Smart Charging a Bit Crap?
Discussion
This isn’t an EV bash. I actually really like our Skoda Enyaq - spacious, comfy, quiet etc etc
My beef is with ‘smart’ charging. Specifically the interface between E.ON and VAG. When it works it’s simple, seamless and requires only a small amount of thought/planning. That is all until it doesn’t work. Then you wake up to find your car hasn’t charged. The primary culprit seems to be app updates. When either Skoda (VAG) or E.ON update their app it breaks the comms and smart charging falls over. This leaves a few days of faff until the fix pushes through and you can go back to normal service. Except the trust is lost so you then keep checking both apps to ensure the charges scheduling correctly rather than just the plug and forget. After a few days the trust is restored until the next update and the cycle repeats.
I do seriously question the value of the unit cost saving when the overall setup is so fragile. I think VAG are particularly bad but have read other marques API cause similar issues. Pity, in principle it is a very good idea.
My beef is with ‘smart’ charging. Specifically the interface between E.ON and VAG. When it works it’s simple, seamless and requires only a small amount of thought/planning. That is all until it doesn’t work. Then you wake up to find your car hasn’t charged. The primary culprit seems to be app updates. When either Skoda (VAG) or E.ON update their app it breaks the comms and smart charging falls over. This leaves a few days of faff until the fix pushes through and you can go back to normal service. Except the trust is lost so you then keep checking both apps to ensure the charges scheduling correctly rather than just the plug and forget. After a few days the trust is restored until the next update and the cycle repeats.
I do seriously question the value of the unit cost saving when the overall setup is so fragile. I think VAG are particularly bad but have read other marques API cause similar issues. Pity, in principle it is a very good idea.
Funk said:
The first time I let Octopus have a crack at controlling the charging on my Polestar it...didn't. Suffice it to say it wasn't particularly confidence-inspiring.
I've told the Pod Home app when my cheap rate is and let it handle things - it hasn't failed so far, touch wood.
This is exactly what I have done. Numerous reports of Octopus not being able to wake Renault 5's to smart charge (although apparently fixed via a dealer only software update a year after release). I didn't want to deal with the hassle and have no programmes set on the car to further confuse things and let Pod Point only smart charge my car within my cheap 12-6am window. It has never failed yet and they pay 2p per kW smart charged (capped at £100 a year) within this window saving me around a third on the already incredibly low cost of running. When my wife uses it for work her 125 mile round trip comes in around £1.50 now with the money back.I've told the Pod Home app when my cheap rate is and let it handle things - it hasn't failed so far, touch wood.
Not just me then! Point taken about not using the Skoda app for scheduling. Thats a clear instruction in the E.ON setup too but you can’t just take the app/background API out of the process as the E.ON app needs to talk to the car via VAG servers and the Skoda app has other utility. I guess as a platform it is still relatively new tech and hopefully integration will improve. Obvs can just default to charging controlled by the Ohme so it’s not stopping us using the car or anything daft.
I'm thankful the old Polestar never supported smart charging. Even dumb timed charging was an issue through the Polestar app. Just when you think it had settled and you took your eye off the ball, bosh, have that, wake up at 6am with 23% and no overnight timed charge. For no reason.
Just moving into a Toyota CHR+. All the chat on the UK CHR+ Facebook page seems to be around how utterly unreliable smart charging is. Car + Car App + Charger App + Electricity supplier seems to be a recipe for technical malfunction.
I've just moved from Octopus to EDF to get 7 cheap, timed hours overnight (I do regular high miles).
Dumber the better.
Just moving into a Toyota CHR+. All the chat on the UK CHR+ Facebook page seems to be around how utterly unreliable smart charging is. Car + Car App + Charger App + Electricity supplier seems to be a recipe for technical malfunction.
I've just moved from Octopus to EDF to get 7 cheap, timed hours overnight (I do regular high miles).
Dumber the better.
Goatwidcoat said:
Funk said:
The first time I let Octopus have a crack at controlling the charging on my Polestar it...didn't. Suffice it to say it wasn't particularly confidence-inspiring.
I've told the Pod Home app when my cheap rate is and let it handle things - it hasn't failed so far, touch wood.
This is exactly what I have done. Numerous reports of Octopus not being able to wake Renault 5's to smart charge (although apparently fixed via a dealer only software update a year after release). I didn't want to deal with the hassle and have no programmes set on the car to further confuse things and let Pod Point only smart charge my car within my cheap 12-6am window. It has never failed yet and they pay 2p per kW smart charged (capped at £100 a year) within this window saving me around a third on the already incredibly low cost of running. When my wife uses it for work her 125 mile round trip comes in around £1.50 now with the money back.I've told the Pod Home app when my cheap rate is and let it handle things - it hasn't failed so far, touch wood.
