It's amazing to me how frequently people on TMC will say "I wouldn't use this feature, so I don't think Tesla should offer it." I honestly don't get it.
No one is suggesting that Tesla offer end-time scheduled charging at the expense of giving up start-time scheduled charging. It's not either or. And you don't have to choose only one, and use that one exclusively. That's the beauty of having options.
When I see software options and requests being discussed on TMC I ask myself if what's being discussed makes sense for enough people that I think Tesla should offer it. Whether I'd personally make use of the functionality or not is irrelevant to how I'll weigh in.
In general, more options are better. I recognize the concern about the interface becoming too complicated for the masses, and I agree that the answer to that is to just add an expert mode if and when it becomes a problem. Don't dumb down the capability of the system to what you think the lowest common denominator wants. That's just silly.
As for the specifics of why end-time scheduling is so important for charging, as has been stated up thread, it's all about the battery temperature. I notice a lot of people who live in California stating a lack of need for this feature, or a lack of understanding as to why it is needed. You clearly have not had to drive out into -5 degree F temperatures in a car that sat in a 30 degree F garage all night and finished charging two hours before you wound up leaving. It's only partially about the energy savings in not having to reheat the pack. For me it's about having a consistent experience with respect to regenerative braking. I would prefer to never have a regenerative braking limit, or to have one for as little time as possible. But owning a dual drive Model S, I also want to maximize my car's efficiency, which means driving with range mode on. Driving with range mode on means the battery is not going to heat at all on its own. The only heat to the battery will be the heat generated from driving. In very cold weather, starting with a very cold pack, it can take a very, VERY long time for the regen limit to go away.
My wife leaves for work at different times every day. Based on the weather, she arrives home with varying states of charge every day. I used to just have the car start charging at 1:00 or 2:00 AM, to get the benefit of the lower night rate, and not worry about anything else. But this winter I've been trying to see how much I can improve things by trying to have the car finish charging just before she leaves for work. So to accomplish this, (since she doesn't really give a hoot) I need to find out what time she'll be leaving in the morning, check what rated range the car has left, and then figure out what time to start the charge. I've discovered that with temperatures about 25 to 30 degrees F or higher, and charging at 56 amps for at least three hours (her commute is over 50 miles each way), if she leaves within a few minutes of when the charge completes there is a good chance she won't have a regen limit. I am about to start playing with charging at a higher amp setting (probably 72), which will generate more heat, to see if that does an even better job of eliminating the regen limit more consistently, and at lower temperatures.
My point is the steps I am taking are a bit of a pain. I'm pretty sure if my wife could simply enter her departure time when she arrived home, she'd do that. She just doesn't want to be bothered with more than that, since I'm already asking her to take a photo of the trip meter and send it to me, along with the amount of rated range she used, the weather conditions, the wind speed, etc. (I track her trips.) She's putting up with enough, and she doesn't feel like also doing the mental math to figure out when she should start charging. Now that I'm going to be messing with the charging amperage as well, she'd be even less likely to want to do it.
This would be a simple function for the car to handle. Tesla could even have an optional tie in with pre-conditioning of the cabin. You could check a box that indicates that you want the cabin pre-heated or pre-cooled at the same departure time, and now they'd really be giving us additional functionality.
I understand some people wouldn't use this. That's fine. Many of us would, and that's why Tesla should make it happen.
