Scheduling Time of Day to Charge

[RainMeister]

I tried searching this site for an answer to this question, but came up empty, as I wait for my new Model 3P to arrive.

Is it possible to schedule the time of day when the car will charge while connected to the Tesla wall charger?

With electrical rates cheaper after midnight, I would like to to schedule the car to begin charging during off-peak hours.

 

[jjrandorin]

yes, it is.

 

[RainMeister]

yes, it is.

Thanks!

 

[jjrandorin]

Thanks!

your welcome!

With a little more context, its possible to schedule a start time (to help people who have time of use plans start their charging after midnight for example). Its also possible to schedule an END time, and the car will start charging to hit that end time. With the scheduled END time, however, there are a few "gotchas". One big one is, with a scheduled end time, the car will stop charging at 6am, even if you set your scheduled end time later in the morning than that.

Another thing to be aware of with these features is, if you are using a third party wall connector (from a previous EV for example) they sometimes dont play nice with scheduled start times. if you have one of those, you will need to check with the manufacturer of that device to see if they have any guidance for tesla vehicles. Enough teslas have been sold that. if there is a problem with a third party wall connector with tesla vehicles, someone has likely already seen it and reported it, and if there is a work around, its probably on the manufacturers website already.

If you are using the mobile connector (the plug that comes with the car) or the tesla wall connector (any version), there is no issue with the car waking up to charge that I have seen / heard / read about.

Tesla needs to do more work on the scheduled end time feature, but the scheduled start time feature should do exactly what say you would like to do.

 

[PianoAl]

I was hit by the first gotcha you mentioned. I told it to be ready at 9 AM, but in trying to be ready at 6 AM, it started charging prior to midnight (at the more expensive time).

Now, I tell it to start charging at 3 AM, and it's always ready in time for driving. If I know I'll need more, I'll reset the start time.

I'm hoping this strange bug is fixed in the next release.

 

[DCGOO]

I was hit by the first gotcha you mentioned. I told it to be ready at 9 AM, but in trying to be ready at 6 AM, it started charging prior to midnight (at the more expensive time).
Now, I tell it to start charging at 3 AM, and it's always ready in time for driving. If I know I'll need more, I'll reset the start time.
I'm hoping this strange bug is fixed in the next release.

I wouldn’t count on that. It has been broken for a long time. One other thing, if your car sits for days plugged in, it will only honor the first scheduled time. All bets are off as to when subsequent charge cycles will occur. This is not a problem if you drive every day of course, but if you ever park it for a few days or a week, you will likely see daytime charges.

 

[Knightshade]

I was hit by the first gotcha you mentioned. I told it to be ready at 9 AM, but in trying to be ready at 6 AM, it started charging prior to midnight (at the more expensive time).

Now, I tell it to start charging at 3 AM, and it's always ready in time for driving. If I know I'll need more, I'll reset the start time.

I'm hoping this strange bug is fixed in the next release.

It's not a bug.

It's almost certainly that the dude who wrote the codes electric gets more expensive at 6AM, so that's what time it stops charging because he just assumed that's true for everyone (and it bases start time on whenever it needs to start to finish by 6).

My own gets more expensive at 5 AM (though it gets super cheap starting at 10 PM)

So I've just ignored the new "finish at" thing since being "ready" at 5AM (or 6 for that matter) would never be useful to me, and keep the start time at 10pm instead.


It'd certainly be nice if the car let you set a "My power is cheap from X time to Y time, my target charge is Z percent- you figure out the rest"

But that's an added feature, not a bug fix.

(and still wouldn't really help me since 5AM is still gonna be 2-3 hours at least before I'm ever going anywhere unless my house is fire)

 

[TW14 9LF]

One benefit of scheduling an end time rather than a start time is that the car will heat itself up just before you leave, using shore power to do that. For people in a cold climate, I'm guessing that could make a significant difference in range.

 

[Knightshade]

One benefit of scheduling an end time rather than a start time is that the car will heat itself up just before you leave, using shore power to do that. For people in a cold climate, I'm guessing that could make a significant difference in range.

Does it actually do that, or does that cut off at 6 AM too?

 

[TydalForce]

Scheduled departure works as intended; I have mine set for 8AM and it's warmed up by then. My schedule just shifted and I have to change it to 7 so it's not cold.
I'm not so sure when it's actually charging but it's up to the set limit by 7 (presumably the 6AM mentioned earlier in the thread)

 

[PianoAl]

It's almost certainly that the dude who wrote the codes electric gets more expensive at 6AM, so that's what time it stops charging because he just assumed that's true for everyone (and it bases start time on whenever it needs to start to finish by 6).

I agree that's probably it. I'd call it a bug due to programmer misconception, but I understand your thinking. In any case, I hope it goes away.

My PG&E EV plan, which is widespread use, has the cheap period from midnight to 3 PM.