Just for s
ts and giggles I gave them another crack and it didn't work for the second time so back to Pod. I've no doubt Octopus will whinge at me at some point that I'm not letting them charge the car but I've emailed them to highlight the problem and had no response so...fk 'em. I even removed and re-added the car and it's stuck at 'on-boarding' so at least I can point to their issue and that I emailed support about it.Meanwhile controlling it via Pod is seamless and I'm collecting the rewards too.
I couldn’t get smart charging working with octopus and our Mustang. It either charged it continually - and we paid full price - or it didn’t bother charging at all.
Tried a few times, but there seems to be too many hand offs between the car, the car app, the charging point, the charging point app, and octopus app.
Gave up in the end and just use the midnight to 5am slot instead on a schedule which works reliably. For the costs saved with smart charging, its just not worth the hassle and stress for me.
Tried a few times, but there seems to be too many hand offs between the car, the car app, the charging point, the charging point app, and octopus app.
Gave up in the end and just use the midnight to 5am slot instead on a schedule which works reliably. For the costs saved with smart charging, its just not worth the hassle and stress for me.
Uncle boshy said:
kambites said:
Octopus have been entirely reliable at controlling our Hypervolt charger. Maybe smart charger support is more stable than direct car support?
Same, I ve got IOG controlling my Wallbox charger, has worked well for the last couple of yearsMy ID7 has gone now and awaiting a Buzz next month so hopefully will continue as before.
My smart charging has been drama free.
Did some research before buying and ended up with an Ohme Home Pro, which is connected to IOG (the car has no schedule).
It just works. I plug the car in, and Octopus charge it by 6am the next day.
The only minor annoyance was having to tell Ohme what charge level the car is curretly at. Seems there was an API between Renault and Ohme but it's been off for ages. I wrote my own to fetch the charge from the car and push it to ohme on plug in.
The Ohme does disconnect from it's 4g connection occasionally, buy it's never failed to charge.
Did some research before buying and ended up with an Ohme Home Pro, which is connected to IOG (the car has no schedule).
It just works. I plug the car in, and Octopus charge it by 6am the next day.
The only minor annoyance was having to tell Ohme what charge level the car is curretly at. Seems there was an API between Renault and Ohme but it's been off for ages. I wrote my own to fetch the charge from the car and push it to ohme on plug in.
The Ohme does disconnect from it's 4g connection occasionally, buy it's never failed to charge.
Octopus - polestar - Andersen.
Before the charge cap came into play, charging the car was pretty easy. Andersen did the work, I would have charge as expected.
The charge cap fked things, very unreliable, I don’t get the 6 hours per 24 hours.
I’m persisting for the moment because I like the fact I can plug in anytime and get off peak slots which can be useful but if continue to get shenanigans I’m probably going to switch to EDF.
Before the charge cap came into play, charging the car was pretty easy. Andersen did the work, I would have charge as expected.
The charge cap f
ked things, very unreliable, I don’t get the 6 hours per 24 hours. I’m persisting for the moment because I like the fact I can plug in anytime and get off peak slots which can be useful but if continue to get shenanigans I’m probably going to switch to EDF.
No issues at all here with Octopus Intelligent Go and an Ohme charger and a non-connected card.
Plug it in, leaving the 'charge to' set at 100%, set a ready time for two or three hours time in the middle of the day (11am, 12om, 1pm), set the current state of charge, see the app automatically reduce the amount of charge it can deliver in that time, and then watch the car charge solidly for two or three hours at the cheap rate (and the house getting that cheap rate as well).
I really don't understand if people have a choice and are not arriving home at 11pm, why people choose to charge their car overnight, when if it fails to charge it would cause an issue.
Plug it in, leaving the 'charge to' set at 100%, set a ready time for two or three hours time in the middle of the day (11am, 12om, 1pm), set the current state of charge, see the app automatically reduce the amount of charge it can deliver in that time, and then watch the car charge solidly for two or three hours at the cheap rate (and the house getting that cheap rate as well).
I really don't understand if people have a choice and are not arriving home at 11pm, why people choose to charge their car overnight, when if it fails to charge it would cause an issue.
octopus Intelligent Go, Sync Energy Charger and Polestar 2.
It's seamless once you get your head around what order of control each app and car has.
- car - just no settings, particularly the timed charging.
- Sync energy and Polestar Energy app both connected to Octopus who have overall control - despite confusingly taking me to Polestar Energy app when I click to check device or want to do a quick boost..
It's seamless once you get your head around what order of control each app and car has.
- car - just no settings, particularly the timed charging.
- Sync energy and Polestar Energy app both connected to Octopus who have overall control - despite confusingly taking me to Polestar Energy app when I click to check device or want to do a quick boost..
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