If your app offers solar charging, smart charging can charge your car from your own solar panels. This lowers what you pay for grid electricity and uses more of your own solar power.
Smart charging reads your inverter in real time. It always plans for the cheapest hours of your energy tariff first. When there is surplus solar, charging from solar takes priority.
Below the solar start threshold, smart charging falls back to the plan based on the cheapest hours.
The app reads your real-time solar export: the power your home is not using. Charging starts when the export reaches your threshold and stops when it drops below. If your car supports it, the charging power is adjusted to the available solar.
The app asks for your typical home electricity use. It then estimates the surplus as your total solar production minus that estimated use.
If your app offers solar forecast, smart charging forecasts tomorrow's solar production. It keeps the sunny hours free for solar and charges only the rest overnight in the cheapest hours. Without a forecast, the car is often already full before the sun comes up, and most of the day's solar goes unused.
The forecast needs a few details about your panels: the peak power of your system, the direction the panels face and their tilt. Your ready-by time, maximum price and minimum charge level still apply.
Some cars can adjust their charging power to match your solar output: