With tado° Smart Charging, your EV charges automatically in the cheapest hours of your hourly dynamic electricity tariff, now also in combination with the go-e wallboxes from the tado° shop.
Three go-e wallboxes are now available in the tado° shop for Germany and Austria: the portable go-e Charger Gemini flex and the permanently installed go-e Charger CORE and go-e Charger PRO CABLE. All three work with tado° Smart Charging. Read on to find out how they work together, which model suits your home and what you need to know if you rent.
Go to the wallboxes in the tado° shop →
A wallbox is a charging station for your EV that you can mount at home, for example in your garage, under your carport or at your parking space. It connects the car to your home's electricity supply and can deliver up to 22 kW, compared with just 2.3 kW from a household socket. For home use, the German motoring club ADAC recommends an 11 kW wallbox. That's usually enough to charge even larger batteries overnight.
Reasons to charge at home with a wallbox:
go-e is a wallbox maker based in Feldkirchen in Carinthia, Austria, and was founded in 2015. By its own account, go-e launched the first wallbox that could also be used on the move in 2017. All go-e wallboxes are connected to the internet and can be controlled via an app. That connection is how tado° Smart Charging tells the wallbox when to charge.
Smart Charging is a feature in the tado° app. It connects your dynamic electricity tariff to your EV or wallbox and schedules every charging session so it falls in the cheapest hours.
With an hourly dynamic tariff, you pay a different price every hour, depending on the power exchange. When it's windy or sunny, the price drops. If you charge at night or around midday instead of in the early evening, you often pay a lot less per kilowatt hour.
Learn here why electricity prices change so much during the day, and how you can benefit.
You can learn more in this video.
The three models available from tado° differ mainly in how they're connected. All of them charge at up to 11 kW, and you can protect them from unauthorised use with an RFID chip or via the app.
An MID meter is an electricity meter certified under the EU Measuring Instruments Directive. You need one if you have to account for the electricity you charge with verifiable records, for example with your employer.
Find the Gemini flex, CORE and PRO CABLE in the tado° shop.
tado° Smart Charging users save €300¹ a year on average. This figure is based on a comparison of charging costs on an average standard electricity contract with a dynamic tariff plus Smart Charging. How much you actually save depends on your tariff, how you drive and how wholesale electricity prices develop.
An example shows the scale. Say you commute to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Sunday evening, you plug in your car and set it to reach 80% by 7 am on Tuesday. The app then waits for the cheapest hours, such as a windy night, instead of charging straight away during the expensive evening hours.
Note: the 10 cents/kWh is an assumption for this example, not a guaranteed figure. On some days the gap between expensive and cheap hours is smaller; on windy or sunny days it's bigger.
A permanently installed wallbox needs the property owner's consent. The go-e Charger Gemini flex, on the other hand, simply plugs in. At home, you can hang it in the wall bracket included, which you can screw to the wall yourself in a few minutes. You can also use it without the bracket: at 1.63 kg, it fits in the boot and charges on the go from any suitable CEE socket. When you move house, it comes with you.
You'll still need to do some groundwork. Here are three things you should know:
You need a red CEE socket. The Gemini flex has a plug for a red 16 A CEE socket, often called a three-phase socket. If there isn't one at your parking space yet, a qualified electrician installs it. A residual current device (RCD) of at least type A must be installed upstream of the socket. With an adapter, the Gemini flex can also charge from a household socket, but at no more than 2.3 kW.
Even a portable wallbox must be registered. You must notify your grid operator of every EV charging device before you start using it. For the 11 kW Gemini flex, this notification is enough. Since 2024, every grid operator must also offer this notification on its website. You only need your grid operator's consent for more than 12 kVA per installation, which is roughly 11 kW. In practice, that applies to 22 kW wallboxes or to several charging points on one home connection.
As a renter, you're entitled to a charging point. Under German law, tenants and flat owners generally have a right to a charging point. You should still agree the new CEE socket at your parking space with your landlord or property management, because it's a permanent installation.
The rules above apply in Germany. In Austria, it's best to ask your grid operator directly what notification it needs for a charging device.
¹ The savings of around €300 are calculated by comparing the annual cost of charging an electric car on an average standard electricity contract with using a dynamic tariff and tado° Smart Charging.
Not to start using the go-e Charger Gemini flex. You fit the bracket yourself and plug the wallbox into a red 16 A CEE socket. If there's no such socket at your parking space, a qualified electrician needs to install one. A residual current device (RCD) of at least type A must be installed upstream.
Yes. In Germany, you must notify your grid operator of every new charging device before you start using it, and that includes a portable wallbox. You only need approval for charging power above 11 kW, so for the 11 kW Gemini flex, registering is enough.
No, not necessarily. tado° Smart Charging saves you the most when you combine it with an hourly dynamic electricity tariff (such as HOURLY from tado° Energy in Germany or aWATTar HOURLY in Austria). If you have your own photovoltaic system, however, you can also use Smart Charging without a dynamic tariff to charge your EV with your own solar power first.
With an electricity tariff from tado° Energy or aWATTar, Smart Charging is free for the entire term of your tariff. With a dynamic tariff from another provider, the feature is currently free for 6 months and then costs €2.99 a month, cancellable monthly.
