Prime not ready at scheduled departure time

It's normal for the scheduled charge to be off the mark. I would estimate up to +/- 60 min. The car tries the best to estimate how long it will take to fully charge, but it makes error. The error I have been seeing is more often in earlier finish than later finish. Mine is set for 5:30 am departure on week days. It is often done by 5 am or earlier, but I also have had a few times it was not ready when I actually left home around 6:20 am. Ambient temperature changes and need for the battery heater or cooler, use of preconditioning, any electrical source power fluctuations, and other unpredictable conditions throws off the scheduled charge timing.

 

Mine has never been late. It's always been done 10-15 minutes early of the desired departure time. This all assumes that you have it plugged in early enough for it to do a full charge to begin with. Best thing is to move the departure time earlier.

You say you don't want it charging all night. That should nit be a concern. Let it take how ever long it needs to charge and don't sweat it. I always make sure it's plugged in about 6 hours before I need it. That method has never failed me for a full charge.

 

It won't be "charging all night." It will charge until it's at 100%, then stop charging. It's not like some consumer electronics devices that you have to be careful not to leave on the charger. I often leave my Prime plugged in for several days at a time.

 

I wonder if this would work: Schedule a charge to start 6-1/2 or so hours before your normal departure time, then add a second schedule event for departure at your normal time if you want the climate preconditioning.

 

If you want to set the climate control for pre-conditioning right before you leave, then you just have to set the schedule and if the car is not charged 100% just drive with whatever the level the battery has. If you are seeing 10-20 min to full charge, you have more than 95% charge anyway. The difference of 5% is only a few miles of EV range at the top. For me, the climate control pre-conditioning is a useless feature anyway. The only time I would love to be able to use the feature is when it is cold outside well below 14F. At that temperature, the heat pump is nonoperative. Any other time, preconditioning is just a waste of electricity.

 

I became a prius owner in beginning of February and successfully used the scheduled charge event for a few weeks. This weekend, i plugged it in like normal, and two days in a row, NO charging was delivered overnight. I checked the outlet was fine, the time on the clock is fine, and it charges using "charge now" just fine (at home and at charge point). With COVID 19, I'm only going to ther grocery store and back so i wasn't too inconvenienced, but definitely want to figure out what's going on.

 

Welcome. I can think of a couple possibilities, but without knowing all about your situation and the steps you take, I'm just guessing.
Is it possible that it's waiting for a scheduled charge? There are 3 ways to override the schedule. One is by hitting the "Charge now" button that comes up on the display when you turn off the car assuming that the 7" display on a plus has that feature.

Another way to override the schedule is with the button on the dash that kind of hidden down by the driver's left knee. Use that in conjunction with the MID display after it's too late for the first option.

The third and easiest override is to just plug in the EVSE in the charging port and then unplug it and then plug it back in within about 5 seconds. When you first plug in the EVSE, the green indicator light in the port will bling green a few times and then go out it it's going to wait on the scheduler. If it's going to charge immediately, it'll come on and stay on.

Another possibility might sound stupid, but it's really easy to just forget to turn off a Prime (or any Prius) when you get out of it. You put it in park, browse the amazing statistics and then, because it's dead silent, you just get out and walk away. Happens a lot! And, if the car is still on, it won't charge.

So, if you want it to charge immediately, it's easy to know if it's going to do that. First, the green light in the charging port will light up. Second, the three blinking LEDs on the dash in front of the passenger seat will blink giving a rough approximation of the progress. Third, if you open a car door, the MID will show how long till the charge will take to either start or finish. If it's on a schedule and plugged in when you open a door, it will tell you when the charging is going to start or finish depending on the kind of schedule (start or departure time). If it's actually charging, it gives the estimated time till it's finished.

So, first steps in investigating:

1. Look at the green light in the charging port.
2. Open a door and see what the MID tells you.

These two steps will probably get you starting in the right direction.

 

I've been carefully tracking actual charge times for my car (2020 Prime Limited) and notice the car consistently over estimates the actual time by anywhere from 10 to 20 percent. Car currently has less than 1500 miles on the odometer. Was wondering if others have noticed this and if it changes as the car ages.

 

Yap, the estimate is off, and I don't think it changes as the car ages. My 2017 PPPremium always indicated 6h 10min for empty to full charge, but it was almost always done charging by 5h 30min.

 

I concur with @Salamander_King. Unless I turn on the air conditioner and delay it, mine is always done well ahead of the promised time.