the cost is at the minimum or below the threshold cost to minimize the cost of charging the battery application_number US 83882810 A description faced with increasing environmental and regulatory pressures utility companies are using price as a way to encourage responsible energy use utility pricing however may change over the course of a day for example utility price tables can vary from 1 cent to 80 cents per kilowatt hour in a single 24 hour period certain embodiments described herein provide a battery charge optimizer feature that enables a user to for example customize battery charging based on user and utility inputs the optimizer may allow each user to use utility provided pricing information and energy generation source information via a smart grid interface for example to establish a desired optimized battery charge profile based on the user 39 s wants and needs three example battery charge optimization choices in certain embodiments may be provided 1 cheapest charge 2 greenest charge and 3 fastest charge in certain cheapest charge embodiments the vehicle charge time may be based on the cost of electricity as an example electricity rates e g utility rate tables from a utility user selected rates home energy management system rates public service rates or inferred rates etc battery state and battery charge may be used as inputs to algorithms that establish the charge time interval within optional customer selected time constraints that minimizes the cost of battery charging in certain.