Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

How to schedule charging so it finishes at departure time?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
As title implies I'm trying to figure out how to schedule charging so that it completes right about at departure time. Maybe this is unnecessary but my understanding is that for best performance it is best to have battery warm and charging right before leaving can help accomplish this. I have a single rate without off peak hours. It seems that if you disable the off peak charging then it charges right when you plug in and just preconditions before departure. If you set off peak hours charging then it finishes charging before off peak ends and then preconditions for departure. So if I enable off peak charging but set off peak end time at or after my departure time will I accomplish my goal of completing charging right around departure time?
 
Isn't there a way, in the car's UI, to set 'scheduled departure time'?
Yes I should have clarified that the departure time is set for when I leave. However it’s not so intuitive as to when it actually aims to complete charging by. If off peak end time is set it completes charging by then even if it’s well before actual departure time. But if off peak charging is disabled it seems to charge right away. In either case it will just precondition just before departure. At least that’s what I’ve observed and seems consistent with what others have reported when I’ve searched but if I’m wrong I’m happy to learn more about how this works. I’ve only had the car for 2 weeks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rusty1
Yes I should have clarified that the departure time is set for when I leave. However it’s not so intuitive as to when it actually aims to complete charging by. If off peak end time is set it completes charging by then even if it’s well before actual departure time. But if off peak charging is disabled it seems to charge right away. In either case it will just precondition just before departure. At least that’s what I’ve observed and seems consistent with what others have reported when I’ve searched but if I’m wrong I’m happy to learn more about how this works. I’ve only had the car for 2 weeks.
You can go in to Charge Settings and change Off Peak ending time to match Departure Time.
 
For me, Scheduled Departure hasn't worked as I'd like it to. Here are things you could do:

1. Start charging, note how much time the car estimates for charging completion, and schedule the charging accordingly.
or
2. Use Scheduled Charging to have it start a midnight or some such time, then start it charging (top it up) while you are having breakfast
or
3. Not worry about having peak performance when you start (I recommend this)
 
You can go in to Charge Settings and change Off Peak ending time to match Departure Time.
Thanks. From playing with it and reading other threads this is what I have done. Just wanted to confirm that this is the best approach and it actually works. For a system that overall is very well designed and intuitive the scheduled charging is a little wonky or at least the algorithm it uses not well explained.
 
You can go in to Charge Settings and change Off Peak ending time to match Departure Time.
That sounds like a good workaround.

I might try that, but here's a problem with scheduled departure that I never figured out. I had it set for departure at 7 AM. I got home from a drive at 2:45 PM, plugged in, and it immediately started charging! Does anyone know why that happened?

The other warning is this: If you have you departure time set for 6 AM, your off-peak time starts at midnight, and you car needs more that six hours of charging, it will start charging before midnight.
 
That sounds like a good workaround.

I might try that, but here's a problem with scheduled departure that I never figured out. I had it set for departure at 7 AM. I got home from a drive at 2:45 PM, plugged in, and it immediately started charging! Does anyone know why that happened?

The other warning is this: If you have you departure time set for 6 AM, your off-peak time starts at midnight, and you car needs more that six hours of charging, it will start charging before midnight.
From what I understand and have seen, when you first plug in after setting departure time, it will start to charge to calculate time needed to charge. Then it stops charging and schedules the start time in order to complete 30 minutes before end of Off Peak.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PianoAl
For a system that overall is very well designed and intuitive the scheduled charging is a little wonky or at least the algorithm it uses not well explained.
You are lumping two things together. Scheduled charge start time has been there for a VERY long time, works perfectly, was very obvious what it does, and does EXACTLY what people expect it to do. I wish they would have just left that alone. When they tried to add this other thing it was a jumbled, merged, hybrid mess of offpeak/scheduled end charging/prewarming/scheduled departure/whatever/dancing baloney. It sucked and ruined the interface so no one could figure out what was going on.

So if you can just find how to just set a start time, that still works simply and perfectly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jjrandorin
You are lumping two things together. Scheduled charge start time has been there for a VERY long time, works perfectly, was very obvious what it does, and does EXACTLY what people expect it to do. I wish they would have just left that alone. When they tried to add this other thing it was a jumbled, merged, hybrid mess of offpeak/scheduled end charging/prewarming/scheduled departure/whatever/dancing baloney. It sucked and ruined the interface so no one could figure out what was going on.

