[pinger]

Hi All,

I bought an i4 M50 last year, and while I've been thrilled with its design, build quality, and performance, I'm encountering a consistent and frustrating issue with its charging time settings.

The Issue:

I reside in an area where daytime electricity is significantly more expensive – 3x more than between 10pm-7am. Naturally, I've programmed my i4 through the MyBMW app to charge exclusively during the cheaper time slot. However, much to my disappointment, the car disregards these settings approximately 75% of the time.

Here's an example of what I experience: I might return home at 10 am with a 70% battery charge, a set departure time of 7 am the next day, and a target charge of 80%. Despite having ample time to charge during the night, the car begins charging immediately, right in the heart of the higher rate period. The app acknowledges the "charge slot active," but it simply doesn't abide by it.

What I've Tried:

• Multiple conversations with BMW connect support, which unfortunately didn't yield any solutions.
• Took the car to the dealer for a potential software upgrade.
• Multiple car reboots.
• Deleting and recreating my BMW ID account, as advised by support.

Recently, to add to the frustration, the 'Restart charging' button has been removed from the MyBMW app. Now, the only method to restart charging after manually halting it is to physically unplug and plug back in the charger.

I turn to you all for insights, advice, or potential solutions. Have any of you experienced something similar? Is there a workaround I might not be aware of? I'm genuinely baffled that the car struggles with what seems like a simple timer feature, especially when household appliances can do it with ease.

What adds to my perplexity is that upon doing some research, I've stumbled upon multiple threads spanning years where other BMW owners describe similar challenges with their charging schedules. This leads me to believe that my experience isn't an isolated incident or a result of incorrect settings on my end. Given that on days where I drive short distances, these unexpected immediate charges are completed within a mere 30 minutes, it's evident that the car would have ample time to charge overnight based on the schedule I set.

Has anyone received an official response or resolution from BMW that adequately addresses this problem?

[cruzer666]

It’s designed to be quirky like this.

Try the following:
- Set your charging in timeslot as 10:00pm-10:00am
- If you want to leave by 8:00am, set your departure time as 9:30am
- Disable preconditioning for departure.

When you come in and plug your car say at 6pm here’s what will happen:
1) the car will immediately start charging.
2) you will get a push notification from MyBMW app saying “Charging started”
3) within a minute or so you will get another notification saying “Charging paused, charge in timeslot is active, charging will resume at 10:00pm”.

I think you’re also charging too frequent if you’re only using 10% SoC and plugging it again, this could be reason for the weird behavior as well. If you’re not using more than 10% each day, might want to wait for the charge level to get below 30% or so before you recharge.

Let us know if this works for you!

[pinger]

Thanks a lot for your answer.

I will try to set a later start time. I’ve tried waiting for the pause in the past, but it doesn’t pause, it just goes all the way. It doesn’t seem to matter if I start at 70% or at 40% battery, either. Preconditioning is always off too.

Is there any way that cell phone reception is needed somehow for the car to check the time? The parking is underground and reception is spotty there. It would be weird, but honestly this shouldn’t be this hard…

[cruzer666]

Cellphone reception is not needed for charge in timeslot to work. I’ve used this to do a 100% charge at a hotel in the basement, the car paused to charge and there was no reception there.

I think the quirk has to do with your departure time and timeslot range. As long as you make sure the range is passed your departure time you should be ok. I’m not saying this is how it should be, but that‘s what I’ve found in the past year and I never have issues charging in timeslot,

For reference, here are my settings:
- Charge in timeslot: 11:00pm-12:00pm
- Charge limit: unlimited
- Departure time: 8:00am
- Precondition for departure: off
- Charge target: 80%

If I plug the car say 5pm the following will happen:
- If current SoC is 15% or more, it will charge for a minute and pause to charge until 11:00pm, then it will resume
- If current SoC is under 10%, it will charge until 13% SoC or so before it pauses to charge until 11:00pm, then it will resume. It does this to protect the hv battery from deep discharge related damage.

[falconey]

I use the smart charger to manage time of charge so when I'm out and about and want to charge the immediate setting will work. I'm guessing you aren't using a smart charger?

[MadAboutCars]

I found with my M50 and a time slot set, that it would start to charge (when plugged in, outside of the time slot) and then after about a minute it would stop and wait until the time slot. How long did you wait?

[pinger]

Thanks all for your answers. What really drives me insane is that it’s not a consistent error. The car will sometimes (25% of the time) behave in the way you describe: charge for a minute then pause. But the remaining 75% of the time it just charges all the way to the charge limit, regardless of the time of day.

I have confirmed that the charge time slot and departure times are correctly set (visible both in the app and on the dashboard in the car).

I’ve also tried to set the departure time well outside the charging time slot in case the car is really paranoid about not having enough time to charge. This hasn’t improved the situation.

I don’t really understand why setting the departure time inside the charging slot should help? It seems to me this would make the car more likely to conclude it can’t wait for my charge slot.

It’s rare that I go as low as 15% SC. I drive short distances most of the time so I typically plug back in at 50-65% with a target of 80%.

This is really quite infuriating. It is the one thing that would make me regret my purchase, especially now that the manual Restart Charge has been removed from the app, making it impossible to pilot things manually without having to go down to the garage and manually unplugging the cable and plugging it back in!

Setting a time to charge should really not be this hard. My rice cooker does it flawlessly…

[pinger]

Originally Posted by falconey

I use the smart charger to manage time of charge so when I'm out and about and want to charge the immediate setting will work. I'm guessing you aren't using a smart charger?

No just the BMW wall box that doesn’t seem to have any smart options. It assumes the car is smart, but so far not so much…

[cruzer666]

I use the method I mentioned earlier and I have never had an issue charging in the timeslot I set.

