Feature Smart Charging

Smart charging with other integrations

🇩🇪 Deutsch

Charge when power is cheap or the sun is out, and stop at the level you need. BavarianData doesn't plan charging itself: dedicated planners do that well. It gives them what they can't get from BMW reliably, the car's state of charge, its target and whether the cable is in, live off the stream and at no API cost.

CarData is read-only, and that doesn't get in the way here. A planner never commands the car. It switches your wallbox (or a smart plug), and the car charges whenever the wallbox gives it power.

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Which entities to hand over

A planner asks for	Use	Why
State of charge (%)	State Of Charge (Predicted on Integration side)	While charging, BMW can go quiet for an hour or more, so its own figure stands still. This one keeps counting, from the wallbox meter once you have bound one. A planner that stops at a target stops on time. When parked it equals the car's own reading.
Target state of charge (%)	Battery EV Target state of charge	The limit set in the car or the My BMW app.
Car connected	Charging Port plug state (connected / disconnected)	Streamed as the cable goes in or out, no polling.
Battery size (kWh), if asked	Range EV Battery energy max, or the usable capacity from your car's data sheet	Only needed to turn percentages into kWh.

On a few iX3 cars the target briefly jumps to 100 % next to the real value (#52). If your planner then charges to full, give it a fixed target instead: most planners have their own target setting, or point it at an input_number.

With more than one car, every car has its own set of these entities; set up one planner per car where the planner supports it.

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EV Smart Charging

EV Smart Charging (HACS) picks the cheapest hours from Nord Pool, Entso-e, Energi Data Service and others, and switches your charger in them.

1. Install it from HACS and add it under Settings → Devices & services.
2. EV SOC entity: the car's State Of Charge (Predicted on Integration side).
3. EV Target SOC entity: the car's Battery EV Target state of charge.
4. Charger control entity: your wallbox's charge switch (or smart plug).
5. Leave An EV integration will control start/stop of charging off: BavarianData can't, the wallbox does.

EV Smart Charging plans only while its EV connected switch is on. Turn it with the cable using the blueprint plug_to_switch.yaml (see Events & blueprints): pick the car's Charging Port plug state, its location and the EV connected switch. Plugging in away from home does nothing, so a public charger never starts your home schedule.

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Predbat

Predbat plans a home battery and the car together. Its car settings live in apps.yaml:

car_charging_soc:
  - sensor.<car>_state_of_charge_predicted_on_integration_side
car_charging_limit:
  - sensor.<car>_battery_ev_target_state_of_charge
car_charging_planned:
  - sensor.<car>_charging_port_plug_state
car_charging_battery_size:
  - 81.2

Use your own entity IDs (Settings → Entities, search for the names above); they depend on your car's name and Home Assistant's language. Predbat's default answers for planned already include connected, so the cable sensor works without a blueprint. Predbat then switches the charger through its own settings, or through an automation on binary_sensor.predbat_car_charging_slot.

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evcc

evcc can read the car's state of charge straight from BavarianData over MQTT. That has its own page: evcc & wallbox bridge.