The Emporia Level 2 is the one to buy: it schedules charging in the app and then shows you the kilowatt-hours it moved, which is the only way to know the schedule is actually working. The ChargePoint Home Flex is the pick if you want the charger to look your utility's rate plan up for you. And if you would rather not involve Wi-Fi in this at all, the EVDANCE portable and the ELEGRP NACS both put a delay timer on the box itself - no app, no cloud, nothing to go offline at 2am.
Scheduling is the smart feature most likely to pay for itself, and it is the only one with a number attached. On a time-of-use electricity plan the same kilowatt-hour can cost two or three times more at 6pm than at 1am, and an EV is the largest single load most homes have. Moving it into the cheap window is free money - but only if the move happens every night without you thinking about it, which is what a scheduler is for. The rate side of this is covered in off-peak and time-of-use charging; this page ranks the hardware that acts on it.
Two kinds of scheduling, and they fail differently
The chargers here split into two groups, and the distinction matters more than the brand:
- App schedules(Emporia, ChargePoint, Autel, EVIQO) are set on your phone and run through the charger's Wi-Fi connection. They can be changed from anywhere, adjusted per weekday, and paired with the charger's own energy reporting so you can confirm the session landed where you wanted. Their failure mode is connectivity: a router reboot, a firmware update or a cloud outage, and the schedule may not fire.
- On-box delay timers(EVDANCE, ELEGRP) are a button on the unit that says "start in N hours". Cruder - no per-day patterns, no remote changes, and you re-arm it each time - but there is nothing between the timer and the contactor. No Wi-Fi, no account, no server. In a detached garage with bad signal, that is not a downgrade, it is the correct product.
Set the schedule in ONE place.Nearly every EV has its own departure or off-peak charging schedule built into the car, and the single most common reason a home charging schedule "stops working" is that the car and the charger are both trying to run one. The charger waits for the car; the car waits for its own window; you wake up to a car that did not charge. Pick one - we usually suggest the charger, because it is the thing that knows your rate and logs the result - and switch the other one off completely.
The picks
The Emporia Level 2wins on the combination rather than on the scheduler alone. Plenty of chargers can delay a start; Emporia schedules the charge, adjusts current in single-amp steps from 6 to 48, and then reports the kilowatt-hours and cost of what happened - so "did my off-peak schedule run last night?" is a question with an answer instead of a hope. It is also the cheapest full-speed charger we track. Details on the metering side are in our energy-monitoring roundup.
The ChargePoint Home Flex has the most rate-aware scheduler here. The app can connect to your local utility and recommend the cheapest window for your plan, or you can enter your own per-kWh price, and you can run different schedules for weekdays and weekends. If you are on a complicated plan and do not want to become an expert in it, that lookup is genuinely the feature you are buying.
The Autel MaxiCharger schedules from the Autel Charge app and carries Bluetooth alongside Wi-Fi, so control survives the weak garage signal that breaks Wi-Fi-only units - the most under-rated reliability feature in this category. The EVIQO Level 2 is the budget app scheduler: the same core capability, UL and ETL listings, an IP66 shell, at the bottom of the price band.
The EVDANCE 40A portable is the pick for anyone who wants off-peak charging with no account and no network. Its delay timer starts the session hours later, its current is adjustable, and being a portable it goes to a second home or a rental with you. The ELEGRP NACS 40A does the same job for a Tesla-style port - five current settings and a delay timer on the box, no app anywhere - and it is the cheapest native-NACS wall unit we track.
