What are charging preferences?
Charging preferences tell Stekker how and when to charge your car. You set them per vehicle and per location. If you don’t configure anything, Stekker uses the default values of your location.
The three most important settings are: when you want to depart, how much battery you need, and whether your vehicle gets priority when capacity is limited.
Departure time
The departure time tells Stekker when your car needs to be ready. The default is 08:00.
Stekker uses the departure time to plan charging intelligently: your car is charged at the lowest cost, as long as it’s ready on time. The more time Stekker has, the more room there is to take advantage of cheap moments.
If the departure time has already passed when you plug in your car, Stekker automatically uses the departure time of the next day.
Battery target
The battery target consists of two parts:
Direct charging
This is the percentage that is charged immediately when you plug in. The default is 20%. The direct portion guarantees you always have a minimum driving range, even if you unexpectedly need to leave early.
Smart charging
This is the percentage up to which smart charging is applied. The default is 90%. The smart portion is optimized on price: Stekker picks the cheapest moments within the available time before your departure.
The difference between direct and smart charging is straightforward: direct charging starts immediately, smart charging is scheduled at the most cost-effective time.
Priority
Each charging card has a priority setting:
- Normal — the default setting. Your vehicle shares the available capacity evenly with other vehicles at the same location.
- High — your vehicle gets priority when the available charging capacity at the location is limited. Useful for vehicles that always need to be fully charged.
Priority is configured per charging card. Contact your administrator if you want to adjust the priority.
How are preferences applied?
When a charging session starts, Stekker automatically determines the charging target. The system checks the following sources, in order of priority:
- Personal preference — your charging preference for this specific vehicle at this location. If you have set this, it is always used.
- Location default preference — if you haven’t set a personal preference, Stekker falls back to the location’s default settings.
Your preference is then translated into a concrete charging target: how many kWh are charged directly, how many kWh are scheduled as smart charging, and when everything needs to be ready.
You can adjust your charging preferences at any time in the Stekker app. Changes take effect from the next charging session.
