Smart Electric Vehicles

Discover the Best Electric Vehicle Ecosystems for Your Smart Home.

Integrating your electric vehicle (EV) with Homey unlocks a world of convenience and energy efficiency. You can monitor battery levels, view charging status, and track your vehicle’s location. Homey can also schedule charging, preheat your EV, or lock and unlock it remotely.

This Best Buy Guide explores how Homey integrates with various EV brands and their connected platforms. By combining it with EV chargers or PV systems, you can further optimize your EV’s energy usage.

What to Look for in an EV Ecosystem

EV ecosystems vary widely in features and capabilities, making it essential to prioritize what matters most to you. Whether it’s advanced monitoring, alerts, or EV control, focusing on the right aspects ensures an efficient and connected experience.

Monitoring

Look for an ecosystem with robust tools for monitoring various EV features, such as battery levels, charging status, range, and vehicle location, in real time.

Control

Evaluate the level of control the platform provides. Look for helpful features like managing charging schedules, adjusting climate settings, and locking or unlocking your vehicle remotely.

Alerts

Consider the importance of timely alerts for events such as low batteries, charging interruptions, vehicle movement, or maintenance reminders.

EV Charger Compatibility

Ensure the EV and ecosystem support a wide range of EV chargers, especially if you already own one.

Security and Privacy

Prioritize systems that include encrypted communication, strong authentication, and transparent options for managing your data privacy.

Brand	Monitoring	Control	Alerts	Price1
BMW ConnectedDrive				€48,000
Hyundai Bluelink				€40,000
Kia Connect				€35,000
Mercedes-Benz				€45,000
Polestar				€49,000
Stellantis Group				€25,000
Tesla				€43,000
Volvo				€42,000
VW Group				€35,000
XPeng				€38,000

BMW’s ConnectedDrive platform enables smart connectivity for many vehicles, including electric models like the i4, iX, and i7. The app allows users to integrate their BMW EV with Homey Pro and remotely monitor and manage their vehicle.

Users can lock or unlock the car, adjust climate settings, and locate their vehicle by flashing its lights or sounding the horn. Alerts can notify them when charging starts or stops, the car locks or unlocks, or the A/C is running.

For EVs, Homey lets users track battery levels, monitor charging progress, and send custom messages to the vehicle’s dashboard. The geofencing feature provides live updates on their car’s location, enhancing security and convenience.

ConnectedDrive integrates smoothly with Homey, but the polling interval needs to be set to more than 5 minutes. BMW limits service calls to their API, which may affect the functionality of certain features.

Hyundai’s Bluelink platform offers advanced connectivity features for its EVs. It enables remote access and control for models like the IONIQ, KONA, and Tucson Plug-in Hybrid.

Once integrated into Homey, users can control features such as locking or unlocking the car, controlling the A/C, or using the defrosting mode. Users can also manage battery charging by setting limits or creating schedules.

Additionally, Homey users can monitor key vehicle data, including battery levels, charging status, tire pressure, odometer readings, range, speed, and overall vehicle status. They can set up alerts to notify them when the car locks or unlocks, the engine or A/C turns on or off, defrosting starts or stops, or the vehicle moves or parks. Another handy feature is the ability to view the estimated time to home (ETTH), letting users know when their spouse is expected to arrive home.

It’s worth noting that excessive use of the Hyundai app can drain the car’s battery if the vehicle is not running. Hyundai has set this limitation to prevent the overuse of its services.

Mercedes-Benz owners can integrated their EV directly into Homey instead of relying on the Mercedes me app for everyday checks. A morning flow can warm up the cabin before you leave, a notification can let you know the moment charging finishes, or the doors can lock themselves the instant you walk away from the car.

The Mercedes-Benz Homey app covers a broad set of readings, including battery and fuel levels, tire pressure, oil and AdBlue levels, odometer and range, charging status, door and window state, sunroof position, location and heading, upcoming service intervals, and an eco score for your driving.

On the control side, you can lock and unlock the car, start or stop the engine and climate system, open and close the windows and sunroof, flash the lights, sound the horn, and send a destination straight to the navigation. You can also schedule departure times, cap the maximum charge, adjust seat heating per seat, and set the cabin temperature. Geofencing lets you know when the car enters or leaves a zone you define, and unexpected movement while parked can trigger a theft alert.

Setup requires a Mercedes me account, and it's best to use a separate one for Homey so it doesn't conflict with sessions on your phone. Two-factor authentication needs to be turned off on that account, and a security PIN set up in the Mercedes me app is required for commands like unlocking or starting the engine.

Kia uses a platform similar to Hyundai’s Bluelink, called Kia Connect (or Kia UVO in older models), to deliver smart vehicle connectivity. Integration with EVs like the EV6, Kia Niro, and Soul EV enhances vehicle management through monitoring, alerts, and remote controls.

With Homey, users can track key metrics such as battery levels, tire pressure, odometer readings, range, speed, and overall vehicle status. Homey also alerts for important events, such as doors left open or unlocked, the vehicle starting to move, or a drained battery.