So if you can just find how to just set a start time, that still works simply and perfectly.

Yes I was lumping as it's all part of the same area in the software. The scheduled departure stuff is the confusing aspect. To use scheduled start one has to always try to estimate charge time and change accordingly. I don't want to bother with that. Setting off peak end time at or after scheduled departure time seems to do the trick. This morning charge was completed right around departure time.
 
You are lumping two things together. Scheduled charge start time has been there for a VERY long time, works perfectly, was very obvious what it does, and does EXACTLY what people expect it to do. I wish they would have just left that alone. When they tried to add this other thing it was a jumbled, merged, hybrid mess of offpeak/scheduled end charging/prewarming/scheduled departure/whatever/dancing baloney. It sucked and ruined the interface so no one could figure out what was going on.

So if you can just find how to just set a start time, that still works simply and perfectly.
I agree that the Scheduled Depart is not the simplest solution, but once you take the time to understand how it works, it works very well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rusty1
For me, Scheduled Departure hasn't worked as I'd like it to. Here are things you could do:

1. Start charging, note how much time the car estimates for charging completion, and schedule the charging accordingly.
or
2. Use Scheduled Charging to have it start a midnight or some such time, then start it charging (top it up) while you are having breakfast
or
3. Not worry about having peak performance when you start (I recommend this)
Schedule Departure used to work in terms of starting to charge when it gets closer to the schedule departure. As of 06/2021 all it does it charge it until it hits your target range, then at the moment your about to leave the AC/Heat kicks on and "preconditions" the car.
 
Schedule Departure used to work in terms of starting to charge when it gets closer to the schedule departure. As of 06/2021 all it does it charge it until it hits your target range, then at the moment your about to leave the AC/Heat kicks on and "preconditions" the car.
Not how mine works... Scheduled departure and off peak end set a half hour later than departure results in the following:

It finishes charging, usually, about 15 minutes before departure time, every day, for me.

Scheduled departure is 0515, charging completes usually between 0455 and 0510. It runs the HVAC for about an hour or so after departure time before going to sleep again if you don't depart.

It's done this every day since I got the car in early June.
 
Schedule Departure used to work in terms of starting to charge when it gets closer to the schedule departure. As of 06/2021 all it does it charge it until it hits your target range, then at the moment your about to leave the AC/Heat kicks on and "preconditions" the car.
Not how mine works...
@Snowball316 I think you are falling victim to how messed up and confusing the user interface is. It's very unclear what it's actually doing. It sounds like you are activating just the preconditioning, but not the scheduled end time for charging.
 
Every time I've tried to do a Scheduled Departure to 100% to leave at 9am, it stops charging at around 6am and not giving me a 100% charge. I'm not on a TOU plan. I don't understand why Tesla still hasn't fixed this feature. I shouldn't have to estimate how long it needs to charge to 100% and get up early enough to start the charge for my trip. It should be a set it and forget feature when I need a full charge for trips.
 
Every time I've tried to do a Scheduled Departure to 100% to leave at 9am, it stops charging at around 6am and not giving me a 100% charge. I'm not on a TOU plan. I don't understand why Tesla still hasn't fixed this feature. I shouldn't have to estimate how long it needs to charge to 100% and get up early enough to start the charge for my trip. It should be a set it and forget feature when I need a full charge for trips.
You have the ability to set the time that TOU ends to whatever you want it to be.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Rocky_H
@Snowball316 I think you are falling victim to how messed up and confusing the user interface is. It's very unclear what it's actually doing. It sounds like you are activating just the preconditioning, but not the scheduled end time for charging.
Yes. after further deep research I found out how to actually precondition and schedule departure correctly. This UI can be a bit confusing. Thanks
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rocky_H
Has anyone noticed that the TOU time reverts back to 6am if you don't use the whole scheduled departure (SD) time feature on a daily basis?

Used the SD a number of times the last two weeks, different days, different times, skipping a day or so. My wife set the SD yesterday to 2pm, but unbeknownst to her, the software had reset the TOU time to 6am. The car was ready at 6am.