Set Scheduled Departure so your Tesla is warm and charged exactly when you leave.
Plug in at night and your Tesla can finish charging and warm itself up at the exact minute you plan to leave, instead of sitting fully charged and cold for hours before you get in. The feature that does this is called Scheduled Departure, and Tesla’s owner’s manual describes it as a way to schedule preconditioning and charging so the car is ready when you need it.
What it actually does
Scheduled Departure combines two separate settings. Preconditioning warms the battery and cabin so the car performs better and you’re not scraping ice or waiting on the heater once you’re inside. Scheduled charging works backward from a target time: tell it when you want to leave, and the car calculates when to start charging so it reaches your chosen battery level right around then, rather than hours earlier and then sitting at full charge overnight.
How to set it up
On the touchscreen, go to Controls, then Schedule, or set it directly from the Climate and Charging screens. You can also configure it from the Tesla app. Choose a location — Home or Work — and set your preconditioning and charging times for that location. The car remembers separate schedules per location, so a weekday morning setup at home won’t interfere with a schedule you set at work.
Why this can save you money
If your utility charges less overnight, setting your charge to finish right before you leave, rather than the moment you plug in, means more of your charging happens during the cheapest hours available — even in areas without a formal off-peak rate. It’s a free setting built into every Tesla, not an add-on, and it costs nothing to try for a week.
One limitation to know
Scheduled charging doesn’t apply at fast chargers, including Superchargers. Your schedule only affects charging on standard AC power, like a home Wall Connector or Mobile Connector. Plug into a Supercharger and it charges immediately at full speed no matter what your schedule says.
Photo by Andersen EV.