Like Hyundai, Kia allows users to start the car remotely, lock or unlock doors, adjust the target temperature, and fully manage the A/C. Additional features, such as preheating the cabin or activating defrosting when needed, are beneficial during winter.

However, Kia imposes platform limits similar to those of Hyundai. Excessive use of the app can drain the car’s battery or even block access to certain services, so careful use is required to avoid these issues.

Polestar, a Swedish automotive brand established in 1996, initially focused on motorsports before evolving into a manufacturer of electric vehicles. Now, Polestar manufactures popular EV models like the Polestar 2, 3, and 4.

Integrating a Polestar EV with Homey allows users to monitor data such as battery levels, charging status, and current power usage. Homey Pro also lets them set up notifications for events like the car starting or stopping charging, connecting or disconnecting from a charger, and completing trips. However, it’s important to note that remote control of vehicle functions is currently unavailable, a limitation imposed by Polestar.

The Polestar app also allows users to link their Tibber account without any extra subscription, enabling efficient energy management for their Polestar vehicle. This integration lets users charge during low-price periods and automatically pause charging when prices are high.

With an electric vehicle from Citroën, Peugeot, Opel, or DS Automobiles, all part of the Stellantis Group, you can bring your car's data into Homey after a one-time login through your browser. Stellantis Group has more than 30 electric vehicle models across its brands.

Once connected, you can track your battery percentage, charging state, voltage, and maintenance details for your car, all from your Homey dashboard. Homey also flags every completed trip, giving you the consumption, distance, and time it took, so you can build a picture of how efficiently you're driving over time.

You can set up flows that respond to changes in your car's charging state, and trigger a manual status update whenever you want fresh data right away instead of waiting for the next automatic refresh.

Remote control features like locking, unlocking, or climate control are not available yet. Reading your car's data and sending it commands works differently behind the scenes, and the developer is still working on the remote control side.

Tesla, the company that revolutionized and popularized the widespread use of electric vehicles, offers a suite of advanced connectivity features through its Tesla App. Every Tesla vehicle has smart connectivity, allowing users to monitor and control various aspects of their car.

Integrating a Tesla EV with Homey Pro allows users to monitor, receive alerts, and control various aspects of their vehicle. Homey lets them track battery levels, vehicle speed, odometer readings, door lock status, tire pressure (TPMS), and even pending software updates.

Remote control features include locking or unlocking doors, flashing headlights, honking the horn, opening the trunk, and enabling Sentry Mode. This mode is a security feature in Tesla vehicles that is designed to monitor their surroundings when parked. Using the vehicle’s external cameras and sensors, Tesla cars can detect potential threats.

Since Tesla has transitioned to their new Fleet API, certain features have newly set limits. For example, waking the car remotely may sometimes be unreliable or unavailable.

Volvo On Call brings Volvo's connected car platform into Homey, letting owners of models like the EX30, EX40, and EX90 keep an eye on their vehicle without opening a separate app. If a door or window gets left open, or the car ends up parked somewhere unlocked, Homey can alert you right away and lock the doors on your behalf.

Homey tracks battery level, charging state, range, and the car's live location, and can trigger flows when the vehicle arrives home or drives off. If the car has a parking heater fitted, you can have it switch on before you head out, so the cabin is warm and the windows are clear by the time you get in.

For control, Homey can lock or unlock the car, flash the lights, or sound the horn, handy for drawing attention to the car during an alarm or a fire. Homey can also start and stop charging your Volvo EV remotely.

How quickly these updates and actions show up depends on how often the car itself pushes data to the Volvo Cloud, so responsiveness can vary a bit between models and driving conditions.

With an electric vehicle from Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, SEAT, Cupra, or Bentley, you can bring your car's live data straight into Homey. The connection runs through the EU Data Act portal instead of a manufacturer app, so your vehicle's data updates automatically every 15 minutes without you doing anything.

Once connected, your car's status appears on your Homey dashboard. You can track battery level, driving range, charging status, mileage, lock state, tire pressure, and interior and exterior temperatures, all in one place.

Homey also turns that data into automations. You can get notified when a door, window, or trunk opens, when the charging plug connects or disconnects, when charging starts or stops, or when your battery or range drops below a level you set. Flows can also respond to your car moving or standing still, so you always know when it's parked at home or out on the road. From Homey, you can lock or unlock your car remotely, and track its charging power through Homey Energy.

XPENG Car Manager connects your XPENG electric vehicle to Homey through Enode, so charging and battery data become part of your smart home instead of living in a separate manufacturer app. Setup is handled through a one-time connection link that authorizes Homey to access your XPENG account, without creating a separate account.

Once linked, Homey keeps track of battery level, remaining range, plug status, and the car's location, and can notify you when charging starts, stops, or completes, or when the vehicle enters or leaves an area you define. The app also predicts how long a charge will take and how much range you'll end up with, based on the car's current state.

Charging itself can be started or stopped directly from Homey, and you can pull a fresh data refresh on demand rather than waiting for the next scheduled update. The app adjusts how often it checks in automatically, polling more often while the car is charging and easing off when it's idle.

Locking, unlocking, and climate features aren't part of this integration, so control is limited to charging rather than the whole car.