[vincentimes.69]

This is how I understand it.
Let me know if I got it wrong.

There are two settings working hand in hand:
1) Low Cost Charging
2) Set Departure Time

Low Cost Charging:
This is to tell the car when to charge to get cheaper electricity rates. This is obviously if you live in an area where the utility providers offer different rates depending of the time of the day.

Once set, let say from midnight to 6 am, then the car will not start charging until midnight. You can plug it in but the charger will go on stand by after a second or two. At midnight the car will start charging.

If the charge is not complete by 6 am, not sure what happens. Does the charging process stop and will resume at midnight? Does it continue under higher rate until complete?

Set departure time:
This one tells the car to make sure the charge is finished by that time.
So say you leave at 7 am, the car will make sure the charge uses as much as possible the "low cost hours" you have set but could start early (outside those low cost hours) if it needs more time to get a full battery by 7 am.

For example if you need 10 hours of charging, the car will start at 9 pm to midnight (peak hours), then midnight to 6 am (low cost) and 6 am to 7 am (peak hour). The car will be ready at 7 am.

Departure time for certain days only:
If you set a departure time for certain days only, the others days will still be ruled by the low cost thing above. The days with departure time, the car will be charged on time; the days with no set departure time, the car will still use the low cost schedule but might not be ready on time.

Conclusion: if you want to charge immediately some days, and on low cost schedule some other days, unfortunately your must play with the settings non stop. A bit annoying.

[cooticooti16]

Pretty much…

I typically just take the 10 seconds or so to manually switch to the “Charge Immediately” settings when I’m not charging at home.

When I am home…

I have never had my home 220/240V charger at home not have the car full charged by 0600. But then again, I have my”Low Cost” settings from 8:PM - 6:AM which is consistent with my electric utility.

[Obioban]

Might just be easier to get a charger that lets you set charging times, if you're looking to set charging times.

[Haywood]

I have my Chargepoint override the settings in the i3. I have it set to charge at midnight since this is the cheapest cost per my electric company. Plug it in before I go to bed and it's charged when I wake up. That's been the easiest way for me.