Scheduled departure for 100% charge?

[SDDizzle]

Hello,

I have done some reading and understand charging to 100% is okay if you are going to drive immediately and even better if you use scheduled departure… in that case, when I schedule departure time on my phone app - does that automatically taper the charge so it finishes right at departure time? Or do I have to enable “precondition - set climate and preheat battery”? I guess I’m unclear on how the scheduled departure time works.

Any input would help. Thank you!

 

[jcanoe]

Scheduled Departure has two functions. The first enables you to specify the time you plan to leave so that charging will always be completed prior to your planned departure time, usually about 15 minutes prior. (You set the daily charging limit using the slider control as your normally would.) Scheduled charging is generally more efficient and can be considerably less expensive if you have a time of use (TOU) rate plan than charging as soon as you arrive home. Scheduled charging will result in a battery that is already partially warmed from the charging session. The Tesla vehicle will not have to use additional power to warm the battery.

The second function will precondition the Tesla vehicle so that the cabin is warmed (or cooled) to your preferred temperature when you start to drive. The time you specify for completing charging does not have to be the same as the time you specify for preconditioning. The reason could be that you have a TOU rate plan that starts at midnight and ends at 0600 (you pay a lower price per kWh during this period.) You may not start driving until 0800. Charging will always complete by 0600, preconditioning will start to warm the passenger cabin shortly before the specified departure time. The time needed to precondition the passenger cabin will vary with how cold the vehicle is in the early A.M. In most cases 10 or 15 minutes is sufficient but preconditioning could take 30 minutes or even a bit longer in very cold weather if the Tesla vehicle is parked outdoors or in an unheated garage in sub-zero temperatures.

You don't need to worry about charging to 100% and trying to time this to the exact time you plan to depart. It is true that charging the battery to 100% regularly or leaving the battery charged to 100% for an extended period (especially in hot weather) is not good for the battery. For short periods, say 12 hours or even 24 hours this is not an issue. If you want to have the battery at 100% for the shortest possible time you can charge to 90% overnight and complete charging in the morning just before you leave by turning off Scheduled Charging to top off the last 10%.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Just an FYI... if you really want to hit 100%(and presumably have the car shut off charging because no more charge can be stuffed into the battery), I'd bet that scheduled departure doesn't work well at all. The last 1% and time taken between the car saying 100% and actually cutting off charge can be a solid HOUR, regardless of the capacity of the charge circuit. At the end, it'll be charging at 5/48 amps or something similar.

 

[ATPMSD]

precondition the Tesla vehicle so that the cabin is warmed (or cooled) to your preferred temperature when you start to drive.

Pretty sure preconditioning also warms the battery, this is so you can get full power out of the battery and full regen breaking. You can also “manually” precondition by simply turning the HVAC system on.

 

[jcanoe]

Pretty sure preconditioning also warms the battery, this is so you can get full power out of the battery and full regen breaking. You can also “manually” precondition by simply turning the HVAC system on.

Yes preconditioning can warm the battery. The Tesla app will display the read heating grid icon next to the battery if the battery is being warmed during the preconditioning period. The current Tesla software does not warm the battery as much as in earlier releases. It is likely that if charging has just completed, or within an hour or so of preconditioning, that the battery will be warm enough from charging that no further battery warming will be performed during preconditioning. Battery warming only warms the battery until the battery is a little below 50F (7C). Charging will leave the battery somewhere around 68 to 70F (~20C) so no further warming would be applied during preconditioning when the battery temperature is already well above 50F.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

I really need to experiment with this

I did try it once, but set the leave time in the vehicle and not in the phone. It seemed to work, but then wouldn't charge after that because it still had the 7am time in there, so even though it was plugged in over night, it just waited . . .

I finally managed to set charging in the vehicle to now instead of Scheduled Departure but it wasn't a straightforward task

 

[rodlloyd]

I still don't understand the scheduled departure. When I need to make a longer trip, I want my 2023 model Y to charge to 100% just as I am about to leave. I don't need it to do it every day. How do I do that?

 

[ATPMSD]

I still don't understand the scheduled departure. When I need to make a longer trip, I want my 2023 model Y to charge to 100% just as I am about to leave. I don't need it to do it every day. How do I do that?

Turn it on the evening before you leave then plug in the car, make sure you are at home when you do this. In the morning before you head out, turn it off. As a reminder:

Schedule Departure has two settings, each with its own time. Off-peak charging (misleading name) tells the car what time you want it to finish charging. For example, if you set it to 5 AM and plug in the car at 8 PM, the car checks the available charge rate (does a small charge to get this), then it looks at the current SOC and the desired SOC. Based on this the car will automatically start charging at a time so the car reaches the desired SOC at the time you have set (actually about 15-minutes prior.) The other option is pre-conditioning. If you choose this the car battery and cabin will be warmed or cooled so you are ready to go at the chosen time! Note that selecting schedule departure by itself does nothing. You must also select off-peak or preconditioning, or both.

 

[rwiegand]

Someday someone will figure out that one-time scheduled charging would be a nice feature to add, until then you have to manually turn it off after you've used it to get ready for a trip.

 

[rodlloyd]

Thank you for the reply. The off-peak charging is misleading and confused me. I tested it with the app and it worked there also. I wish it could be a one-time setting and not every day that I need to remember to turn it off again. It is such a basic setting that they have so wrong. I wonder if it works at a supercharger so I have time to eat a meal without getting an idle charge.

 

[ATPMSD]

I wonder if it works at a supercharger

No

 

[EVer Hopeful]

I only used it once - and I don't think I used it correctly then

Maybe I'll have another go at it, run a couple of tests

Some good info here though