Interview with Charlie Cook of Rightcharge

[Stuart Wright]

Interview between @MilesperkWh and @Charlie Cook of Rightcharge.

Rightcharge, the electric car charger comparison site



Please reply below with any questions you have for Charlie.
Many thanks

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

Background:

Charlie used to work for Octopus Energy, and helped to set up their Agile tariffs.
Rightcharge is a comparison site, where users can be directed to a selection of EV chargers, prioritised by features which would be useful (eg. Solar integration, smart charging, PEN fault detection, dynamic load response) together with pricing. They can then click through to order the charger, and a local installer will arrange everything directly with the customer.
There is also the ability to compare EV-specific Electric Tariffs, and again switch to one of those to suit. This is again tailored to the customer, based on details of which EV they have, and their likely EV charging requirements.

Questions/Topics which I intend to cover already are:

• Introduction - explain a bit about yourself, and your company "Rightcharge"
• How has the EV home charger market changed in past few years?
• Tethered or untethered? Which is best and why?
• Common issues which customers may find with installs - Looped supplies, low incoming fuse limit, non-standard installations.
• Are customers always looking for cheapest price, or are smart features swaying people to invest more in their home charger?
• If people get a 2nd EV, should they consider a 2nd home charger? Is this possible?
• What do you think will happen to energy prices over the next 12 months? Is it all doom and gloom, or are there any ways which customers can help to protect themselves from price increases? (Agile/Off Peak/solar+battery install?)
• Changes to the home charger grant from 31st March - implications for owners. Will the prices go up by £350? Or will the competition start to drive prices down?

 

[Alb]

How is Rightcharge funded and are there any potential conflicts of interest?

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

How is Rightcharge funded and are there any potential conflicts of interest?

Conflicts between Me/MGEVs and Rightcharge?
Or conflicts of interest between Rightcharge and the services it recommends to customers?

 

[Alb]

I'm thinking of the latter Miles

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

I'm thinking of the latter Miles

Rightcharge get a flat referral fee from all install companies. I believe that at the moment they don't get paid anything for Electric tariff switches, as none of the electricity companies actually want to take on new customers at a time when they're losing money on every extra person they supply ?

 

[Stuart Wright]

And by the way, we (MGEVs) have no financial relationship with Rightcharge. We’re not getting a kickback for making this video. MGEVs benefits purely from having content on our Youtube channel which is also embedded on the forum.
I should add, though that our clicks to Rightcharge may generate affiliate revenue if they result in a transaction.

 

[BarryH]

Great, I checked out my own requirements last night on the Rightcharge comparison tool and looks as if there is a better tariff for me to switch. Although it would be interesting to hear how accurate the data used is since back and comparing Octopus' published rate I'm being charged for gas with OctopusGo (3.83p/ kWh Flexible) it is far different from Rightcharge's 10.47p/kWh 12 month Fixed. Perhaps this is a by region variation but I only renewed last month and wasn't offered by Octopus any Fixed price on Gas only the Electricity.

 

[pjmuk]

I've checked on rightcharge, and they offer me a really good rate 17.5p/kWh and 4.5pkWh off peak with EDF. I click the link, and EDF offer over 35p/kWh! They need to fix the quotes they offer or give up and go home,! ?

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

I've checked on rightcharge, and they offer me a really good rate 17.5p/kWh and 4.5pkWh off peak with EDF. I click the link, and EDF offer over 35p/kWh! They need to fix the quotes they offer or give up and go home,! ?

I've forwarded your feedback to Charlie for him to check what's going on here.

 

[Charlie Cook]

Hi BarryH and pjmuk, please forgive us for being late to the party with new rates. The tariff market is just starting to come back to life after a cold winter (as Miles mentioned above) and we've only been notified of updated tariffs once they've gone live on partner's websites. We're are updating right now and they'll be live later today. I'll confirm when they are.

We're in close contact with the energy suppliers now that they are getting into a position where they can afford to bring on new customers again - so prices will be updated in sync with rates on the supplier's sites going forwards.

Any questions we can help with just let me know!

 

[Charlie Cook]

Alb, we're totally independent of any charge point manufacturer or energy supplier and we will always be. I started the company to give impartial advice on chargers & tariffs so it wouldn't make sense to be conflicted. We have actually turned down investment from charge point manufacturers in the past. I'll let Miles dig into that in more detail in the interview if he'd like to.

 

[Lovemyev]

Energy prices have shifted SO quickly lately, it is difficult to keep up with the pace !.
It must be a complete nightmare.
Frustrating for the end user to be given a quote and then find it is already way out of date !.

 

[Aussi55]

Rightcharge get a flat referral fee from all install companies. I believe that at the moment they don't get paid anything for Electric tariff switches, as none of the electricity companies actually want to take on new customers at a time when they're losing money on every extra person they supply ?