How to Remotely Precondition Battery

Since Ford still doesn't have a dang battery precondition button...I had a hunch. For those of you with the remote climate control settings showing up in FordPass, there is a way to use the remote controls to heat the battery. The car must be plugged in and parked in below-freezing conditions; otherwise the A/C will run instead.

Once you start climate control with the fan button, tap on the climate settings box and set the cabin temp to LO. Make sure defrost is off. You can turn on heated seat/wheel if desired. When you accept the setting, the temp shown may change from LO to 59ºF, just ignore that.



The LO setting is sort of special because it disables cabin heat regardless of temperature. With no cabin heat demand, the powertrain strategy will allow battery heating instead if the battery is cold (also works while driving).

The only negative is the fan will blow raw outside air into the cabin. But if the car is already bone cold, it doesn't really matter.

In my test, the battery temperature was raised +8ºC in the 15-minute remote climate period. Since you get two climate activations, you could then do a subsequent remote climate and change the temp to 72ºF or whatever to actually warm up the cabin the second time.


If you do not have the remote climate controls in FordPass, you can also do this by changing your remote start settings to "last setting" instead of AUTO on the main screen, and shutting off HVAC before you leave the car. Then start remote climate. Not nearly as convenient, but it works if really necessary.

What are the advantages of heating the battery? Does driving the car with a cold battery damage it?

Space_Pony said:

What are the advantages of heating the battery? Does driving the car with a cold battery damage it?

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Increased range, and full power sooner.

Space_Pony said:

What are the advantages of heating the battery? Does driving the car with a cold battery damage it?

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Efficiency. Batteries don’t like cold. You’ll get somewhat better range out of them when they’re at their proper operating temperature.

Would be great if you need to charge at a fast charger in the morning on a road trip and you weren't able to charge at a hotel.

Kamuelaflyer said:

Efficiency. Batteries don’t like cold. You’ll get somewhat better range out of them when they’re at their proper operating temperature.

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But aren't you using energy to heat them?

Space_Pony said:

But aren't you using energy to heat them?

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Yes. I estimate you are burning about 4kWh of electricity in a 30 minute session.

Mach-Lee said:

Since Ford still doesn't have a dang battery precondition button...I had a hunch. For those of you with the remote climate control settings showing up in FordPass, there is a way to use the remote controls to heat the battery. The car must be parked in below-freezing conditions; otherwise the A/C will run instead.

Once you start climate control with the fan button, tap on the climate settings box and set the cabin temp to LO. Make sure defrost is off. You can turn on heated seat/wheel if desired. When you accept the setting, the temp shown may change from LO to 59ºF, just ignore that.

The LO setting is sort of special because it disables cabin heat regardless of temperature. With no cabin heat demand, the powertrain strategy will allow battery heating instead if the battery is cold (also works while driving).

The only negative is the fan will blow raw outside air into the cabin. But if the car is already bone cold, it doesn't really matter.

In my test, the battery temperature was raised +8ºC in the 15-minute remote climate period. Since you get two climate activations, you could then do a subsequent remote climate and change the temp to 72ºF or whatever to actually warm up the cabin the second time.


If you do not have the remote climate controls in FordPass, you can also do this by changing your remote start settings to "last setting" instead of AUTO on the main screen, and shutting off HVAC before you leave the car. Then start remote climate. Not nearly as convenient, but it works if really necessary.

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Nice find Lee!

I wonder if this will work in a Lightning. I can't see any inherent reason it wouldn't.

ChasingCoral said:

Yes. I estimate you are burning about 4kWh of electricity in a 30 minute session.

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Be interesting to see whether that's actually a net gain or net loss on range for the upcoming drive leg (precon when not plugged in, of course).

GREAT catch!

Was just traveling on the Alaska Highway last weekend and this would have been EXTREMELY useful for one of my overnight stops. Will remember for future.

dbsb3233 said:

Be interesting to see whether that's actually a net gain or net loss on range for the upcoming drive leg (precon when not plugged in, of course).

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I really think we should just use it to remotely precondition before fast charging.

dbsb3233 said:

Be interesting to see whether that's actually a net gain or net loss on range for the upcoming drive leg (precon when not plugged in, of course).

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I'll give you a very real use case of how this would have been deeply helpful for me a few days ago.

Was driving up the Alaska Highway and stopped for the night in Fort Nelson, BC. No EV charger at the hotel, and couldn't leave on the single local fast charger overnight with a $0.40/min idle fee. Had I known this trick, when I got up in the morning I could have pre-conditioned the battery for the fast charger and not had to endure 30 minutes of sub-50kW charging on a 180kW DCFC (temp was about 10 below F)

dbsb3233 said:

Be interesting to see whether that's actually a net gain or net loss on range for the upcoming drive leg (precon when not plugged in, of course).

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I would hazard that it is dependent on the length of the leg you’re traveling. Since it will be 3-5 KWh of power drawn, you will be killing the equivalent number of miles based on your fuel consumption. My guess is that it will be a loss for a leg less than 90 miles for most people. ?‍?

"Genius hack" as the kids might say.

And thanks for naming this thread to facilitate finding it on a search. That might also preclude having 20 parallel threads...?
What am I thinking? That's not possible!

HuntingPudel said:

I would hazard that it is dependent on the length of the leg you’re traveling. Since it will be 3-5 KWh of power drawn, you will be killing the equivalent number of miles based on your fuel consumption. My guess is that it will be a loss for a leg less than 90 miles for most people. ?‍?

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Agree, this is a better way of considering it, give or take a few miles...