you make full use of the cheap overnight rate, the best two-rate deal generally works out cheaper than price-capped standard variable tariffs – and there are no meaningfully cheaper regular deals that beat price-capped tariffs right now. See What EV tariffs are available? for our full analysis. 
  
  
• Single-rate tariffs, where you pay the same rate throughout the day, but it's often discounted if you have an EV. The other type of EV tariff works the same way as regular deals, where you pay a flat rate, but it'll be a special price if you've an EV, or you'll get extras such as bill credit. 
  
  Currently, there are no single-rate EV tariffs that are cheaper than price-capped standard tariffs on average – even when factoring in extra electricity usage to cover EV charging.

Every provider has either a rate card or a quote process which you need to go through so you can get the most accurate cost. Something to keep in mind is that sometimes you can get a very cheap night, off-peak, rate but the daytime unit rate is higher.

The best way to identify a cheap tariff is to look at the duration of the cheap off-peak rate and how much of your usage you can fit into it. The daily standing charge is not much of a factor when looking at bills of an EV household, as these are only charged once per day.

It is far more important to focus on the unit rates which are charged for each kWh of electricity that you consume. A higher standing charge coupled with low unit rates is far more preferable to an EV driver than low standing charges and high unit rates.