Connect your vehicle, then check what its battery data can tell you

Before choosing tonight’s charging routine, you need to know what you are planning around. A battery percentage can help, but an old reading, a missing charge limit or an incomplete connection can leave important gaps.

EVCharge.mobi lets you keep a vehicle in your account, inspect the information available for it and use an appropriate charging workflow. Start by connecting one vehicle and checking its data. That gives you a clearer basis for the next charging session than assuming that a successful login means every field is ready.

Connect an eligible vehicle with the required consent; check the available fields and the age of readings; choose a routine that fits those inputs and verify its session in Insights. A connected account alone does not prove every reading is ready. Open the diagram at full size for a closer view.

Add the vehicle you actually charge

In the EVCharge app, open Account → Vehicles. The add screen offers Tesla, BMW, Ford and a custom vehicle option. Provider availability depends on the configured integration, your vehicle’s eligibility and the permissions you grant. Check your account’s plan and limits too.

For a supported provider, follow its account or consent flow and then return to the vehicle page. Tesla telemetry also depends on the required vehicle pairing and telemetry setup. BMW uses a VIN and a consent process; consent and data retrieval are separate requirements, so an approved connection does not by itself guarantee battery readings. Ford uses its account login and consent flow.

If a provider connection is unavailable, you can add a custom vehicle with a name, battery size, usual energy per charging session and charging power. Use values appropriate to your vehicle. A custom vehicle provides your entered information; it does not create a live link to the car.

The Vehicles and insights guide is a useful companion while you make this first entry.

Inspect the information before relying on it

Open the vehicle and check its connection status. Look for State of Charge and, when available, Limit of Charge. These are different pieces of information: the current battery percentage and the reported charging target. A displayed limit is not evidence that EVCharge has changed a setting in the vehicle.

The public vehicle-screen screenshot shows an illustrative Model Y entry with 38% state of charge and an 85% limit. Those are demo values, not recommended settings or a promise that every connected vehicle supplies both fields.

Refresh the vehicle page and compare unexpected readings with the manufacturer’s app. Refreshing EVCharge does not guarantee that the provider has a new measurement. If a field is missing, resolve the connection or use a workflow that does not depend on that field.

Read an old battery percentage as an old reading

For Ford, EVCharge distinguishes a current display reading from a last-known one. After 30 minutes, a retained percentage is labelled as last known, with an update age. It can remain visible for up to 24 hours from the source timestamp; after that, the percentage is unavailable.

That distinction is useful when you return to a parked vehicle: you can see the last available information without mistaking it for a measurement taken just now. Polling the provider does not make the original measurement newer. Other providers have their own data and display behaviour, so do not apply Ford’s timing to every vehicle.

Choose a routine that matches the available inputs

For a charger you own, Charger settings → Automation offers Smart mode when a vehicle is available in the account and the connector has a dynamic tariff. Select the intended vehicle and daily ready time, then review the setup with the Smart and scheduled charging guide.

Automatic energy estimation needs more than a battery percentage: the scheduler needs usable battery capacity, state of charge, a charge limit and a timestamp within its scheduling rules. Its data-age checks are separate from the vehicle page’s display rules. Ford’s integration currently supplies battery level without populating a charge limit, so a visible Ford percentage alone is not a complete automatic energy target.

When the information is incomplete, review the available inputs and consider a time-based schedule while resolving it. Keep the vehicle plugged in and the compatible charger online. After the first session, use Insights to compare the recorded timing and energy with your intention. A useful first success is one vehicle entry you understand and one charging session you can verify; build a recurring routine from that result.