Daily guide · IT-SARD · 2026-08-09
Charging an EV in Italy Sardinia this week: what the prices actually said
All numbers computed from the week's published auction results at publication and frozen — this article is an honest snapshot, not a page that rewrites itself. Reproduce via the API.
This week in Sardinia the pattern is consistent: the cheapest charging window sits around midday, while evenings run considerably higher. Across the seven days the average cheap window came in at 138,36 EUR/MWh against an evening peak of 241,93 EUR/MWh, a gap of 43 percent. The window itself opened mostly between 11:00 and 14:00, so a midday charge was reliably the better option rather than a one-off quirk.
The spread was widest mid-week. On 5 August the evening averaged 272,18 EUR/MWh while the daytime window held at 171,33 EUR/MWh, and 4 August showed a similar split at 268,98 against 157,51 EUR/MWh. By Saturday 8 August the window fell to 82,79 EUR/MWh, the lowest of the week, with the evening still at 204,78 EUR/MWh.
For a reader charging 150 kWh a week, shifting from evening to the midday window is worth 15,53 EUR this week, or about 808 EUR over a year. The concrete takeaway: set your charger to start around midday, and prioritise weekend daytime sessions where the gap is largest.
Every day at 13:00 CET, an auction sets electricity prices for every hour of tomorrow — separately, for each European bidding zone. Those prices routinely differ by a factor of two to three within a single day, because solar floods the middle of the day and demand peaks in the evening. If you charge an EV, that spread is money: the car doesn't care when it charges, only that it's full by morning. This is what the spread looked like in IT-SARD this week.
43%
cheaper to charge in the best 3h window than at the evening peak, on average this week
138.36 vs 241.93
€/MWh: best window vs 18–21h evening habit (week average)
≈€808
a year on the wholesale component, for 150 kWh/week of charging at this week's gap
Day by day: when the cheap window actually fell
| Day | Cheapest 3h window | Window avg €/MWh | Evening 18–21h | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-02 | 14:00–17:00 | 116.11 | 194.61 | −40% |
| 2026-08-03 | 11:00–14:00 | 161.65 | 260.76 | −38% |
| 2026-08-04 | 11:00–14:00 | 157.51 | 268.98 | −41% |
| 2026-08-05 | 11:00–14:00 | 171.33 | 272.18 | −37% |
| 2026-08-06 | 11:00–14:00 | 163.63 | 263.5 | −38% |
| 2026-08-07 | 12:00–15:00 | 115.52 | 228.67 | −49% |
| 2026-08-08 | 14:00–17:00 | 82.79 | 204.78 | −60% |
Local time. Notice the window MOVES — sometimes after midnight, sometimes midday when solar peaks. A fixed night tariff catches some of this; following the auction catches all of it.
Automate it in ten minutes
You don't need to read auction results at 13:00 every day — ask the API for the cheapest window and let your wallbox follow it. One call:
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"zone": "IT-SARD", "duration_minutes": 180}' \
https://voltcast.com/api/v1/optimize/cheapest-windowHome Assistant users: the Voltcast integration exposes the same window as a sensor you can automate against; evcc users get a ready-made tariff config. The Home plan (€9/mo) covers one zone of your choice with 7-day forecasts; public pages and widgets let you inspect the data before subscribing. And if you want to charge on a forecast of tomorrow before the auction even publishes, that's the P50 curve — scored publicly every day so you know exactly how much to trust it.
Method & citation. Prices are hourly means of published day-ahead auction results (native 15-minute periods averaged; ENTSO-E/SMARD, attributed). Wholesale-price component only — grid fees and taxes come on top and vary by supplier. Cite as "Voltcast Research, voltcast.com/guides/ev-charging-it-sard-2026-08-09".
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