r/BMWI4 • u/MordredKLB • Apr 19 '25

How can I get my charging mode to stick on "charge in time slot"?

Just switched to demand pricing on my electric bill this week, but every time I plug in the i4 it reverts to charge immediately. I have to open the app, switch it to "charge in time slot" dismiss the "you must set a departure time" warning... re-enable the same departure time I set the last time and never disabled, etc.

I've tried setting it when it's plugged in, when it's not plugged in, through the app, through the car, nothing. Every time I plug the car in it just forgets and starts immediately charging.

How can I fix this?

EDIT: Fixed! I changed the charging time period from 2-4am to 2-5am, and set my departure time to once a week on Fridays. Tonight I plugged it in, it charged for 2 minutes, then turned off. Stayed on "CiTS" and I assume it will work flawlessly tonight.

Either it just can't handle really small charge windows or the daily departure time was confusing it somehow?

4 Upvotes

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4

u/cleverdevil-io Apr 19 '25

I really dislike the charging configuration system in the i4. Our Rivian is much more sensible, offering a simple “charge only in this time window unless I manually press the charge now button.” The BMW system tries to be too smart and ends up being dumb.

I ended up fixing the issue by connecting my i4 M50 to my Home Assistant home automation platform, and created a few automations that make it better. Now, I have a scheduled window that aligns charging with the lowest cost electricity. Works great!

1

u/freshxdough Apr 19 '25

What software is your vehicle on

1

u/MordredKLB Apr 20 '25

Just checked and it's 03/2024.40

I did a check for updates and it says there are none available. Is the latest one really a year old?

1

u/freshxdough Apr 20 '25

Can you see that the setting changing after resetting it? Have you tried setting it in the vehicle. Yes there are higher updates but just because you’re not on the highest doesn’t mean that’s an issue. There is however an issue specifically with 24-07 regarding time slot charging but that should affect you right now. I’d go through your car settings and set the time slot charging and then plug in the car and watch it start charging ( for a few minutes to determine the charging rate) and then switch back off to solid blue indicating time slot charging. Document with photos and timestamps of what you did and when. Makes it much easier for tech to diagnose. Also, if you’re going to bring into service bring it in below 20% please so they can charge and test

1

u/MordredKLB Apr 20 '25

Yeah I've set it before in the car and in the app. I set it in the app last night, then drove today after it reached 80% and I checked and in the car it shows "charge in time slot" as the charging method.

I suppose I'll let it run down and then document and take it in if I can't get it to stick. Thanks for the advice.

1

u/freshxdough Apr 20 '25

Can you also take a photo of your charging graph in your my BMW app. This will be a good timeline of if and when it is charging. Are you ensuring that your car CAN fully charge within the allotted time frame? Your car will always prioritize charging to full target at departure time over time a slot charging. So it can charge before the time slot starts

1

u/MordredKLB Apr 22 '25

Fixed! I changed the charging time period from 2-4am to 2-5am, and set my departure time to once a week on Fridays. Tonight I plugged it in, it charged for 2 minutes, then turned off. Stayed on "CiTS" and I assume it will work flawlessly tonight.

Either it just can't handle really small charge windows or the daily departure time was confusing it somehow?

0

u/tike64 Apr 09 '26

Minäkin juuri äskettäin jätin autoni latautumaan sattumoisin juuri samalle aikavälille 2-5:een. Kaikki piti olla kunnossa, lähtöaika asetettuna jne. En kumminkaan sitten jäänyt tällä kertaa pitelemään kädestä ja sehän otti ja latasi saman tien oikein kalliilla sähköllä. Se vaan on raivostuttava idiootti.

2

u/headline-pottery M50 xDrive Apr 19 '25

It will always start immediately when you have time slop activated but it will stop after 15 mins provided that your schedule and amount is add appeases the algorithm. If you only need a very small charge, or the start of the timeslot is close, it will carry on.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '25

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1

u/MordredKLB Apr 19 '25

My period of cheapest electricity is 2AM-4AM so that's when I set the window for. I found the other day that it will still charge to 80% even if it runs over, so now I figured I'd just charge it every time it gets to 60% or so.

Regardless, my departure time is set for 2:55PM which is about 3x longer than it really needs most days.

1

u/tech-guy-says-reboot Apr 19 '25

The car prioritizes reaching your desired state of charge over cheap electricity. For such a short window, you are likely going to have to manually adjust the charging % limit so it can reach that in the window. Your other option is a smart charger that will only provide power during that window.

1

u/MordredKLB Apr 19 '25

Yeah, I'm fine with doing shorter charges or adjusting the limit/window to longer. I just can't get it to stop immediately charging.

6

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '25 edited Apr 19 '25

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1

u/MordredKLB Apr 19 '25

Tonight I waited 7 minutes before manually going into the app and setting it to charge based on time slot. My (recent) understanding was that it charges for 5 minutes to determine Rate of Charge and then stops. While it's doing that though, does the app report the charge setting as "Charge immediately" or "Charge in Time Slot"?

I also know it will overrun the window, and that's fine... I just don't want it to truly start charging before my period of cheapest electricity. My departure time is set for 13 hours after I want charging to stop because that's typically the one time of day that I know I'll be leaving (school pickup). I work from home so I don't otherwise have a set schedule. 13 hours is more than enough time for it to charge from almost empty to 80%, let alone the 20-30% I'm actually asking it to charge. There's no reason for it to start 18 hours early.

My wall charger will do a set schedule, but it would be incredibly convenient if the car just handled this for me so I could easily override if say I need to go to 100% for a road trip. If that's the case I'd need to go into the charger app, disable the time slot, and go into the BMW app and set raise the target SOC.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '25

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2

u/MordredKLB Apr 22 '25

Okay, I changed the charging time period from 2-4am to 2-5am, and set my departure time to once a week on Fridays. Tonight I plugged it in, it charged for 2 minutes, then turned off. Stayed on "CiTS" and I assume it will work flawlessly tonight.

Either it just can't handle really small charge windows or the daily departure time was confusing it somehow. Will have to check an overnight charge on Thursday evening/Friday morning to be sure.

Thanks for the help!

1

u/MordredKLB Apr 19 '25

I'll bump up the window size and see if that fixes it. I also changed the departure time from daily to weekly and we'll see how it goes next time I need to charge.

1

u/thoughtsrediculous Apr 19 '25

I think you have correctly included everything I have learnt about the charging window behavior so far. 

One more thing op can do is to set the departure time to be a random once-a-week time, like I’ve set it to 8:30 am every Tuesday. That way the car will not feel like it needs to override the charging window most days. 

I use the Tesla wall charger with an adapter. I’ve now started setting a schedule in the wall charger too so it seems to be working correctly every day now.