Daily guide · ME · 2026-08-15
Charging an EV in Montenegro 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.
The pattern this week in Montenegro is consistent: the cheapest stretch to charge falls in the middle of the day, while evening prices sit far higher. The midday windows averaged 62,46 EUR/MWh across the seven days, against an evening peak average of 221,81 EUR/MWh. That is a gap of 72 percent, and it held every single day.
The cheapest windows generally opened around 11:00, though on 8 August it started at 13:00 and on 12 August at 12:00. The spread within the week was wide: the midday average dropped to 9,33 EUR/MWh on 9 August, but climbed to 92,00 EUR/MWh on 11 August. Evenings were steadier and consistently expensive, ranging from 182,36 EUR/MWh on 9 August to 251,75 EUR/MWh on 14 August.
The concrete takeaway: shifting charging from the evening peak into the midday window is worth roughly 23,90 EUR per week at 150 kWh of weekly charging, or about 1.243 EUR over a year. If you can plug in from late morning rather than after work, that is where the value sits this week.
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 ME this week.
72%
cheaper to charge in the best 3h window than at the evening peak, on average this week
62.46 vs 221.81
€/MWh: best window vs 18–21h evening habit (week average)
≈€1243
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-08 | 13:00–16:00 | 30.58 | 189.95 | −84% |
| 2026-08-09 | 11:00–14:00 | 9.33 | 182.36 | −95% |
| 2026-08-10 | 11:00–14:00 | 77.37 | 229.99 | −66% |
| 2026-08-11 | 11:00–14:00 | 92 | 245.02 | −62% |
| 2026-08-12 | 12:00–15:00 | 66.71 | 223.64 | −70% |
| 2026-08-13 | 11:00–14:00 | 70.15 | 229.99 | −69% |
| 2026-08-14 | 11:00–14:00 | 91.08 | 251.75 | −64% |
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": "ME", "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-me-2026-08-15".
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