Newbie questions about the free charging

I’ve recently signed up for a ID3 after suddenly needing access to a car and beginning to explore EVs, but I have very little knowledge about how the charging actually works in particular.

I have to admit that I didn’t even realise that you got “free miles” as part of the bundle. Am I right in thinking that I can essentially use the “partnered” charging stations near me such as BP to charge up to 1000 miles per month on to my vehicle? How does this actually work, is there some kind of card? If I go over this limit am I then basically billed by onto as part of nexts months bill for the extra miles?

If I also wanted to explore installing a charging point at my home in the future too, is it possible to still benefit from the partners charging (e.g. BP) by installing one of there devices, or would this simply be up to me to figure out with my electric company and nothing to do with the device thats installed and the free charging by onto?

I feel like home charging may not be an option for a while and I definitely want to benefit from a free service if possible, so how do you guys manage with public charging only? I’ve just had a look and my closest locations are based at a service station 3 miles away or a pub car park 2 miles away, so I’m already wondering what I’d even do every time I take it to one of these places to charge. Any nuggets of wisdom much appreciated!

The 1000 miles per month is physical miles your do in the car. Depending on the car, any miles over the 1000 are charged at different prices per mile. There are extra mile packages that you can add on each month once. 250, 500 or 750 miles. The mile packages are cheaper than paying for the miles over the 1000 allowance and if you think you will go over your 1000 allowance you can add the mileage package up to 1 day before your renewal date. Any unused miles from the 1000 or the add on are rolled over for 12 months.

I personally don’t have a home charger as I park on the street but if I’m low I take it to a rapid charger which charges 0-80% in roughly 30mins. You can charge up at the partner chargers how much you want each month at no cost (non partner chargers at your own cost).

Home chargers vary from dealers and charge prices are depending on your supplier. Nothing to do with onto. You can get chargers supplied and fitted for £500. Some suppliers have EV rates where it’s around 4p per kWh for 4/5 hrs over night. You can charge fully for a coupe of £££. (This section is what I have learnt from others, if I’m wrong sorry)

I usually charge at these places
Local Shell garage (go for coffee)
Town Centre (go shopping)
Local Tesco (go shopping)
Work (Work :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)
Costa/McDonald’s (eat/drink)
Country park (Enjoy the scenery)
Motorway services on longer journeys

Every car comes with 3 cards to use on the partner networks, InstaVolt, Shell and BP Pulse. These go back with the car if you give the car back to Onto or Swap for another.

Where are you based and the community might be about to suggest chargers.

Hope this helps


Thanks so much for this patient and detailed response. I clearly needed to do a bit more research first at this makes much more sense now!

So am I right in thinking that if I only do 500 miles two months in a row, then I would be able to drive up to 2000 miles in month three?

I’m based in Leeds and currently I’m trying to find my local charging points using a combination of all of the different partner networks maps. I can see there are a few websites/apps that let you look at more charging points, but is there any particular app or website that you guys recommend that I can use? I’d like to simply filter by InstaVolt, Shell or BP Pulse before falling back to paid ones if possible :slight_smile:

In the same boat (electric, of course) as you, not knowing much about this side of things, but will ONTO still give you paperwork showing you have had, or will have an EV for six months so that you can claim the government grant.

Hopefully others can confirm.

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You can use Zap Map and set a filter. But remember that there’s more than just those networks you can access with the 3 cards. The list is:

Alfa Power
BP Pulse
Charge Your Car (CYC)
EV Box
Franklin LiFE
Has To Be
Shell Recharge

As for home charging remember too that all Onto cars come with a 3-Pin granny cable for slow home charging. You can use this in a normal plug socket without a home charger.

Finally, regarding mileage take a look below:


Yes, that’s correct.

Zap-Map is a good app/website for finding chargers around you. You can use their filters to only show the networks that are included in the onto subscription :slight_smile:


@campbell if any of your local chargers are 100kW or above, choose those over the 50kW ones as the ID.3 will charge faster, especially if you allow the state of charge to drop low before you recharge.

Select CCS in Zap-Map filter and then the charging speed.


Maybe Onto will add uncle Elon’s network later this year? :slight_smile:

Helpful,to know car comes with cards, cheers!