Vehicles

If you configure your vehicle or vehicles in evcc, additional functions are available to you. You can configure Minimum Charge & Limits, use Charging Plans and get a detailed evaluation by vehicle in the Charging Sessions, including information such as mileage.

Storing vehicles is optional. Since evcc controls the charging process via the charger in most cases, solar and price-dependent charging also works without vehicle configuration.

Vehicle types

The available functions depend on the vehicle type. The following types are distinguished:

Guest vehicle

If you have not configured a vehicle, the guest vehicle will be displayed at the charging point. This is a standard vehicle that does not support any special functions. Even if you have configured your own vehicle, you can switch to the guest vehicle at any time. This is useful, for example, if an unconfigured vehicle (e.g. a spontaneous visitor) charges at your charging point. evcc then uses the standard values ​​for power and phases configured at the charging point. Under Charging Sessions, this charge is assigned to the guest vehicle.

Vehicles without API (offline)

If your vehicle does not have an online interface or no internet connection at the charging point, you can configure it as an offline vehicle. Go to Configuration → Vehicles → Add vehicle and choose Generic vehicle (without API) in the Manufacturer field. Give the vehicle a Title (e.g. “Green Honda e”) and enter the Capacity of its battery. Now that the battery capacity is known, the charging progress and the charging limit can also be shown in percent (e.g. +25%).

Note: You can also use this function for third-party vehicles (friends, family, rental or company cars) to which you do not have API access.

Vehicles with API (online)

If your vehicle has an online interface, it makes sense to configure this in evcc as well. You can find a list of all supported manufacturers under Vehicles. Go to Configuration → Vehicles → Add vehicle and choose your Manufacturer, e.g. Audi. Depending on the manufacturer, you then enter the access data of your vehicle account, such as user and password.

evcc now has access to the current charge level. Depending on the manufacturer, other information such as charging status, vehicle limits, mileage, climate control and estimated range are also available.

Note

To protect the vehicle battery, evcc only updates the charge level when a vehicle is connected to the charging point. Depending on the manufacturer, API access can wake up the vehicle and significantly increase standby consumption. You can change this behaviour using the poll parameter at the charging point.

Multiple vehicles

You can configure multiple vehicles and multiple charging points in evcc. There are various options for assigning vehicles to charging points:

Standard vehicle

If each vehicle has its own charging point, you can configure the vehicle as the standard vehicle at the charging point. This is the simplest and recommended configuration. Go to Configuration → Charging points & heaters → [My Charging Point]. In the Vehicles section, select your vehicle as Default vehicle. When a new charging process starts, evcc assumes that it is the standard vehicle. If this is not the case (e.g. guest vehicle), you can switch the vehicle in the UI.

Assignment via the UI

The currently assigned vehicle is displayed in the UI at the respective charging point. You can change the assignment by clicking on the vehicle name. This selection then applies to the current charging process.

Changing a vehicle at the charging point

Automatic detection

If several vehicles are charging at one charging point, automatic detection is used when plugging in. The charging status of all configured vehicles is checked and the most plausible vehicle is selected. If the detection has selected the wrong vehicle (e.g. because it is charging at a different charging point), you can correct the assignment manually.

Detection via RFID

If your charger has an RFID card reader, you can also use this for the assignment. This involves assigning one (or more) RFID cards to a specific vehicle. Every time the vehicle is connected to the charger again, the charging process must first be activated with the corresponding RFID card on the charger.

evcc receives a unique identification code from the charger. Depending on the manufacturer, this is either the RFID code or a derived internal code such as a user name from the charger configuration. After activating with the card, the current identifier is shown on the charging point card under Configuration → Charging points & heaters. Enter this value in the RFID-Identifier field of the desired vehicle under Configuration → Vehicles. You can store multiple identifiers per vehicle.

Detection via Plug & Charge

If your charger supports the ISO 15118 standard, detection can also be carried out directly via the charging cable. However, there are currently very few chargers available on the market with this function.

Note

The “PLC connection to the vehicle” feature must be activated in the charger.

The setup is similar to RFID detection. The vehicle must be connected to the charger. The identifier (e.g. 01:23:45:67:89:00) is then shown on the charging point card under Configuration → Charging points & heaters. Enter this value in the RFID-Identifier field of the vehicle.

Note

If the vehicle and the charger do not support Plug & Charge, the vehicles return a unique hardware address (MAC address). However, some manufacturers such as VW and Audi change this to a different random value every day.

In this case, you can use a wildcard and only specify the part that does not change, e.g. 01:23:45:*.

Of course, this only works if this does not occur in several existing vehicles and the specified initial part of the value is different in each case.

Air conditioning

For some vehicles, evcc can also detect via the online connection whether the vehicle is currently performing pre-air conditioning. In this case, the lowest possible power is released on the charger so that the vehicle can air condition using the power from the charger.

It can happen that the air conditioning in the vehicle requires less than the released power. The vehicle then uses the remaining available power to continue charging the battery, even if a specified limit on the charge level has already been reached.

As soon as the air conditioning is recognised as finished, the charger is locked again so that the vehicle cannot draw any more power from the charger unless it is already charging.

Note

This only applies to the combination of vehicles and chargers that communicate via the IEC 61851 standard. This is the rule today.

For vehicles and chargers that communicate via the ISO 15118 standard, the vehicle receives exactly the amount of energy that it requests directly from the charger.