evcc-io
Fallback for charging plan if backend connection is unavailable
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. It happenes sometimes, that for some reason the OEM backend (in my case VW) is not reachable. Might be caused by backend itself, changes in authentication, internet connectivity and so on.
If this happens, my configured recurring charging plan is not executed. In my case this plan is: On weekdays, charge to 70% until 4:00 AM during cheap tariff (0-5 AM). So it happened, that I could not use the car in the morning, because charging at night failed.
Describe the solution you'd like I would love a possibility to have a "fallback" in the charging plan for such cases: "If backend is unavailable, charge 25 kWh until 4:00 AM". This is what I manually do in such cases until backend is connected again.
Describe alternatives you've considered As I use evcc within Home Assistant, I considered using the HA vehicle integration. This seems a bit more stable since the connection issues are fixed quite fast in HA, but on the other hand it adds another potential risk ("car not charged because HA crashed" etc.)
Additional context Unfortunately VWs backend is a bit picky, e.g. in terms of privacy agreements. If they change their privacy statement (which they did several times in the past) evcc is unable to connect until I open the VW website and accept the statement.
If this happens, my configured recurring charging plan is not executed.
It's sufficient to identify the vehicle (or select it in the UI) for the planner to work. It does not need to be reachable.
@andig
I think my issue needs some clarification:
The issue is not, that car is not selected correctly. Since we do only have one EV this is always selected.
It is rather the fact, that charging plan cannot be generated without the battery level (which is normal). In this case, I need some fallback to charge the car at night without knowing its level
Good Case:
Scenario 1:
- Car is plugged in
- Recurring plan is active
- Backend connection lost --> Plan is pre-calculated and continues to execute normally -> Everything works fine. 
Bad Case:
Scenatio 2:
- Car NOT plugged in
- Backend connection lost (cloud error icon)
- car plugged in later
Observed behavior:
- Selected Vehicle is correct
- Battery level is not available, SOC bar is fully green, similar to guest mode
- Recurring plan is gone in UI, no recurring plan possible
- Car does not charge at all unless a manual plan is created
Note that I do not want to check EVCC manually every time I plug in the car...
Expected behavior: When a recurring plan exists and the car is plugged in while the vehicle connection is unavailable, EVCC should provide some fallback behavior, e.g.:
- Execute a predefined night-charging window
- Allow recurring plans to run without SOC, using conservative assumptions
- Or any other mechanism that avoids “no charging at all”
In the UI it looks like this (Car has Level 51%, Recurring plan for 70% at departure Monday 03:00 AM is active):