With the closure of Charge HQ you may be looking for an alternative to help manage your EV charging. Whilst there is no drop-in replacement for Charge HQ, there are other options which may work for you depending on your situation. We haven't extensively tested any of these (aside from Amber for EVs, of course!) so can't comment on their usability.
For those in supported regions in Australia, Amber's smart EV product is similar to Charge HQ, being entirely cloud-based: no extra hardware is needed. It offers similar features including solar charging, scheduling and more advanced price-based charging. It also includes a "ready by" feature, which is able to charge your vehicle to a desired level by a specified time using the cheapest electricity. It can also prevent the EV from charging from the home battery - a feature which is often requested by Charge HQ users.
Amber for EVs is available to Amber retail customers.
It supports Tesla vehicles (except older Model S/X) and has an open beta testing program with MG, Audi and Xpeng EVs.
There is an open beta testing program for MyEnergi Zappi chargers. Other OCPP smart chargers are not currently supported.
It supports most of the solar inverters and batteries supported by Charge HQ, plus quite a few more brands.
For questions regarding Amber for EVs please see Amber for EVs or reach out to ev-support@amber.com.au
An open-source project which installs on a local device eg Raspberry Pi and provides smart charging features including solar charging. Setup requires a bit of effort. Some hardware integrations require making a small regular donation to the project. It has a very good feature set, including the ability to prevent the EV from charging from the home battery depending on your hardware.
It integrates to a wide range of solar inverters and EV chargers (including via OCPP). Tesla vehicle integration is possible but tricky to setup and may require use of a third-party subscription service. See this page for details.
A very popular free and open-source project that provides a platform for home automation of all kinds. Requires a local device eg a Raspberry Pi. Setup takes some effort but can be worth it, especially if you have other home automation tasks.
There are some EV smart charging plugins including:
If you have a Tesla Powerwall and a Tesla vehicle, it comes with solar charging out-of-the-box. See this article for a comparison with Charge HQ.
If you have a Tesla Powerwall, Netzero can perform smart EV charging features including solar charging. It is a cloud-based service so no hardware is required, and has a monthly subscription.
It is compatible with a large range of vehicle brands (including Tesla) and multiple smart chargers including via OCPP. Proper solar charging (with varying power) only works with OCPP chargers or Tesla vehicles.
A cloud-based smart charging app for US users — no hardware required. It automatically matches Tesla vehicle charging to excess rooftop solar and is built specifically around US net billing tariffs including California's NEM 3.0, with a built-in savings estimator. It currently supports Tesla vehicles (charging controlled via the vehicle, so any charger works, including the Tesla Wall Connector and Mobile Connector) along with Tesla Powerwall, Tesla Solar, SolarEdge, and Enphase. Support for additional inverters and non-Tesla EVs is on the roadmap.
SundialEV is free and currently in beta, available on iOS and the web. It is US-focused. For questions, see sundialev.com/chargehq-alternative.
These solutions require an electrician to install hardware at your home.
For details on solar-aware EV chargers, see Options for EV charging from solar.
Catch Power: provides solar-aware charging using compatible OCPP chargers or a simple 15 amp switchable socket. See this page for supported equipment.
These projects provide smart charging features, but may have limited hardware support or are not ready for public use yet.
