Scheduled Precondition and Charge

Schedule preconditioning and charging for Model S. You can schedule preconditioning to help your vehicle charge more efficiently, or to prepare Model S for departure.

Note

You can also access Schedule from the Climate Controls screen, the Charging window, and the Tesla mobile app (v4.34.5 or higher required).

Model S automatically saves your schedule for each location you create a schedule at. When you select Current Location, the configured schedule can only be used when you return to the same approximate physical location.

Note

Scheduled charge cannot be used with fast chargers, including Tesla Superchargers. Charging schedules you create are ignored when you charge at a fast charger.

Create a Schedule

Create a Precondition and Charge schedule to specify the time and days you want Model S to precondition or charge. To create a schedule:

Touch Controls > Schedule.
Select the location for which you want to configure a schedule.
- Current Location: The current location of your car, based on your GPS coordinates.
  Note
  You must be parked to create a schedule for your current location.
- Home/Work: The saved location for your home and workplace. You can't choose these options if you don't have a saved home or work (see Home, Work, and Favorite Destinations).
Touch Precondition to configure the time and the frequency you want the vehicle to precondition by.
Touch Charge to configure the time you want to start and stop, and the frequency you want to charge.
Select Create to create the schedule.

Note

If Repeat Weekly is not toggled, Model S performs the schedule once. The vehicle then disables the schedule until you manually re-enable the schedule.

Using Scheduled Charging

When you create or enable a scheduled charge, you can plug in your vehicle for a charge. If you scheduled a precondition or charge for later in the day, Model S waits until that time to precondition or charge.

When your schedules overlap, the vehicle uses the largest block of time for charging, if necessary. Example: You scheduled Model S to start charging at 2 AM and at 3 AM, but to stop charging at 2:30 AM and 5 AM, the vehicle combines the two charge schedules into a single block from 2 AM to 5 AM.

When you specify an End by time, but not a Start at time, the vehicle briefly draws power when plugging in for scheduled charging (you may hear clicking) to calculate the necessary start time to meet your charge limit. Example: You configure an End by time of 2 AM and the vehicle needs 2 hours to charge to meet the charge limit. If you plug in your vehicle at 9 PM, Model S briefly draws power to calculate the start time and begins charging at 12 AM.

If you specify a Start at time and no End by time, the vehicle begins charging at the specified time and continues until your charge limit is reached.

There are scenarios where Scheduled Charging starts immediately. These scenarios can occur when Model S is plugged in:

During a scheduled charge.
Up to 6 hours after the start of a scheduled charge, if there is no specified End by time.
When the next scheduled charge is more than 18 hours away and not the current day.
When you haven't configured a Start at time and there is not enough time to reach the charge limit by the End by time.

Note

Model S does NOT automatically start charging if you plug in your vehicle within 6 hours after the End by time of a scheduled charge, unless there is another scheduled charge.

You can schedule your charge to finish right at a planned departure time to reduce energy costs, even in market regions where off-peak utility rates are not applicable. Example, if charging starts as soon as you plug in, charging may complete much sooner. This causes the Battery to cool down to ambient temperatures and requires energy to warm it back up by your departure time. Therefore, even if off-peak utility rates are not applicable to you, Tesla recommends that you charge until your planned departure time in order to reduce energy consumption by specifying your departure time as the scheduled End by time.

Preconditioning

Use Precondition to schedule a time when you want Model S to be ready to drive. Model S automatically calculates when it needs to start preconditioning. This ensures that the cabin climate and Battery are preconditioned by your departure time.

Precondition warms the Battery for improved performance and ensures a comfortable cabin climate at your set departure time. If you don't schedule a Precondition, Model S only warms the Battery before charging if the Battery is too cold to charge, and doesn't prepare the cabin climate.

Note

When Model S is not plugged in, preconditioning operates but only when the Battery's charge level is above 20%.

Preconditioning can also help to increase range on your next trip because a preconditioned cabin and battery consumes less energy when you begin driving. Preconditioning can reduce energy consumption while driving in vehicles with heat pumps, because heat in the battery can be used to warm the cabin while driving.