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chargepoint schedule vs tesla schedule

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I believe the biggest difference is that Tesla's scheduler has an option to begin charging at a point in time that will cause the charge to complete shortly before a desired time. Say, if you leave for work at 8:00 AM, you can tell the car to charge for that 8:00 departure time, and it'll start charging at 7:00 or 6:00 or 3:00 or whatever is needed to finish charging at 8:00. It can also pre-heat or pre-cool the battery and cabin. These can be handy features in some situations, and AFAIK no EVSE's scheduler can't do that, since they don't know the battery's SoC.

If you don't care about this option, then AFAIK there are only tiny or obscure differences between using the EVSE vs. using the car to schedule charging. The small differences that spring to mind are:
  • When scheduling charging in the car, the car will begin to draw a little current when you plug in, then stop. I assume it's checking that the connection is live and determining the maximum amperage the EVSE can deliver. When you schedule via the EVSE, this shouldn't happen.
  • If you use the EVSE's scheduler, then it affects all cars that might charge there. This might be important if you have multiple EVs charging off of one EVSE or if your EVSE is outside and you're concerned about a stranger pulling up and plugging in.
  • Setting the option in the EVSE might make it difficult to change the setting if the EVSE loses its network connection. (At least, for devices where this is set via a network link, as in the ChargePoint Home; if it's set via a simple physical control on the EVSE, then this doesn't apply.) The same is true if you're away from your car and want to change its settings, but if you're nearby, you should be able to enter the car to make changes, even if the network connection goes away.
  • Some EVSEs can "talk" to some utilities to coordinate charge times with the utilities, so as to help manage load on the grid. Some utilities offer reduced electric rates if you sign up for such programs. My own utility doesn't offer such a program, so I don't know much about them beyond the basics, but if your utility offers such a program, and if your EVSE supports it, this may be important. AFAIK, Teslas can't do this directly, although I know of no technical reason they couldn't; it'd just take Tesla writing the code and coordinating with utilities.
Note that I have no experience with the ChargePoint Home specifically, so I could be wrong about some of this. I'm basing these comments on my JuiceNet-connected EVSE; I believe they're pretty similar in capabilities and operation, although they aren't identical.
 
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