Volvo Tests Plug-in Hybrids

Smart charging can be done based on time of day and time of week - certainly in cool countries.
As long as you avoid charging between 5 pm and 9pm, you will be OK.
If you charge between 11 pm and 6 am, it is very good.
So if you go home and plug it in, at 5pm, nothing happens till 11pm + some dither amount (to prevent all cars starting to charge at 11pm).
You might have a "Force" button to force it to charge, say if you are in a parking lot, or at work.
It could then charge enough to repeat the previous journey.
Public Charging stations should be coin operated - 1 or 2 euros will buy a lot of power, + the price could be based on time of day (easy) or grid condition (requires some signalling).

I agree-- the car itself should have a configurable timer, so non-stupid charging can be done independent of any so-called smart charger/grid. For example, the car's inside LCD display could be used to view and edit charging options. This would be analogous somewhat to lawn watering systems, perhaps with a few simple selections, e.g. Program A/B/C. Either an inside button (e.g. from the display) or a button/display or slide/rotory switch outside next to the plug could select and activate charging.

Besides time-of-day charging (to delay start of charge or avoid certain peak hours) it is useful to have the driver indicate how long the car will be plugged in.

For example, you open the plug cover and connect the car to power, then slide an adjacent selector switch (or slider pot) that says, "ASAP,2hr,4hr,6hr,...,Overnight,Prog-A,Prog-B". Suppose you park the car at 3pm, plug it in, then you adjust the slider to 6hrs, indicating the car will be parked for >6 hours. The charging system could know to wait until past the (pre-programmed) peak use time and charge during 6-9pm.

Using cell phone communications is still a good idea. If the car has a cell-phone/GPS anyway, it could send an SMS-like message to the power company to indicate a charging request. The power company could return the SMS with more precise load predictions and costs. Perhaps the power company could offer a rebate on a home electric bill for controlled charging. The cell-phone car-charging network could also be used for load control/stabilization in lieu of running standby power or building flywheel plants. If there are a significant number of cars charging, then the charging network could add/subtract short term load while power stations spin up/down (or wind comes and goes).

Of course, there needs to be a change in the tariffs so the phone companies don't charge $1/kB like they sometimes do now for SMS!