No, solar won't fully charge your car — here's what it actually does
You'll see a lot of marketing that implies your solar panels will charge your EV for free. It's not quite that simple, and we'd rather tell you straight than sell you a slogan.
A typical home solar system (3–5kWp) peaks at around 3–4kW of generation on a good day. A home EV charger pulls 7.4kW. So on pure solar alone, in the middle of a sunny afternoon, you'd be topping up at best — not filling the tank. And most people charge overnight, when the roof is producing nothing at all.
The honest version: a smart EV charger can divert your spare solar generation into your car instead of exporting it to the grid, and pair that with a cheap overnight tariff for the rest of the charge. That's a real, worthwhile saving — just not "free unlimited miles from your roof."
Why diverting solar into your car is still worth doing
If you export surplus solar to the grid on a standard Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariff, you're typically paid around 12–15p per kWh. If you use that same surplus to charge your car instead of buying electricity from the grid at 25–28p+ per kWh, you're effectively getting close to double the value from every unit you generate.
A smart charger with solar-diversion (Zappi, Ohme, Hypervolt with a CT clamp are the common options) monitors your house's live import/export and automatically ramps the charger up or down so you're using surplus generation first, topping up from the grid only when needed.
Overnight charging: the other half of the picture
Solar can't do much for you at 11pm. But most EV drivers do most of their charging overnight anyway, and time-of-use tariffs (Octopus Intelligent Go, EDF GoElectric and similar) offer overnight rates well below daytime prices — often under 10p/kWh. Pairing a smart charger with one of these tariffs is usually where the real savings come from, solar or no solar.
What we install
- Solar-diverting smart chargers — installed alongside your solar system, set up to prioritise your own generation
- Tariff guidance — we'll point you toward suitable overnight tariffs when we commission your system (we don't sell energy, just honest advice)
- Battery-aware setups — if you have battery storage, we configure charging so it doesn't compete with your home's own battery for the same surplus power
Just need a charger, no solar?
If you don't have solar and just want a standalone EV charger fitted, that's an electrical installation rather than a solar one. Our sister company Cube Electrical installs EV chargers from £895 across Bath and Somerset — same NICEIC-registered team, 20 years of experience, no solar required. Visit Cube Electrical →