We have enhanced the Smart Charging experience with a more comprehensive and user-friendly view of your charging activities. It’s going to be enabled gradually for all our Smart charging users.
What is new?
1. Smart Charging settings moved to the car 🚗
All Smart Charging settings have been relocated to the car, whether it's integrated or not. While it's still highly recommended to have an integrated charger for us to manage the actual charging process, you can no longer activate Smart Charging on your charger.
For a non-integrated car, connecting an integrated charger to Tibber is necessary for the smart charging settings to appear in the car. All car-related settings, such as departure time and battery levels, are now managed through the car's settings.
Charger-specific settings, such as Peak Control and Load Balancing, can be found within the Power-up for the charger.
2. New features and charging screens 🎉
State based button
In this update, we’ve made the main page of your cars and charges more interactive based on their current state. This update provides a clear overview, allowing you to easily monitor important states like "Waiting for lower prices" "Charger not connected" and "Not charging".
Smart Charging plan
The Smart Charging plan provides insights into your car’s charging schedule. The graph displays when Smart Charging is planned to occur:
Blue period: Represents charging during known electricity prices. Tapping them provides details such as cost, battery levels, and consumption.
Grey Period: Grey periods indicate uncertain pricing, based on our forecasts. Since grey periods are based on forecasts, it’s important to note that the plan for the awaiting charging might change over time as we get new pricing data. This means we may potentially adjust the charging schedule to save on electricity costs.
In practice – How does Smart Charging work depending on your setup?
Integrated car only
Integrated car only
An integrated car is an EV with direct integration to Tibber, allowing Tibber to fetch data directly from the EV itself. This enables Smart Charging without the need for an integrated charging box.
However, some integrated cars (such as Polestar & Volvo Recharge) won't allow Tibber to start/stop charging but will allow us to fetch the battery level (SoC). These EVs require an integrated charger to use Smart Charging, but you won’t need to set the SoC manually.
How Smart Charging works for integrated cars
How Smart Charging works for integrated cars
Every 15 minutes, Tibber queries the manufacturer's API to check if the car is connected to a charger.
Tibber uses the manufacturer's API to gather data about the EV, including if it's at the home address, SoC, battery size, and charging speed.
Tibber checks your set departure time and the energy prices.
The data is used to create a charging schedule and if there is room all or parts of the charging session will be postponed to the cheapest hours.
This can be done in several ways but the most common are scheduling of delayed charging - the same as in the manufacturer's own app.
When it's time to charge Tibber will activate charging automatically either by scheduling or by canceling delayed charging.
The first charge session on a freshly integrated car or charger is based on standardized values (3,5kW/5kW), but further charging sessions will have smartness applied to get the correct charge time.
Integrated car and integrated charger
Integrated car and integrated charger
Even with an integrated car, a connected charger is still recommended. If connected, it will take care of the actual charging because of the following:
(1) Our schedules become more accurate with a charger connected due to checking the actual charging speed - with cars, we take the average from the last session.
(2) With integrated cars it can take up to 20 min before our commands are processed (f.i. in case of pausing charging).
(3) We have more information and better handling of the charging session in general.
Please note that if an unknown vehicle connects to a charger, it won't have access to Smart Charging. If you want to Smart Charge a friend's car at your place overnight, your friend's vehicle must be added to Tibber, either with an integration or use of the non-integrated car feature.
How Smart Charging works for integrated cars with an integrated charger
How Smart Charging works for integrated cars with an integrated charger
We will initiate charging via the charger, while still getting car data like battery level and location from your car. When using the selected charger for your vehicle, we'll utilize the charger for smart charging. If no charger is available, we'll perform Smart Charging directly from your vehicle.
The EV is connected to the charger.
Tibber notices the EV is connected and our algorithm is activated.
It calls the manufacturer's API to fetch data on whether the EV is at its home address, what the battery level is, and the battery size.
Tibber then calls the chargers API to fetch data on the average charging speed during the latest charging session.
Data from both sources is used to create a charging schedule and if there is room all or parts of the charging session will be postponed to the cheapest hours.
If there is room to postpone the charging Tibber will set the available current to 4A which is so low that no EV or hybrid car can start charging. (The limit is usually 6A or 7,2A depending on the model).
When it's time to start charging available current will be reset to your max current which is determined by eg. the EVs onboard charger, load balancing, main fuses, etc.
The first charge session on a freshly integrated car or charger is based on standardized values (3,5kW/5kW), but further charging sessions will have smartness applied to get the correct charge time.
Non-integrated car and integrated charger
Non-integrated car and integrated charger
A non-integrated car is an EV that does not have a direct integration with Tibber. This means we are not able to fetch data directly from the EV itself, hence you need to have an integrated charger to smart charge with Tibber.
To add a non-integrated car, you to You ➡️ Electric cars ➡️ Add a vehicle
How Smart Charging works for non-integrated cars with an integrated charger
How Smart Charging works for non-integrated cars with an integrated charger
The actual start/stop of the charging is done the same as with an integrated car and an integrated charger, but instead of dynamic values fetched from your EV regarding battery level (SoC), battery size, etc, Tibber has to rely on the integrated charger and a more static model of the EV.
Previously Tibber algorithm assumed an offline EV had 50% and a hybrid 0% SoC when connected and these are still the standard values. However, you can (and should) set the current battery level and battery size directly in the Tibber app. For the best result, you should reset the battery level value for each charging session but you can also set your own standard value that's usually pretty correct.
The first charge session on a freshly integrated car or charger is based on standardized values (3,5kW/5kW), but further charging sessions will have smartness applied to get the correct charge time.
Integrated charger only
Integrated charger only
An integrated charger is a charger that has a direct integration with Tibber. If you have an integrated charger, you can smart charge your EV regardless of the car’s model (meaning whether it's integrated or not).
How Smart Charging works for non-integrated cars with an integrated charger
How Smart Charging works for non-integrated cars with an integrated charger
If you only have an integrated charger, we will create an offline car for you, displayed as Tibber Tribe 1 on your home screen. This is necessary because you need a car (either integrated or not) to access the Smart Charging settings.
Before your first Smart Charging session, make sure to update the Smart Charging settings by clicking the ⚙️ icon. Update the battery size to match your specific car and set daily departure times so Tibber knows when you plan to leave. You might also want to give it a personalized name.
To optimize Smart Charging performance for non-integrated cars you should update the current battery level before each Smart Charging session.
The first charge session on a freshly integrated car or charger is based on standardized values (3,5kW/5kW), but further charging sessions will have smartness applied to get the correct charge time.
Q&A – New Smart Charging
Why do you show the charger Power-up when there are “no” settings to make?
Why do you show the charger Power-up when there are “no” settings to make?
You can still control charge current and load balancing from the chargers Power-up since those are charger-specific settings.
Do I have the same settings in my car now?
Do I have the same settings in my car now?
All former functionality is retained, but some has been moved from the charger to the car.
Where can I find the cost overview for charging my car?
Where can I find the cost overview for charging my car?
You can find the cost of an individual charging session once you press a certain hour on the Smart Charging Plan. The accumulated historical costs can be found in the car's Power-up now.