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Brief · Cars
The car, as part of the house.
A car is a battery on wheels that is sometimes at home. Lenou reads it through the make's official way in, and lets the charger do the charging.
What it is
An electric car is a large battery that is sometimes at home. What matters to the house is how full it is, whether it is on the cable, and whether it is there.
Cars have no local way in: everything goes through the make's service. Lenou always uses the official way, with the owner's own sign-in. That key stays on the box in the house.
What Lenou reads and controls
Tesla
Through Tesla's Fleet API.
- Reads
- Battery, range, charging and charge limit, climate, lock, and whether the car is home.
- Controls
- Start and stop charging, charge limit and charging current, preheating, lock, horn and lights.
- Limit
- A car from 2021 or later takes commands only after the owner accepts Lenou's key once in the Tesla app. Tesla charges per request above a free credit, so Lenou reads every ten minutes by default, and never wakes a sleeping car just to read it.
Volvo
Through Volvo Cars' Connected Vehicle API.
- Reads
- Battery, range, lock, doors, windows, tailgate and sunroof, tyre pressure, warning lamps, when it is due at the workshop, odometer, and whether it is home.
- Controls
- Preheating, lock and unlock, horn and lights.
- Limit
- Starting a charge or setting a charge limit is not possible this way; that stays in the car and the Volvo app.
BMW and MINI
Through BMW CarData, the official customer interface.
- Reads
- Battery, range, charging, cable, charge target, lock, doors, windows, odometer, and whether the car is home.
- Signing in
- With a short code on BMW's own page. The password never passes through Lenou.
- Limit
- No commands. BMW allows fifty requests a day, so a new reading roughly every forty minutes. An older i3 takes part too.
Mercedes-Benz
Through Mercedes-Benz's official vehicle data, with consent per product.
- Reads
- Battery, range, lock, doors and windows, odometer.
- Why in progress
- Not yet tried against a real Mercedes. No position, no charging state, no commands.
Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, SEAT and CUPRA
No integration yet.
- Why
- There is no public developer programme, and the unofficial way has been closed. A workaround that could get the owner's account blocked is not something Lenou builds. Whoever searches for the make gets this explanation.
What that means in the app
- The car's battery sits next to the house's, on the Energy screen.
- "Charge to 80 %" or "full by seven" works with what the car itself reports, while the charger does the charging.
- A car coming home is a state like any other: a rule can start on it.
- Where the car is leaves the integration only as "home" or "away" and a distance. The coordinates themselves never do.
Honest limits
- Everything goes through the make's cloud. Without internet the last values stay.
- Each make limits how often it may be asked. A car in Lenou is therefore never up to the second.
- Commands work today on Tesla and Volvo; the other makes are only read.