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You arrive home from work and plug in your car to charge. It’s 6pm – you don’t really need your EV to be fully charged now. But, you do need it ready to go by the morning when you head out the door again. 

Now, imagine you selected to tackle this with a SmartCharge on the Monta app – you go on with the rest of your night while Monta’s SmartCharge algorithm finds the most ideal time slots through the night to charge your car, save you money and reduce the carbon footprint of your charge.

What do you mean, save money on the charge?

For many EV drivers, electricity prices can change on an hourly basis, and charging when demand is low can help avoid expensive electricity tariffs and spot prices. 

Electricity prices are at one of their most volatile times ever. For example, in Europe prices can almost quadruple during the course of a single day, once you factor in tariffs and dynamic prices. SmartCharge and its smart algorithm can help save a lot of money by avoiding these price-peak hours.

A SmartCharge works like this: you tell Monta the time you want your car to be fully charged by and set your SmartCharge preferences – your priority amongst reducing charging cost or carbon impact. Then, when you swipe on SmartCharge, the system will find the cheapest or greenest of times to charge your car, to fulfil your preferences from earlier. 

If you have your car integrated with the Monta app, then the algorithm will automatically calculate the precise charging amount needed to fill up your car. Smart indeed!

A green note!

Your EV is only as environmentally friendly as the energy you use to charge its battery. The carbon footprint of EV  charging can vary greatly, depending on the time of day and the energy source used. If you charge up your EV with energy supplied by a coal or natural gas power plant, your carbon emissions will skyrocket, compared to charging with energy supplied by wind, solar or nuclear power. 

By using SmartCharge, you can choose to save money and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time. Using data from Electricity Maps, Monta’s SmartCharge algorithm knows the hour-by-hour power plants active in your geographic area and calculates the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from each kilowatt-hour of energy used for charging your car.  This means that you can make a conscious decision about the source of your energy, ensuring that your EV is not only fully charged but that it remains the most sustainable option possible as well.

One of the key benefits of SmartCharging is that it gives EV drivers the control to decide what they charge their cars with. As an EV driver, you might have environmental concerns and want to ensure that your energy comes from renewable sources. Or, you might simply want to save money on your energy bill. Whatever your priorities are, SmartCharging allows you to make an informed decision about when and where to charge your car.

But, how does SmartCharging actually work? 

To recap: When you swipe “SmartCharge” in your Monta app, the brain behind our SmartCharging algorithm looks at:

  • Your local electricity prices
  • The carbon emissions per kWh coming out of your plug
  • The amount of energy you need to fully charge your car
  • The charging speed of your charge point
  • At what time you want your car charged
  • Your personal SmartCharge preferences 

With all this information combined, it finds the optimal charging schedule to get your car charged by the time you need it for.

How we ensure success, even when things go south

There is nothing worse than waking up to an uncharged car because something went wrong while you were peacefully asleep. Part of what makes Monta’s SmartCharge so smart is its ability to ensure a successful charge even if something goes wrong. We have deep integrations with charge points to automatically try and re-heal a connection if it goes offline in the middle of the night. Our self-healing sequencers can also communicate directly with the car and do everything possible to ensure the charge is completed by the time you wake up.

Note: There are a few steps users can take to improve their SmartCharging experience. Since our algorithm takes so many steps to calculate the optimal time for the SmartCharge, it is recommended that users turn off or disable all other Smartcharging apps, schedules, and other settings that could interfere with the Monta SmartCharge. This way, when the Monta app tries to SmartCharge in the middle of the night, it won’t run into a second schedule on the car, or a charging limit that unexpectedly makes the charge go on much longer than predicted.

Your trust in our hands

It’s important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for a SmartCharge – every country has its own unique energy system and pricing structure. That’s why we’ve put in the work to create a tailored experience for every single user at home. By taking into account all the unique factors that affect your charging experience, we can help you make the most of your EV while minimizing your carbon footprint.

SmartCharging is about giving EV drivers the freedom to choose how to charge their cars. By providing a free, intelligent charging solution that takes into account energy prices and carbon emissions, we’re helping to make EV ownership more accessible and sustainable. 

So, the next time you plug in your car to charge, consider swiping SmartCharge and let us take care of the rest.

Learn how to set up your SmartCharge preferences and how to enable SmartCharge.

Jonathan Tari

Hello, I’m Jonathan Tari, former Senior Product Manager of our SolarCharging and SmartCharging features. I have background and experience in energy optimisation, battery technology, and advanced EV charging features. I now work in Product Operations here at Monta. Outside of work, I’m a Mechanical Engineer, a curious soul, and a cat aficionado. I also do improvised comedy outside of Monta (maybe one day they’ll let me do it here, too).