Smart Charging doesn't work - Troubleshooting – English

Is Smart Charging via NextEnergy not working as expected? Then follow the steps below.

1. Check your car manufacturer's app or account

For Smart Charging, your car manufacturer must give permission to read certain data and control your car remotely.

Therefore, check in your car manufacturer's app or online portal whether:

your car is correctly linked to your account;
remote control services are active;
sharing vehicle data is permitted;
sharing charging data is permitted;
control or charging by external services is permitted;
location data is available, when required by your car manufacturer.

Some car manufacturers require you to give separate permissions for this. These settings are usually found under topics such as privacy, connected services, data sharing, remote services, or third parties.

Have you recently changed your password, privacy settings, or account settings with your car manufacturer? If so, you may need to link the car to NextEnergy again.

2. Check whether a subscription from your car manufacturer is required

Sometimes you need an active service or connected-car subscription from your car manufacturer to allow third parties to read data from and control your car. (especially with Skoda)

Some car manufacturers provide these services free of charge for several years when you purchase the car. This may be the case with Škoda, for example. When this free period ends, remote control functions may stop without anything immediately changing in your car.

As a result, Smart Charging via NextEnergy may also stop working.

Therefore, check in your car manufacturer's app or portal whether all connected services are still active.

3. Disable other charging schedules

In addition to NextEnergy, do you also use a charging schedule in:

your car's app;
your car's infotainment system;
your charging station's app;
another smart charging app?

If so, disable these schedules when using Smart Charging via NextEnergy.

When multiple systems determine at the same time when your car may or may not charge, the commands may conflict with each other. In that case, we cannot guarantee that Smart Charging via NextEnergy will function properly.

Therefore, preferably let NextEnergy be the only system determining when charging takes place.

4. Check whether your car is reachable online

To send a charging command, your car must be reachable through your car manufacturer's servers.

For example, check in your car manufacturer's official app whether you can:

see the current charging status;
see the current battery percentage;
refresh the car remotely;
possibly start a charging command remotely yourself.

Are current data also not displayed in your car manufacturer's app? Then the problem is probably with the connection between the car and the car manufacturer's platform. In that case, NextEnergy usually cannot control the car either.

5. Check your car's location and privacy settings

Some car manufacturers require the car to have permission to share location or vehicle data.

This setting may be found both in the car manufacturer's app and in the car's infotainment system.

For example, check whether:

location data is enabled;
online services are active;
privacy mode is not set to the most restrictive setting;
data sharing with connected services is permitted.

When these settings are disabled, the connection may still be visible even though charging commands do not arrive properly.

6. Check whether the car can actually charge

Check whether:

the charging cable is properly connected;
the charging station is available;
there is no error at the charging station;
the car has not reached its own charging limit;
the battery still has enough room to charge.

For example, if you have set a charging limit of 80% and the battery is already at 80%, the car will not start charging, even if NextEnergy sends a command to do so.

Still having problems?

Have you checked all the steps above and is Smart Charging still not working? Then contact our customer service.