How the six compare
| Charger | Amps / kW | Plug type | Cable | Scheduling | Safety listing | Price tier |
|---|
| Emporia Level 2 | 6-48A / up to 11.5 kW | NEMA 14-50 or hardwired | 25 ft | Wi-Fi app schedule + energy reporting to verify it | UL listed, Energy Star | Value |
| ChargePoint Home Flex | 16-50A / up to 12.0 kW | NEMA 14-50 or hardwired | 23 ft | Wi-Fi app, utility rate-plan lookup, weekday/weekend schedules | UL / cUL (UL 2594, UL 2231), Energy Star | Premium |
| Autel MaxiCharger | 40A / 9.6 kW | NEMA 14-50 plug | 25 ft + holster | Wi-Fi + Bluetooth app schedule (control survives weak Wi-Fi) | NEMA 4X weather-rated shell; no UL mark named in our spec set | Mid |
| EVIQO Level 2 | 6-40A / 9.6 kW | NEMA 14-50 plug | 25 ft | Wi-Fi app schedule | UL and ETL, IP66 / NEMA 4 | Budget |
| EVDANCE 40A portable | 10-40A / 9.6 kW | NEMA 14-50 plug (portable) | 25 ft | On-box delay timer - no app, no Wi-Fi | Outdoor-rated, per listing | Budget |
| ELEGRP NACS 40A | 40A / 9.6 kW | NEMA 14-50 plug (NACS connector) | 25 ft | On-box delay timer + five current settings - no app | ETL listed, IP67 | Budget |
Scheduling behaviour above is as documented by each manufacturer. We read the apps' own documentation and the live listings; we did not run a multi-week reliability trial, and our methodology says exactly what we do and do not do.
The buyer's guide
1. Check that you are actually on a time-of-use rate
This is the step people skip. On a flat rate, a scheduler saves you nothing - midnight electricity and 6pm electricity cost the same, and the money you spent on the smart charger is gone. Look at your bill for separate peak / off-peak / super-off-peak prices, or a plan name with "TOU" in it. Many utilities also offer an optional EV rate that is worth opting into before you buy any hardware. Start at off-peak and time-of-use charging and check the numbers against cost by state.
2. Amps to kW, so you know how long the window needs to be
Volts times amps over 1,000: at 240 volts, 32A is 7.7 kW, 40A is 9.6 kW and 48A is 11.5 kW. Now divide the energy you need by that. A 60 kWh top-up at 9.6 kW takes a bit over six hours - so a five-hour super-off-peak window will not finish it, and you either need more amps or a schedule that accepts spilling into the shoulder rate. This is the one case where paying for 48 amps has an obvious payback: a narrower cheap window needs a faster charger. The arithmetic is in what kW means, and the fastest units are ranked in fastest home chargers.
3. Level 1 vs Level 2 changes the scheduling question
A Level 1 cord on a 120-volt outlet delivers 1.4-1.9 kW and roughly 3-5 miles of range per hour. It often needs the entire night, which means there is no cheap window to move it into - scheduling only helps if the charge fits inside the window. Level 2 at 240 volts is what makes off-peak charging possible in the first place. See Level 1 vs Level 2.
4. NACS vs J1772, hardwired vs plug-in
Neither affects scheduling. The connector is a shape - match it to your car's port (how to check) - and the install choice is about speed and permanence, since a NEMA 14-50 plug caps a charger at 40 amps / 9.6 kW while a hardwire unlocks 48. That is the only reason four of the six units here stop at 9.6 kW. See hardwired vs plug-in.
5. Load management: scheduling's bigger sibling
A schedule moves charging in time. Load management moves it in power - throttling the charger in real time when the dryer and the oven are both running, so a full-speed unit can live on a panel that could not otherwise carry it. If your constraint is the panel rather than the rate, that is the feature to shop for: chargers with load balancing.
6. Do not schedule everything to start at exactly the hour
Utilities set off-peak windows precisely because they want load moved there - and if every EV on the street starts at 00:00 sharp, the neighbourhood transformer sees a cliff instead of a ramp. Offsetting your start by a random ten or twenty minutes costs you nothing and is quietly the right thing to do. Several apps will stagger it for you if you let them.
So, which one?
Emporia Level 2 for most homes: schedule it, then check it actually ran. ChargePoint Home Flex if your rate plan is complicated and you want the app to work it out. Autel MaxiCharger if garage Wi-Fi is unreliable and a Bluetooth fallback is worth more than the last kilowatt. EVIQO Level 2 for app scheduling on a budget with a full set of safety listings. EVDANCE 40A portable or the ELEGRP NACS 40A if you want off-peak charging with no network, no account and nothing to update - the second of those if your car has a Tesla-style port.
