Limitations and failsafes in smart charging

Why does my car sometimes charge in expensive hours?

Even with smart charging there are limits. Leafy Energy has several failsafes to make sure you do not end up with an empty battery.

Key failsafes

• Deadline failsafe: if the schedule becomes too tight, the system starts charging earlier.
• Minimum SOC failsafe: if you drop below a critical level, charging starts immediately regardless of price.
• Communication failsafe: if connectivity is lost, Leafy Energy falls back to a safe, basic schedule.

Known limitations

• Not every car or charger supports the same level of control.
• Very short plug-in windows (for example 2 hours) leave little room for optimisation.
• Extreme price spikes can lead to behaviour that looks odd but still follows your settings.

In demos, you can visualise these failsafes as markers on the timeline that clearly show where the system intervened.