Understanding the EV home screen

This page is for customers who have connected their EV directly to Amber. If you are using a smart charger or an OCPP connection, your controls and layout will look different.

The EV home screen gives you a real-time view of your car's charging status and everything Amber is doing to charge it as cheaply as possible. Here's a breakdown of everything you'll see.

Top toolbar

At the top of the screen is your toolbar:

• Vehicle model: Tap this to see live data and connection details

The three icons to the right give you quick access to:

• Manual control: charge at maximum rate immediately until a specified time (only available when plugged in at home)
• Charging history: view your charging sessions from the last 8 days.
• EV settings and charging rules: toggle automation on/off, manage your charging rules, or manage your vehicle connection.

The charging ring

The large ring at the top of the screen is your at-a-glance view of your car's current state. The number inside shows your current state of charge (SOC) as a percentage, indicating how full your battery is.

The label inside the ring tells you what's happening right now. Here's what each state means:

• Charging: Your car is plugged in at home and actively charging. The green arc shows how full your battery is.
• Resting: Your car is plugged in but Amber has paused charging based on your charging rules or because your battery is full.
• Unplugged: Your car is home but not plugged in. Plug in and Amber will take it from there.
• Away: Your car has been detected away from home. Plug in when you're back and Amber will take it from there.
• Est SOC: You are looking at the future! This is the estimated battery level based on where you’ve "scrubbed" to on the forecast timeline.

When a Ready-By plan is active, a small white notch on the ring marks your target charge level. This helps you understand at a glance how far you have to go.

Ready-By plan

Ready-By lets you tell Amber when you need your car ready and to what charge level. We’ll then work out the cheapest way to get you there in time.

• Inactive: No plan set. Tap to tell Amber when you need the car and how much battery you need.
• Active: Shows your current target (e.g., "80% by 07:30"). Amber will now calculate the cheapest possible windows to hit that goal. To cancel, tap the bin icon to remove the plan and revert to your default rules.

Charging forecast

Below the Ready-By card is your Charging Forecast. This shows you what Amber expects to happen over the next 24 hours based on you being at home and plugged in for the duration. The forecast updates every 5 minutes with the latest available data.

Forecast card

The card at the top of the forecast section shows your current or estimated state of charge, grid price, and active charging rule.

For example, "Opportunity charging up to 9¢/kWh" means Amber will charge whenever the price is at or below 9¢/kWh to top up your EV’s battery when the price is cheap.

Interactive timeline

• Scrubbing: Drag your finger across the chart to see your projected battery level up to 24 hours in advance.
• Colours: Green indicates active charging. Grey indicates resting.
• Back to Now: Tap this to jump back to the present moment.

When you scrub forwards in the timeline, the label in the charging ring changes to Est SOC to show that you're viewing a projection, not live data. Tap "Back to now" on the timeline or in the charging ring to return.

Scrubbing backwards to view history isn't supported yet.

The coloured bands along the bottom indicate the energy source expected at each point:

• Solar: charging from your available excess solar power
• Grid: charging from the grid
• Solar + Grid: charging from both sources simultaneously
• Resting: charging is paused