On the times that timeslot charging does work for you are you plugging in at 40-50%? Meaning a longer charge time? Or is it closer to 65-70%?

I believe the car makes a decision to ignore your charging in timeslot setting if it only needs to add 10-15% SoC.

I’m not saying this is what should happen, these are mere observations based on my experience charging in timeslot for 10-11 months.

If you don’t like the battery management system or BMS to make decisions and override your choices, I’d suggest getting a smart EVSE, like chargepoint and configure it for timeslot charging.

[pinger]

I’ll try this method and report back on my next charge (I don’t need to drive everyday so it may take a few days &#128517.

I really haven’t been able to identify a consistent pattern for when the car decides to ignore its settings vs. when it works as would be expected. It can ignore the time slot when charging from 50% SC and abide by it when charging from 78%, or the other way around.

The BMW connecteddrive support only had the following to say about this behavior: “yes sometimes it happens. We’ve taken note that you don’t like this.” Not overly helpful.

[footie]

Do you charge at home, if so then surely your charging unit also has an app. Just don’t set a time on the BMW app and set a weekly time of charging on the wall unit’s app.

That’s what I did, the other advantage of a wall unit with app is you can lock it down when away on your holidays so no one can get free charging at your expense.

[cruzer666]

Originally Posted by footie

Do you charge at home, if so then surely your charging unit also has an app. Just don’t set a time on the BMW app and set a weekly time of charging on the wall unit’s app.

That’s what I did, the other advantage of a wall unit with app is you can lock it down when away on your holidays so no one can get free charging at your expense.

They are using the BMW flexible fast charging cable, no app for that. It’s not “smart”.

[pinger]

Originally Posted by cruzer666

They are using the BMW flexible fast charging cable, no app for that. It’s not “smart”.

Indeed the wallbox has no app.

Update : I tried setting the departure time inside the charging time slot, and it worked properly last night. Settings: charging time slot 10pm to 7am, departure time 6 am. SC 23% to 80% target. Charging started for 3 minutes immediately then paused until 10pm.

Too early to say if this is a coincidence as in the past I’ve observed correct behavior 25% of the time so maybe I just go lucky. But I’ll keep trying in the coming days / weeks and see if it’s indeed a fix.

If it is a fix, I still don’t understand the logic of having to set the departure time inside the charging slot…

[cupholder]

After also suffering some pain with this here's what I found works for me:

1. Within the BMW app, "Charge & Climate Timer" select charging window for during the night, (say 00:30 - 05:30), set Departure Time for say 06:30, Hit "Update in my BMW"
2. Wait until data sent to car.
3. Plug in car to Charger (say this is 8pm), and it immediately starts charging. Not what was requested, but anyway...
4. Allow the app to update and show that the car is charging.
5. Within the app tap "Stop Charging"
6. Done - Wake up next day and car is charged.

[pinger]

That’s odd. If I hit stop charging it never, ever, restarts charging for me.

I used to be able to hit the restart charging button, but the bright lights at BMW have recently removed that button, forcing me to go down to the garage in the middle of the night to unplug the cable and plug it back it. A particularly inelegant approach.

[pinger]

Update. It continues not to work in any way that makes sense.

Plugged in this morning 8:46am @ 72% SC
Target charge 80%
Time slot 10pm-7am
Departure time tomorrow 6am.

Charge started immediately and went all the way to 80% without stopping.

This is a bug, not quirky.

[Larry A]

Hi All, The problem is most likely to be with a faulty battery or ROM chip
equivalent, same as when a PC doesn't remember it's bios setting and you have to remove cmos battery and reset it, or replace system board

[krautaussie]

I have just joined the group as I had the same problem with not being able to schedule charging of our new BMWi4 eDrive35 which we bought in Dec 2023.
But I just took on the advice from cruzer666 and it worked. I did the following:

SOC: 74 % at 11:50 and charging
Stopped charging at 11:55, unplugged the cable and set the following
Charging target 85 %
Charging Time slot 13:00 to 21:00
Departure time: 20:00
Reconnected the charging cable at 12:05 and it started to charge immediately for approximately 5 min and then stopped.
The display on My BMW app says now "Planned" and the charging LED at car connection point is off, so it seems to work.

Thanks for your advice and help.

[footie]

What is the charging rate of these wall chargers you guys are using, if its not 3 phase and only 11KW/h or less then charge up to 100%, the limit of 80% is there only for ultra fast DC charging.

[jamieesprit]

Originally Posted by pinger

Update. It continues not to work in any way that makes sense.

Plugged in this morning 8:46am @ 72% SC
Target charge 80%
Time slot 10pm-7am
Departure time tomorrow 6am.

Charge started immediately and went all the way to 80% without stopping.

This is a bug, not quirky.

Hi pinger, did this problem ever go away for you, or are you just living with it and celebrating the times it works, whilst cursing the times it doesn't? It's also driving me crazy in the same way it was for you, so I'm hoping you may have found the long-term solution?!

[Marc45]

Since the included home charger plugs into a wall outlet, I simply put a timer in between so the car charger is un-powered outside of the off-peak time that I set. I keep the car in charge-immediately mode. BMW should really fix this annoying issue.

[philbake]

While cell reception isn’t required for this functionality, I’ve experienced the car not reporting what turned out to be correct behavior from time to time. IOW, the car charges for a moment, the. Stops and adheres to the plan to start later. However the app sometimes doesn’t get the message and reports charging is continuing when it’s not. The car uses the cell network to report what’s going on, and if reception is spotty it can’t communicate with the cloud.