Octopus Go, How to set M3 to charge 00:30 to 04:30?

[lsuhe]

Hi fellow Tesla friends,
I have had my M2 SR+ for 3 days. I come from an Audi A£ e-tron plug in hybrid. That had very straight forward options as is delayed charging. I set mine for the Octopus Go times of 00:30 to 04:30. A F ull charge on that could be completed in hours 15 approx. so even if I started it later in the night it could complete, or worst case scenario stop charging at 04:30.
I thought this was all simple and straight forward. A car designed back in 2013 had the 2 choice option, charge now, or wait until the preset charge window of when you wish to permit charging to occur.

I waited, and dreamed of the Tesla, and yesterday I finally took delivery of a 2021, M3 SR+ MIC model, and I love it.
So I thought it would be just the same, ie set this is the charge window when I want delayed / off peak charging.

It seems that Tesla are aware of this and have some odd options, but its like I can say I want to depart at 04:30, ( no I don't, I want more sleep and depart at about 08:00. or I can set a start time, but no stop time??? Surely the simplest thing is to tell the car when you do want it to charge? It seems other EV's manage this, and even my older plug in hybrid manages this with no effort.
I get that you can get smart chargers, but I have a perfectly functioning dumb Rolec, that has never failed to just turn on at start, and turn off at end, all controlled by the car.

Sorry for being a Noob, and I have searched and people saying need to get more apps, but really surely Tesla have this sorted? Do I just set a start time, and think that in 4 hours I can maybe get 28kWH?
I feel daft, as I just assumed Tesla knew off peak charging and in all my research no one mentioned this.
Chris

 

[bhanorthy]

You can’t.
No really you can’t….. I couldn’t believe it either.

I set mine to start at 00:30 then have a Siri shortcut automation on iPhone to stop it at 04:30. You cannot do it natively from the car it has to be via a 3rd party app/api integration or via a smart charger.

It would be very helpful for a software update to add this functionality.

 

[yfwt]

I can’t do the start time but I know the end time you can by setting scheduled start (for the car the set off at 04:30am thus ending charging) if you’re using 3 pin life then use a timer, otherwise get a dedicated type 2 plug EV charger.

 

[ichorus]

Yup unfortunately not possible.
I set a charge limit I believe it’ll reach in 4 hours.

 

[HenryT]

It is a pain if you don't have a smart charger.

The only approach without external controls being used is as ichorus says, to set a start time in your car and then a limit via the Tesla app on the charge to be added based upon best estimate of what would be delivered in 4 hours.

 

[curmudgeon]

I only use the 2kw UMC over the E7 hours. I can guess the charge limit to always stop just before the end of the off peak period. Not ideal, and there should be a way to set end time, but I can live with it.
I do like the comment about using the API through the phone though. Not thought of that.

 

[Gatsojon]

You can of course schedule the start time so try setting your target charge limit to about 50% above where it is and see how that goes. It may need tweaking depending on actually state of charge % at the start and the temperature.

 

[browellm]

Use the ev.energy app.

 

[M3noob]

It's weird that the car lacks this functionality. But what's the stress? On Octopus go the difference is 10p per Kwh between cheap and normal rates.

 

[NewbieT]

Those 10p savings probably add up to about £100 per year for me. Why pi55 it away for the sake of a setting?

 

[tomorrowman]

Agreed it's less than ideal that Tesla allows you to define either start or stop time, but not both.

Personally defining the start time to 00:30 and being aware of what the charger will add in 4 hours (in my chase about 110-120 miles) and plugging in to ensure my charge does not exceed that amount typically works. In practice it means I plug it every day or two.

Once in blue moon, it charges a little longer, but my overall savings on electricity costs have been so great with octopus adding the odd kilowatt here and their at 15p is something I can live with.

I can do a schedule on my pod point charger, but the above works for me so don't feel the need to add another layer of complexity to the charging process.

 

[MrBadger]

Sorry for being a Noob, and I have searched and people saying need to get more apps, but really surely Tesla have this sorted? Do I just set a start time, and think that in 4 hours I can maybe get 28kWH?

Pretty much this. You soon learn what sort of charge can be added in the 4 hour window and I just up the charge limit by either that amount or, simply by what I need. There are various third party apps though - some previously mentioned.

I use TeslaFi most of the time to set the charge limit. Ironic, because I could use TeslaFi to set a schedule to stop the charge at 4:30am so job done. But I use the TeslaFi set charge limit for two reasons. 1 - TeslaFi prefers whole integer Soc % for range monitoring. 2 - the SoC % used in the Tesla app/on screen is both fiddly to use and most importantly is temperature dependent. The SoC % limit in TeslaFi is absolute. So using the Tesla App/screen, the SoC % will vary as temperature of battery changes. But it does give you the usable % which at the end of the day is what you need to know for next days driving.

 

[phil4]

I use the Ev.Energy app, which not only makes up for the car's lack of the obvious, but reduces the cost by giving me 50% of the cost back as amazon vouchers. So win win, ensure reduced cost from the Octopus, and reduce it further with cashback.

 

[GRiLLA]

My wall charger controls when the car starts and stops charging, ended up being more flexible that using the car as it can be changed from an app.

 

[Dilly]

My wall charger controls when the car starts and stops charging, ended up being more flexible that using the car as it can be changed from an app.

Mine too. Never bother with the car settings

 

[M3noob]

Those 10p savings probably add up to about £100 per year for me. Why pi55 it away for the sake of a setting?

That's three lunches or one dinner with good wine. I'm sure we all need a post Covid diet plan.

£100 a year is £2 a week. Just cut out one Starbucks latte.

Agreed that many software tweaks would make us all happier and richer...hacking bitcoin wallets of ne'er-do-wells would be a start.

 

[Brixham99]

Another option, which I have employed if you use Amazon Alexa and the MyTesla skill is to schedule a routine at 04:30 to tell the car to stop charging. Mine is actually set to tell it to stop twice in a row, as it doesn't always connected to the car while it 'wakes up' the first time.

 

[btc1k]

+1 for the ev.energy app - ideal combination if you have a dumb charger as the app effectively makes it "smart" through the Tesla API

 

[Jason71]

That's three lunches or one dinner with good wine. I'm sure we all need a post Covid diet plan.

£100 a year is £2 a week. Just cut out one Starbucks latte.

Agreed that many software tweaks would make us all happier and richer...hacking bitcoin wallets of ne'er-do-wells would be a start.

If you think the idea of saving 2/3rds on the cost of fuelling your car is beneath consideration you should head over to the moneysaving expert forums and dismiss the premise of all the threads over there. You will have a great time.

 

[Adopado]

Sorry for being a Noob, and I have searched and people saying need to get more apps, but really surely Tesla have this sorted? Do I just set a start time, and think that in 4 hours I can maybe get 28kWH?
I feel daft, as I just assumed Tesla knew off peak charging and in all my research no one mentioned this.

You're not daft. Yes you can get 28kWh, or a touch more, in 4 hours. Note the percentage that relates to 28kWh ... in my case I use 56% ... and alter the charge limit accordingly. If my car is at 30% then I know I should set the charge limit on the app or the car to no more than 86% if I want to stick within the 4 hours. In practice I'm routinely plugging in every day even if not specifically charging at that time so I never need to touch anything unless I have been on a long trip that results in me returning with a particularly low state of charge... and all the charging ends up within the 4 hour window.

Why there isn't a simple start and stop time nobody knows .. and maybe it will change in a software update. (There are a number or reasons I can think of but not to have start and stop as one of the timer options does come as a surprise.)


[Edit: My charge point will actually support start stop charge periods but the method above works so well I don't even use it ...]