Schedule Departure Feature Flawed

[nightfly]

I have a short commute and leave for work typically around 9am. I normally only need to add 15% or so to the battery.

Tesla doesn't take into account the optional charging time period for best charging rates. It has tied the pre-conditioning with battery charging feature.

For instance, in CA best rates are between 12 to 6am. Tesla will start charging so that its finished by your scheduled departure time and also then pre-condition the car by the time specified.

For me that I typically only need 2 hrs of charging to maintain 60% each day and leave for work at 9am. Tesla will start charging well after 6am completely bypassing the best electric rates.

My Chevy Volt did this just fine. You had to input the electric rate time info and it would use the entire or part of the super off peak time slot to complete the charging.

Pre-conditioning should work per location regardless of whether your charging for not and not be tied to the charging feature in any way. I would like to pre-condition my car every day at work, but since I don't charge there, I have to manually turn it on - if I remember to do so.

Having an app pop-up to confirm pre-conditioning schedule when away from home would be even better.

 

[McMoo]

“For me that I typically only need 2 hrs of charging to maintain 60% each day and leave for work at 9am. Tesla will start charging well after 6am completely bypassing the best electric rates”

It’s terribly flawed but doesn’t work like that.

It will start charging at whatever time necessary to complete the charge by 6 am. Tesla set the arbitrary cut off of 6 am for charging when using scheduled departure so you are actually charging at low rates.

I find it obnoxious since I don’t have time of use billing here and I’d prefer charging to finish right before leaving so the battery is warm.

 

[eprosenx]

“For me that I typically only need 2 hrs of charging to maintain 60% each day and leave for work at 9am. Tesla will start charging well after 6am completely bypassing the best electric rates”

It’s terribly flawed but doesn’t work like that.

It will start charging at whatever time necessary to complete the charge by 6 am. Tesla set the arbitrary cut off of 6 am for charging when using scheduled departure so you are actually charging at low rates.

I find it obnoxious since I don’t have time of use billing here and I’d prefer charging to finish right before leaving so the battery is warm.

Ditto. Neat feature, but way too dumbed down. I hope it gets better in the future.

I too want to charge right up until my departure time so as to maximize battery temp.

 

[nightfly]

“For me that I typically only need 2 hrs of charging to maintain 60% each day and leave for work at 9am. Tesla will start charging well after 6am completely bypassing the best electric rates”

It’s terribly flawed but doesn’t work like that.

It will start charging at whatever time necessary to complete the charge by 6 am. Tesla set the arbitrary cut off of 6 am for charging when using scheduled departure so you are actually charging at low rates.

I find it obnoxious since I don’t have time of use billing here and I’d prefer charging to finish right before leaving so the battery is warm.

Doesn't work that way for me. I went out the other day about an hour before leaving and it was still charging at 8am. As documented, It will start charging such that it'll be done before scheduled time. There's no "done before 6am..." rule.

 

[nightfly]

Ditto. Neat feature, but way too dumbed down. I hope it gets better in the future.

I too want to charge right up until my departure time so as to maximize battery temp.

We'll that is how it works now and could cont to be the default option if no rate range info is set. This makes sense for folks who charge up to 90%+ every night. But you won't be able to have it both ways and it should be an option. I'd rather complete charging within lowest elec rate time slot.

 

[CyberTruckNuts]

To piggy back on this topic. Is it possible to tell your car when not to charge? I have my car set to use schedule departure and have set this to finish when I leave for work/favorable electrical rates. This is likely good enough, but is there a way to tell it not to charge between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm? Those are the times I don't want it to charge, granted it'll likely never happen with my current setting, just wanted to know if there is an explicit option to avoid high energy rates.

 

[nightfly]

To piggy back on this topic. Is it possible to tell your car when not to charge? I have my car set to use schedule departure and have set this to finish when I leave for work/favorable electrical rates. This is likely good enough, but is there a way to tell it not to charge between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm? Those are the times I don't want it to charge, granted it'll likely never happen with my current setting, just wanted to know if there is an explicit option to avoid high energy rates.

Sadly no. Only Scheduled Departure or a set time to start.

 

[derotam]

Doesn't work that way for me. I went out the other day about an hour before leaving and it was still charging at 8am. As documented, It will start charging such that it'll be done before scheduled time. There's no "done before 6am..." rule.

You say it was "still charging" but I would be more interested in you being there at 6am and seeing it continuing to charge past 6am, or that at 6am it has not started charging yet. Perhaps it stopped at 6am, but at 8am for whatever reason it did a "top off" charge.

 

[nightfly]

You say it was "still charging" but I would be more interested in you being there at 6am and seeing it continuing to charge past 6am, or that at 6am it has not started charging yet. Perhaps it stopped at 6am, but at 8am for whatever reason it did a "top off" charge.

It was still in "charging..." mode. Different from "using shore power to run car mode..." There's no "top it off mode..."

 

[derotam]

It was still in "charging..." mode. Different from "using shore power to run car mode..." There's no "top it off mode..."

The following are completely different things in regards to whether the scheduled charging is working as intended...

1. Charging started before 6am and stopped before 6am.

2. Charging started before 6am and continued well past 6am.

3. Charging was complete before 6am, it stopped charging and then phantom drain or cold caused battery level to drop to a level where the car wanted to initiate charging again to get back to the set percentage("top off")

Let's be scientific here if you want us to understand what is really happening.

 

[hugh_jassol]

Doesn't work that way for me. I went out the other day about an hour before leaving and it was still charging at 8am. As documented, It will start charging such that it'll be done before scheduled time. There's no "done before 6am..." rule.

Yep there sure is a done by 6am rule. It’s right in the release notes: Scheduled Departure
“Once your specified time is set, the car will schedule charging to complete before peak electricity rates begin (6AM) to reduce energy costs and ensure consistent regenerative braking and performance”

It’s one of the (over) simplifications they made when implementing this feature.

Keep in mind, when you care is pre-conditioning, it will use wall-power to do so, and when it is doing that the “charge lights” on the EVSE will be going the same as if it was charging

 

[nightfly]

Yep there sure is a done by 6am rule. It’s right in the release notes: Scheduled Departure
“Once your specified time is set, the car will schedule charging to complete before peak electricity rates begin (6AM) to reduce energy costs and ensure consistent regenerative braking and performance”

It’s one of the (over) simplifications they made when implementing this feature.

Keep in mind, when you care is pre-conditioning, it will use wall-power to do so, and when it is doing that the “charge lights” on the EVSE will be going the same as if it was charging

Good find! 6am must be a universal end time for lowest elec rate, at least in US. That takes care of one aspect. But allowing to input rate tiers would still be helpful when needing to charge outside of night time.