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Charge Anytime - Charge control polling frequency

  • February 20, 2026
  • 2 replies
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Something I have noticed when charging my Cupra Formentor PHEV (19.7kWh battery version) overnight, is that by the morning it has sometimes (I would even say often) not met the charge target and the car has enabled its 12v battery protection as a result of too many remote wake requests (and thus, comms from Charge Anytime that would result in completing the charge fail to reach the car). This also prevents remotely starting cabin pre-heating etc. until I go outside and turn the car on and off.

However this has never, to my recollection, happened when my charging has been during the daytime, even if the potential charging window has been 14h+ to my target time.

Is there a difference between how often charging schedules change or how frequently CA attempts to communicate with the car overnight vs during the day?

It would be useful to understand if there’s anything I can do/change that will reduce the frequency of these remote wakeups to deliver charge instructions and reduce the risk of this 12v protection occurring overnight.

As it stands after a normal working day, it results in it being preferable for me to try and complete charges in the evening rather than setting the target time for the following morning, which i’m sure is not ideal for OVO.

(Another option is disabling the 12v protection but I have seen other owners need the car recovered to a dealership following the depletion of the 12v battery, so that’s not a preferred solution)

Additional info FWIW - the other part of the charging setup is an Ohme Home Pro that is currently configured to be completely dumb, so I don’t envisage this is interfering at all

Best answer by Chris_OVO

Hey ​@divinemadness,

 

I just had a chat with the team at Charge Anytime about the issues you’ve been facing, and they mentioned that it seems like there’s a bit of a conflict between two processes. Charge Anytime is designed to ensure your car is ready and charged by the time you set, which means it needs to keep the car “awake” to stick to that schedule. However, the 12V protection system is there to prioritise the long-term health of your battery, and sometimes that can interfere with charging schedules, preconditioning, and keeping your vehicle alert instead of in hybernation mode.

 

As Peter wisely pointed out, manufacturers design their software based on what they consider the best features for each vehicle. This doesn’t always match up with how you use your car, so finding a good balance is really key. Right now, we don’t have any specific workarounds, but understanding how the 12V protection operates will definitely help as you might be able to meet the same safeguards with the protection turned off! 

 

You presumably won’t need to have your car towed to a dealership. A jump start should do the trick and get your 12V battery charging again when the engine is running. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to reach out and you can also speak with your local dealership to get a better understanding from them about your vehicle settings. 

2 replies

Peter E
Super User
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  • Peter ESuper User
  • Super User
  • February 20, 2026

You may have other more informed replies but the constant polling of the car is usually a workaround to stop the car going to sleep when the charging is broken into several parts. If the car falls asleep then it's not possible to wake it up the do the next part of the charging.

 

Some of this is guesswork but it seems OVO can provide cheaper charging by being part of the Capacity Market. This means that they get paid for adjusting the load on the network to meet national and local conditions for loading. If for instance the load on the network is higher than predicted, instead of asking for more power at a very high cost a supplier can be paid a smaller amount to reduce demand. Part of this payment goes to the customer who agreed to take part in load shedding (intermittent charging). So the charging occurs when there is the greatest financial reward to do so which means the charging gets switched on and off at unpredictable times but the total charge to the car is always achieved. The problem comes if the off time is longer than the time the car will stay awake for if not charging. To prevent the car falling asleep ‘wake up’ commands are sent which keep the car awake but drains the 12V battery.

 

So the answer is there are no settings available to you to change this behaviour. Given that cars fall asleep to save the 12V battery ‘keep awake’ commands are quite normal practice, however, not all cars behave well with this mode of operation. I don't think car manufacturers take this type of charging into account when designing their software.

 

Someone else may come on here to say there is a workaround for this and let us know.

 

Peter

Reducing my yearly fossil fuel usage with an EV (-900 litres petrol), A2AHP (-8,500 kWh gas) and Timed Immersion heater (-1,500 kWh gas)
Chris_OVO
Community Manager
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  • Chris_OVO
  • Community Manager
  • Solved
  • February 23, 2026

Hey ​@divinemadness,

 

I just had a chat with the team at Charge Anytime about the issues you’ve been facing, and they mentioned that it seems like there’s a bit of a conflict between two processes. Charge Anytime is designed to ensure your car is ready and charged by the time you set, which means it needs to keep the car “awake” to stick to that schedule. However, the 12V protection system is there to prioritise the long-term health of your battery, and sometimes that can interfere with charging schedules, preconditioning, and keeping your vehicle alert instead of in hybernation mode.

 

As Peter wisely pointed out, manufacturers design their software based on what they consider the best features for each vehicle. This doesn’t always match up with how you use your car, so finding a good balance is really key. Right now, we don’t have any specific workarounds, but understanding how the 12V protection operates will definitely help as you might be able to meet the same safeguards with the protection turned off! 

 

You presumably won’t need to have your car towed to a dealership. A jump start should do the trick and get your 12V battery charging again when the engine is running. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to reach out and you can also speak with your local dealership to get a better understanding from them about your vehicle settings. 

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