Smart Charging a Bit Crap?

[tallpaul26]

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.

[Funk]

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.

[smallpaul]

I gave in when the constant on off on off was A) not quite working and B) Probably going to lead to contactor failure on the charge unit.

Also EDF gave me 7 hours for whole house at a cheaper price.

[Sheepshanks]

The general consensus, at least from Octopus IOG users, and I don't see why others wouldn't be the same, is not to even try to use the car maker's app to control charging. They're all flaky to a degree, some more than others.

[Ham_and_Jam]

OP, I’m on Eon NextDrive, Ohme ePod and Mercedes.

After trying many times to ‘connect’ the three parties, and it failing many times, I switched it all off.

I now just schedule off-peak timing (00:00-06:00) on the Ohme app. It works every time.

[Goatwidcoat]

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.

[tallpaul26]

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.