Car didn’t charge last night

[Aliomenti]

Hello,

New owner, I only collected yesterday so I apologise for my ignorance.

I’m currently charging at home using the mobile connector (240v/10a) as we are planning to move soon, so no point installing a 7 kw charger. I also have off-peak electricity between 0000-0700.

I tried a quick charge when I got the car home yesterday, it charged fine. So I set it up for ‘scheduled departure’ of 0900, set off-peak charging to 0700 and charge limit to 80%. I plugged it in last night with 56% SOC, the app showed the charger as connected but not currently charging, which is what I expected as it wouldn’t need to start charging for a few more hours to reach my charge limit.

I woke up this morning and it hadn’t charged at all. I clicked ‘start charging’ in the app and it started charging immediately.

Also of note, the car did a software update yesterday evening, after I set up the charge and plugged in.

Is there anything I’ve done wrong?
Could it just be related to the software update?

 

[PianoAl]

There are a lot of gotchas that can cause the car not to charge when expected, but I'm not sure what happened in your situation.

I suspect the off-peak time being earlier than the departure time could be problematic. I would have set the departure time to 7 am, a few extra hours at 80% won't make any difference.

I have found that a software update can cause the car to start charging when it shouldn't.

 

[Aliomenti]

I suspect the off-peak time being earlier than the departure time could be problematic. I would have set the departure time to 7 am, a few extra hours at 80% won't make any difference.

Thanks for the reply. I actually tried again last night, setting both the departure time and off-peak time to 0700. This time I checked the app shortly after the time I expected the car to start charging, and it wasn't. I turned off off-peak and it immediately started charging.

I still don't see what the issue is. Tomorrow I've set departure time (including pre-conditioning) to 0900 and off-peak to 0700. I want it to start charging in time to finish at 0700 and to start pre-conditioning to be ready to depart at 0900. Unfortunately, I expect it won't charge, but I don't understand why.

 

[PassingLane]

Hello,

New owner, I only collected yesterday so I apologise for my ignorance.

I’m currently charging at home using the mobile connector (240v/10a) as we are planning to move soon, so no point installing a 7 kw charger. I also have off-peak electricity between 0000-0700.

I tried a quick charge when I got the car home yesterday, it charged fine. So I set it up for ‘scheduled departure’ of 0900, set off-peak charging to 0700 and charge limit to 80%. I plugged it in last night with 56% SOC, the app showed the charger as connected but not currently charging, which is what I expected as it wouldn’t need to start charging for a few more hours to reach my charge limit.

I woke up this morning and it hadn’t charged at all. I clicked ‘start charging’ in the app and it started charging immediately.

Also of note, the car did a software update yesterday evening, after I set up the charge and plugged in.

Is there anything I’ve done wrong?
Could it just be related to the software update?

Ours does that too. No rhyme or reason for it.

 

[Aliomenti]

Ours does that too. No rhyme or reason for it.

What do you do to get round it? Do you just not use the off-peak function?

 

[PianoAl]

This time I checked the app shortly after the time I expected the car to start charging, and it wasn't.

Just brainstorming here, let's say that it takes less time to charge than you expected. That would give this result. That is, it didn't need to start charging when you thought it would.

I turned off off-peak and it immediately started charging.

Don't be offended here, I'm just brainstorming, but any chance you set the off-peak end time to 7 pm instead of 7 am? That could explain this surprising result.

The manual says "Off-Peak Charging delays charging and automatically starts charging in order to finish before your scheduled departure time while also ensuring to charge the Battery during off-peak hours to reduce energy costs."

So, off-peak charging was delaying it, and when you turned it off it stopped delaying it.

One other thing I and others have observed: switching between Scheduled charging and scheduled departure can cause screwy results.

 

[PianoAl]

I see I had a similar problem once, but it never reocurred. It also happened after an update.

Perhaps a scroll-wheel update would be a good idea.

