Setting the charging timer on a 2013 leaf Model S.

I live in an area where I get lower electrical rates for charging my Leaf Model S between the hours of Midnight and 5AM so I needed to program my Model S to charge at those times. My problem was that I found that setting the charging timer on the Leaf Model S is somewhat confusing.

The instructions in the owners manual are very specific for the upgraded models with the GPS display but very limited for the Model S. On the GPS equipped models you have the ability to set a start time and an end time for the charge but on the Model S you don't have that capability. On the model S you can only set the timer to a stop charge time.

This was very confusing to me so I had to look at it in another way. Rather than setting a start charging time and an end charging time on the Model S all I had to do was to set the end time or in other words when I wanted the charge completed.
When I set the end time what I am telling the Model S is that I want the charge completed at a specific time. In my case I want the charge completed At 5AM daily so I set the end charge time at 05:00. For instance, lets say I finish with my Model S at 9PM and plug it into the charger. When I do this the car does a four things:
First it automatically senses whether I have plugged it in at 110v or 220v
It looks at whether you want to charge to 80% or 100%
It computes how long the charge will take at the voltage it senses and lastly
It looks at the time you want the charge completed.

If the car sensed that it needs a 4 hour charge at 220 volts it will start the charger at 1AM. If a 3 hour charge is needed it would start charging at 2AM etc.
I hope this is helpful.

Sounds like you've got it nailed. Here are two recent threads on the topic, both of which thrashed a while before coming to the conclusion. The second one was rather contentious, and never did satisfy everyone.
How to set the start charge time on a 2013 S model?
Pls give us START time in "charging timer" - 2013 Leaf S

By the way, two minor terminology points:

• Voltages in the US are 120v and 240v, and have been for more than half a century.
• We normally use "Model S" here to refer to the Tesla Model S. We typically say "S model" for the LEAF S.

Ray

The charging timer setting in that model is counterintuitive. I've had mine set for 0:00, assuming it was setting a charging start time. Today noticed that my electric bills since getting this model have been higher and that charging was starting hours earlier. Who would have ever guessed that the time in the charger timer setting was an end time? It's not stated in the manual. And it's not clear in the LCD display. Nissan needs to fix this. I am not pleased.

Much appreciated, very clear post. I had not figured all that out. I set the end time once, plugged the charger in and nothing happened. Rather than risk not getting a charge that night, I turned the timer off and have just been plugging my 2013 S Leaf in, regardless of peak or off peak charges. This will let me take advantage of fully off peak rates.

Thanks so much!

papatonyinsd said:

The charging timer setting in that model is counterintuitive. I've had mine set for 0:00, assuming it was setting a charging start time. Today noticed that my electric bills since getting this model have been higher and that charging was starting hours earlier. Who would have ever guessed that the time in the charger timer setting was an end time? It's not stated in the manual. And it's not clear in the LCD display. Nissan needs to fix this. I am not pleased.

Click to expand...

Yes, the manual should be improved since the only indication that it is an end time is the "To 6:30" on the dash display picture and that's pretty subtle. They really should explicitly state that the time set is when the car will be finished charging (assuming that there is enough time for the charge to take place after plugging-in). I supposed that even the dealers giving the new car orientations don't know about the S model charge timer, or don't bother to mention it.

In general, however, the use of an end time makes much more sense than a start time, for a variety of reasons that I won't re-hash, and it was much debated in the threads planet4ever linked to above.

mikey said:

...If the car sensed that it needs a 4 hour charge at 220 volts it will start the charger at 1AM. If a 3 hour charge is needed it would start charging at 2AM etc.
I hope this is helpful.

Click to expand...

It's worth pointing out that the LEAF overestimates the time needed to charge. So it will finish charging early and you might want to measure how early a few times to get a rough idea. (It varies with the starting SOC though.) Also, if you have the climate control timer set, the car finishes charging even earlier (more than an hour IME). For the most part this doesn't make much difference but for those trying to hit a narrow window of low electrical rates, it is helpful to know that the end time should be set a bit after the end of the window.

FWIW

Does it still finish early now that they're made in TN? They haven't recalibrated it to 240, from the Japanese 200?

Thanks for this post, Mikey - first time that I've even gotten a slight grip on how to let my Leaf S charge during the Off Peak time of 11PM - 7AM.

A note - I see references in this thread to setting the Timer Off time. In my Leaf S I can't adjust the Timer Off setting at all. I can only change the Timer On time. If I select TImer Off, it simply turns off the timer. It doesn't move to the hours:min position so I can set the Timer Off.

The way your post has me thinking about it now is this: when the clock hits the time I have set for Charging Timer On, that is actually the time that the charging will stop. Of course it will stop if it hits 100% before that time. The car will calculate the latest that it can start the charging and have it completed by the time set in the Charging Timer On setting.

Boy, the English on that could be cleaned up in a few ways, but we've all stated that - clearly

Am I correct with this conclusion regarding the Charging Timer?

Also, I see mentions of "It looks at whether you want to charge to 80% or 100% ". Where is that set? I don't see anything in my Menu for making this selection.

Thank you for this forum. Mikey's post gave me the first glimmer of hope, and I've had my Leaf S for 9 months.

2014+ LEAFs don't have an 80% charge option, only 100%.

drees said:

2014+ LEAFs don't have an 80% charge option, only 100%.

Click to expand...

Thanks - That would explain it

Is the rest of my understanding correct regarding the Charging Timer?

BarryF said:

Is the rest of my understanding correct regarding the Charging Timer?

Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct. I believe the readout on the dash says Charging Timer To: hh:mm

I set the timer to 7AM (the time when the power gets expensive!). It's 8PM and I just plugged in my Leaf and it went into standby mode!!! I have goose bumps! Thanks, Everyone.

BarryF said:

I set the timer to 7AM (the time when the power gets expensive!). It's 8PM and I just plugged in my Leaf and it went into standby mode!!! I have goose bumps! Thanks, Everyone.

Click to expand...

It will probably turn itself off (with a full charge) sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 AM, so unless you get up real early to check it, the magic will likely be over!

Magic just happened when I walked out and saw it at 100%! That was the finale. The opening act, last night when I plugged in and it didn't start charging, was fab, too.

Thanks everyone.