New e-Tron owner and trying to understand whether there is an option to precondition for set days at a set time vs. just on demand, or setting for one an advanced day? For example, Monday - Friday at 7am to 72 degrees.

Thanks

 

I never got it to work so gave up long ago. The whole scheduling system for charging etc. is very antiquated. You can set it in the scheduler but as I mentioned, it just never seemed to work for me.

 

Yes, you can do this, but it's all wrapped up in the "departure timers" -- it's not an independent feature just for the climate control. I feel like it's a terribly designed setup. Very confusing.

The car has two types of timers: charging timers and departure timers. It's not clear whether one will override the other, so I tend to just stick with one or the other and don't make any assumptions.

A departure timer is a way of telling the car that you plan to depart at a certain time. It will precondition the interior, warm (or cool) the seats, and boot up the MMI so that you don't have to wait for that when you start the car. The charging timer does all of this, but also handles starting charging so that the charging is completed as close to your departure time as possible, so you depart with a warm battery. The charging timers can also use a "preferred charging time" that shifts the charging time to a period when you have cheaper electricity.

You can configure both of these via the app or the MMI. I find that departure timers are easier to configure via the app, and charging timers are easier (but not by much) in the MMI.

To configure a departure timer (not a charging timer) via the app:

1. Select "Stationary climate control" from the main page
2. Select "Timer"
3. Tap "Settings" -- this lets you configure which seats you want to have preconditioned, and whether you need to defrost the windows.
4. There are two timers available. That's so you can configure them differently (e.g. one for weekends, one for weekdays). Tap the timer you want to configure, and set the date and time. just setting the date and time isn't enough -- you also have to enable the timer.
5. Tap the slider next to the timer to enable it.
6. Tap the checkmark at the top-right to send the timer configuration to the vehicle.

The vehicle will now be configured to precondition and be ready for your departure.

To configure a charging timer via the app:

1. Select the charging item from the menu (the one just above "Stationary climate control")
2. Select "Timer"
3. You get five charging timers you may configure. These may be configured with more complex rules than departure timers, where they repeat only on certain days. Thus it's typical to have a few timers set up (e.g. weekends, weekdays) and have them all enabled, provided they don't conflict with each other.
4. Tap a timer to configure it. You can set a departure time, and you can enable climate control as well. This is a completely separate way of preconditioning the car, but does the same thing as the "departure timers" noted above.
5. Like the departure timers, you have to enable a timerfor it to do anything. Just setting it is in sufficient. Click the checkbox at the top right to send the timers to the vehicle.
6. But wait! You're still not done! The charging timer(s) are enabled but you haven't activated the timer yet. (super obvious, right?) -- this is why I feel like setting the charging timer from the MMI is a little easier. To activate the timer, you now have to climb into the vehicle, close the door, and power on the car. Then turn off the car. With the door still closed, the MMI will pop up a dialog prompting you to activate a charging timer. Tap the clock icon so it has a red line appear. Now the timer is active.
7. Exit the vehicle and plug it in. You'll hear some whirring and clicking, and then you'll get a flashing (not pulsing) green light, which tells you that the vehicle is waiting to charge by timer.
8. The car will activate the charging process just before departure, so that you're fully charged, have a warm battery, *and* the interior is preconditioned, when you're ready to leave.

You cannot set the advanced charging features (location-based charging target, minimum charge, and preferred charging times) from the app -- they must be set from the MMI. See . To get to the advanced charging settings, go to vehicle -> charging & efficiency -> charging in the MMI. It should show you the SoC% bar graph. Swipe left to bring up the list of charging timers. Note that from here, you can do all the same settings as I noted above. Swipe right to go back to the SoC% bar graph. Tap the gear icon at the top right and then select "Advanced charging settings". Now add a location (e.g. your home). Each location can have different custom settings. For example, if you charge at work, you might configure a "Work" profile that has a target SoC% of 100% and no preferred charging time, while the "Home" profile has a target SoC% of 80% and a preferred charging time of midnight-5am to take advantage of cheaper electricity. The minimum charge setting will override any charging timers to get the battery immediately charged to a particular level. So for example you might set the minimum charge to 40%, so if you get home from a long trip and activate a charging timer and plug in, you'll find that it immediately starts charging (not waiting for the timer) until it gets to 40%, then it will stop and charge the rest of the way to your target SoC% via the timer.

The charging target setting in the advanced charging settings does not reflect properly in the MMI's charging status. If get to the "bar graph" display in the MMI, that "charging target" seems to be different from the one you set in "advanced charging settings". It's horrendously confusing and I'm never 100% sure that I've configured it correctly to get the desired results. If it's important that I get to a particular SoC% (for example, the night before a road trip) I'll go into the MMI and ensure that the "bar graph" charging target *AND* the advanced charging settings target, are both set to 100%, so I don't get up the next day to find that the car only charged to 80% (my typical charging target).

I really hope somebody at Audi reads this stuff, because OMG this interface is SOOOOO bad. How could ANYBODY have let this through QA and focus group testing?

 

It was the best software the Indian programmers could come up given the lack of any coordinated VAG QA. Just slap it all together and maybe it will get fixed post-production.

Like anything, it really doesn't matter which country makes something. We all like to rag on poor China for making crappy stuff. And, yes, they do, but they can make excellent stuff IF those companies that have China make their stuff actually care about the quality of their products and demand it; China is only making the stuff to specifications and quality tolerances demanded of it. Same would be true of Indian programmers.

 

Agreed -- this is what happens when the people writing the software (not necessarily India -- could be any contracted software dev shop) have never set foot inside an electric car, much less an e-tron. They probably got a pile of design-by-committee requirements without sufficient context, and did their best to implement what was asked. What they built likely met the specifications, but lacked the "spirit" of a solution that is designed with all the appropriate context in mind.