First Ever Failure to Charge

I'm hoping this is a one-off, and I'm describing it here in case it's related to the upgrade to 2023.44.30.20 (installed yesterday). Nick was at 56%, and I plugged him in around 8 PM, with a target SOC of 80% and a Scheduled Departure time of 7 AM. I woke up this morning at 6:30 AM and he was...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[E90alex]

The car being plugged in while updating software frequently screws things up. Mine frequently ignores my schedule and starts charging immediately after updating. I would leave the car unplugged until software update is done or go unplug and plug it back in after the update.

 

[Aliomenti]

Don't be offended here, I'm just brainstorming, but any chance you set the off-peak end time to 7 pm instead of 7 am? That could explain this surprising result.

Definitely set to 0700, not 1900. Fingers crossed it charges tonight.

I would leave the car unplugged until software update is done or go unplug and plug it back in after the update.

Thanks, I will keep that in mind for the next update.

 

[Aliomenti]

Just brainstorming here, let's say that it takes less time to charge than you expected.

Well I think you might have been right. It did charge last night, though started later than I was anticipating, but still finished before the end of off-peak (half an hour before, which was a bit annoying, but heigh-ho). It clearly charges quicker than I thought at 2.4kw.

So I’m going to assume the first night not charging was related to the software update, and I’ll be sure to plug in after an update in future.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[PianoAl]

Good. Hopefully after a few months of perfect charging, you'll become confident enough not to need to check.

It will almost always complete 30 to 60 minutes ahead of schedule.

Tip:

I always keep it on Scheduled Departure, because switching between the two options usually causes errors. So, I determined the exact charge rate in percent per hour and use that to prevent it from starting before midnight (start of off-peak). Here's my cheat sheet:

Charging

7.75% per hour
15% to 80%: 8.39 hours. Set departure to 9 am
20% to 80%: 7.75 hours. Set departure to 8 am
25% to 80%: 7.1 hours. Set departure to 7:30 am

 

[Rocky_H]

Is there anything I’ve done wrong?

Probably not you, except for trying to use a function that usually doesn't work right. Seriously, for the last several years, there are constantly people having trouble with trying to use that endpoint setting of "off peak", and it's always giving people trouble by not working at all or doing stupid stuff it's not supposed to.

The thing that is 100% reliable is just using a charge start time instead. They have had that for many years longer, and it always does only exactly what you expect.

 

[PianoAl]

The thing that is 100% reliable is just using a charge start time instead. They have had that for many years longer, and it always does only exactly what you expect.

Good advice.

I like to optimize things, and the scheduled departure system results in the car spending more time at a lower SOC, leading to somewhat longer lifetime. Probably not significant.

I find that as long as I don't use any third party apps, and I don't switch between SC and SD it is very reliable.

 

[E90alex]

I’ve never had a problem with the off peak scheduled departure charge setting except when my EVSE was failing and overheating thereby reducing amperage mid-charge so it couldn’t finish in time.

Tesla just words it and lays it out in a very confusing manner.

But I don’t have a TOU plan so I just set departure time and off peak end time to the same, and make sure off peak charging toggle is enabled (even though I don’t have a TOU plan). Has worked reliably since day 1 for nearly 2 years now. It calculates how long it will take to charge to the set limit and then waits to start charging and finishes 15-30 min before the set time.

 

[SO16]

The thing that is 100% reliable is just using a charge start time instead. They have had that for many years longer, and it always does only exactly what you expect.

Exactly. I have used the charge start time of 11PM (which is my super off peak time) for over 7 years now. Has yet to fail me.

I never set the automated install time. When I know I don’t need to run the car for some time at HOME, I start the update on demand outside of charging time.

 

[Rocky_H]

I'm kind of going on "the preponderance of the evidence", you know?

How often do we see threads on start time not working? Approximately never.

How often do we see threads on end time/off peak not working? A few every week.

 

[PassingLane]

What do you do to get round it? Do you just not use the off-peak function?

Nothing other than if we’re traveling the next day, I check the app and turn it on manually if it hasn’t started. It’s so random and infrequent that it’s impossible to determine why it happens.

 

[tga]

Nothing other than if we’re traveling the next day, I check the app and turn it on manually if it hasn’t started. It’s so random and infrequent that it’s impossible to determine why it happens.

Trying to use departure/charge-end time is the Tesla owner's version of "Doctor, it hurts when I do this."