Building better EV charging schedules with electric vehicle APIs

EV charging schedules are essential for almost every electric car owner. Especially those who charge their vehicle at home and whose electricity rates vary by time of day need to schedule their car to start and stop charging at certain times. Here’s how your EV charging application can improve scheduling features by using electric vehicle APIs.

Start and stop charging based on SOC or range

EV charging applications most commonly let EV owners set a certain time at which they want to start and stop charging every day. While this basic time-based scheduling feature is better than offering no charging schedules at all, there are plenty of use cases and problems that remain unsolved.

What, for example, happens when a customer doesn’t want to fully charge their vehicle? What if they prefer to stop charging as soon as the car battery has reached a certain state of charge or a certain range?

EV APIs like Smartcar allow your application to do exactly this. Our technology lets you retrieve the SOC and the remaining range from an EV battery with a single API request. Here's how it works:

1. When scheduling their next charge, your customer selects the state of charge or range which they wish to attain directly in your app.
2. Your application uses the Smartcar EV battery API to monitor the vehicle’s SOC and range, and stops charging once the requested number is reached:

Start and stop charging based on time constraints and electricity supply

Alternatively, your EV charging application can let vehicle owners select the latest time by which their vehicle must reach a full battery.

Based on the car owner's selection, your application monitors electricity rates and/or renewable energy supply (e.g. whether the electricity cost is low or whether solar energy supply is high enough to fully charge the vehicle). After your app checks the vehicle’s current SOC and how long it will take to charge fully, it can automatically start and stop charging at the most convenient times.

Remind vehicle owners to plug in and charge

Finally, electric vehicle APIs don't only allow your application to easily read a vehicle’s SOC and range. They also make it easy to check a car's charging status.

Using Smartcar's EV battery API, gently remind your customer to charge their vehicle anytime the SOC or range falls below a certain number. You can even use our charging status API to automatically resolve all reminders once the vehicle is plugged in and charging:

That’s how electric vehicle APIs like Smartcar help EV charging applications integrate effective residential charging schedules into their products.

Does your EV charging network power public EV chargers? Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts about EV trip planning, rewards programs, and demand response programs.

Want to learn more about Smartcar? Contact us for a product demo, we’d be happy to give you a tour!