This free app can save you £100s when you charge your electric car

Tado has announced a free app for Android and iOS that could save electric car owners £100s.

The Tado Smart Charging app connects to your EV via the vehicle user account and takes over charging schedules and preferences when hooked up at home. You can set the time you need to go to work each day, for example, and the app will assess when it is best to charge.

That way, it can schedule the charging times for when energy consumption is at its cheapest and most ecologically efficient. You save cash while also helping save the planet.

It works with most electric car brands, including Tesla, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Skoda, Seat and Land Rover. Many of them will work simply by selecting the brand in the app and connecting via a user account. However, on some – such as Mercedes – you might need a smart wallbox charger installed at your home too.

Tado says that boxes from Zaptec, Wallbox and Easee are compatible.

The company also claims that the app could save you as much as 30% on your annual electricity bill. You can also forgo some of the savings and set your own charge levels – such as a specific amount of battery capacity each day.

"E-mobility is a crucial part of the energy transition,” said the firm's co-founder, Christian Deilmann. "That's why Tado has set itself the goal of greatly boosting the attractiveness of electric cars by radically lowering charging costs – while also helping to establish a renewable energy supply in Europe."

The Tado Smart Charging app is available from today in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria. You can download it for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play and use it with your vehicle.

It has been launched as part of the company's presence at IFA in Berlin, which also starts today. T3 will be there for the next few days, so expect to see plenty of other announcements and details appearing on the site soon. We'll also be going hands-on with some new and forthcoming devices, so check back often.