Hi folks,
It's Chris here, Co-CEO of Amber, with your winter update. There's some good news on prices and your monthly subscription fee, an exciting milestone for our vehicle-to-grid program and a new opportunity for battery owners to earn more on their evening exports.
No change to your subscription
While other retailers push prices up this year, we're keeping the Amber subscription fixed at $25 a month for the next 12 months.
Amber is by far the most popular option for battery owners (we're powering well over 50% of all automated batteries in Australia), and with the recent surge in new batteries we've been growing faster than ever. More and more Australians now know that the Amber model is the way to unlock the most amount of value from your battery (and EV!), and we're continuing to invest very heavily in the technology powering that.
As a reminder - we don’t make money from your energy usage or exports. You get access to the wholesale price for electricity, and the $25 monthly subscription covers everything that powers the Amber service.
A mild winter - but don't get used to it
The start of winter 2026 has been milder than in previous years, and that's one of a few things keeping wholesale energy prices low and stable right now. Lower prices mean cheaper charging, which helps everyone's bill, battery owners included. But it also means less opportunities to export to the grid when the feed-in rate spikes due to above average demand. During these times, SmartShift will continue to make the most of the earnings opportunities that are available whilst minimising the costs on the import side.
It won't stay this quiet forever, though. Coal and gas plants are being decommissioned, and demand is climbing from EVs, as well as data centres powering AI. Extreme weather brings its own volatility too, spiking demand or knocking out supply with little warning. When those pressures build, it causes the bigger price swings to return and SmartShift will be there to capture the bigger earning days for batteries.
What's coming: new two-way tariffs are here to supercharge evening exports
From this financial year, most of the networks we operate in are introducing two-way tariffs. In plain terms, they pay you a bonus for exporting energy in the evening peak, when the grid needs it most, with some networks offering up to an extra 15c/kWh on top of the wholesale price. There's a small charge for exporting in the middle of the day, when the grid is already flooded with solar.
SmartShift factors these bonuses and charges in automatically, so it'll export at the times that earn you the most without you lifting a finger.
It's not the right fit for everyone though. It works best if your battery can export between 4pm and 9pm and you can soak up your own solar through the middle of the day. If you regularly pull a lot of power from the grid in the evening, it may not stack up.
We've put together a guide that shows which tariff applies to your network, who it suits and how to opt in if it's right for you.
We’re expanding our V2G program from 50 to 1,000 homes
Last month we announced the largest residential vehicle-to-grid (V2G) rollout Australia has ever seen - backed by $13.6m in funding from ARENA and warranty coverage from BYD. The first homes showed what's possible: one Victorian household wiped out their EV's energy costs and banked an extra $1,200 over a year, and a South Australian customer earned $500 in a single afternoon during a summer heatwave. Expanding the project to 1,000 homes will demonstrate how V2G can scale and be commercially viable.
Unlike traditional retailers who offer capped or restricted feed in tariffs, in exchange for access to your car, Amber connects your EV straight to wholesale prices, so when the grid is under pressure, your car earns the full value of that moment and you keep the earnings. More than 7,000 Aussies are already on the waitlist.
Read the full story here, or join the V2G waitlist here.
Thanks for being part of Amber, and for doing energy differently with us.
Cheers,
Chris, Co-CEO of Amber
