BMW cardata API has been stable enough to provide SOC (and amazingly free for individual use).  😀 

EU Type 2 connector uses SAE J1772 signaling which has no means for the car to communicate its state of charge, so yeah, the only way to implement "charge to X% SOC" is with the car's help via API or the car's own app. Wonderful design.

Personally I own an ABB Terra EVSE. I do not recommend it because the app is absolute garbage. It's a trend: bluetooth is free, an actual screen and user interface costs money (especially waterproof) so you get bluetooth and a cloud app that may or may not work on the next mobile phone OS version. 

However the app is only required once for setup and to add RFID tags. I do not purchase products that require an app or cloud service unless it provides actual value (quite uncommon), and the expected lifetime of the product is much shorter than the expected lifetime of the aforementioned cloud servers and app support.

Anyway, the charger works fine, it's built like a tank, it speaks Modbus, there is a Modbus command for on/off and setting charge current, and that's all that's needed to integrate with home automation. Since it does not require internet, it'll work on backup power during blackouts.

I never used the Ethernet port or WiFi, as I am not interested in testing the self-bricking feature also known as "automatic firmware update".

...

Given the charger now does not even take the EV battery state of charge (SOC) into account, I am tempted to get a barebones box and let the HA take care of handling my import Agile tariff- so not a solution for my dad! 

An update on Ohme is deserved... I called them since the EV charger did  not work a few times in the last few days. They spotted that this was due to my supply dropping to 212V overnight. They made a config change on my charger to allow it to work down to 208V. They also raised to their tech support that it should be possible to set it to 207V (as the product manual states). All this in a few hours, possibly a they now focus more on support. 

I was close to get a barebones EV charger but will hold on for now. 

Absolutely, but they seem to make great youtube videos singing to the tune of an app with great UI...

They avoided my direct question about how I can use their charger using the API as a dumb socket... 

We have continuous issues. The "app" no longer checks the car battery level and now it also does not charge when we need it to. 

"

You'll need to add another vehicle to delete the BMW. We can't do this on our end unfortunately.

Just choose the first vehicle in the list to add as a vehicle while you delete the BMW.

Let us know if any issues.

Kind regards,

Abi

"

I did this and still cannot remove the car from the charger config. 

Additionally, Ohme led me to believe they had reengineered the way to access the car battery soc, but it looks like nothing changed! 

I love to not have special treatment.

...

So after one ticket, one week and a few emails , I get this helpful reply:.

Is it just me or do you also think most of what they ask is meant to be used to divert the investigation away from most their product? 

This is what I answered, I really have no hope: 

"...

to your questions: 

I had a registered electrician install the system a few years ago, who interfaced with you. Nothing has changed since. The EV charger is even fed from a dedicated small consumer unit. The system is also registered with my DNO and they did not ask half of these silly questions..

You surely have all the details you needed from the time of installation? 

Coming back to the point of why the Ohme Home Pro was not charging at the max 8kw rate (that it usually does) even if my home provides power via an internal battery. I selected max charge, Do you have any suggestions? 

"

This charger is meant to be able to be driven directly like a smart socket. But now that they override the "max charge" button, it does not even match the MCB (wifi enabled) that I have ready in my main consumer unit.   

what was the difference for the pro version; and don’t say more beta features for you to test lol

😉 Yes, the signature goes everywhere... "Home Pro", they call it, it has been failing to charge the car..

Pro in Ohme lingo probably means "more access to credit/finance".

I agree, EV chargers make too much noise from nothing.

Given the charger now does not even take the EV battery state of charge (SOC) into account, I am tempted to get a barebones box and let the HA take care of handling my import Agile tariff- so not a solution for my dad! 

BMW cardata API has been stable enough to provide SOC (and amazingly free for individual use).  😀 

We went with MyEnergi and got their Zappi. We’ve been impressed with almost everything about it, so I would happily say it’s acting like an adult. In particular:

• It integrates very well with the solar array, providing three charging modes; fast (the full 7kW for a predictable timescale), Eco (that will throttle charge up or down depending on how much our solar is producing, but maintaining at least 1.4kW since that’s the lowest charge rate it’ll handle) and Eco+ (same as Eco, but if solar drops below 1.4kW it’ll pause charging altogether)
• The app does allow for scheduling, boosting and so forth, but to be fair we never use it since…
• …there’s a very good Home Assistant integration that allows us to perform a number of sensible automations such as setting the home battery’s minimum charge level to 90% whilst the car is charging so that leccy for the car cones from either the solar PV or the grid, but not the battery.
• It’s one of the few chargers that is supplied with a physical ethernet port so you can lock down your wifi better.
• It integrates well with TOU tariffs if you want to use the app that way, although we do it through Home Assistant.

When the installer did their initial survey, they requested an isolator switch be installed. Octopus sorted that promptly and admitted MyEnergi are one of the few installers to be that fastidious. For me, wanting peace of mind that the work’s been done safely, that was a real plus point.

There are only two minor gripes I have with it. Firstly is that you can’t give it a fixed IP address; you can only give it a static lease. Secondly is that they still haven’t managed to turn off the demand side response meaning the charging may be sometimes delayed by 10 minutes unless we go into the app and hit “ignore and charge now anyway”.

As for being kind to the grid, we have another HA integration to pull the current carbon intensity of the power being generated for our region. We are able to include that in our automations as we see fit.