Ford's Important Tip For Driving Your Mach-E in the Cold: Preconditioning / Pre-Heat Your Battery

[Administrator]

All electric vehicles experience a decrease in range during cold temperatures. To get ready for longer commutes during the winter, preconditioning lets customers pre-heat their EV battery and cabin with electricity from the charger, instead of their vehicle’s battery. This helps Ford EVs work smart, not hard, to preserve range.

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[Stang68]

Ford, just give us a "precondition now" button in the FordPass app!

 

[Jimrpa]

Ford, just give us a "precondition now" button in the FordPass app!

Isn’t that called “Start”?

 

[Stang68]

Isn’t that called “Start”?

I believe we've talked about this before on the forum, but I don't think that actually preconditions the HVB. It just makes the cabin nice and toasty.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Isn’t that called “Start”?

Nope.

Start heats the cabin
Scheduled departure comfort settings when NOT plugged in heats the cabin
Scheduled departure comfort settings when plugged in heats the cabin and preconditions the battery

There are many threads on this.

 

[Mach-Lee]

For anyone instead in the specifics of why you should do this, I just finished a very detailed comparison of preconditioning vs. not preconditioning in my cold weather testing topic. See #1 and #76: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mach-lees-mach-e-cold-weather-testing-taking-requests.24393/

In short, preconditioning effectively makes the battery bigger, so you get more miles out of it.

 

[Msnwcpa]

Isn’t that called “Start”?

Not from what I was told and read. During preconditioning the battery compartment is brought up to the ideal temp. When we press start the cabin is warmed up instead.

Battery preconditioning enables us to get the most energy out of the batteryi could be wrong

 

[Msnwcpa]

Just out of curiosity, if radiant heat such as (hydronic oil heaters) are good and efficient why is that a smaller version not available near the foot areas. This way we can turn of e-heat.

 

[johnmark]

Just out of curiosity, if radiant heat such as (hydronic oil heaters) are good and efficient why is that a smaller version not available near the foot areas. This way we can turn of e-heat.

Yes I've done some testing this week and by preconditioning and turning off eheat my MMEs efficiency drops by "only" 10%. You might freeze to death, but at least you'll save some battery lol

 

[Maquis]

Just out of curiosity, if radiant heat such as (hydronic oil heaters) are good and efficient why is that a smaller version not available near the foot areas. This way we can turn of e-heat.

All electric resistance heaters (including the E-Heat) are essentially 100% efficient - all input power is converted to heat. Hydronic oil-filled heaters simply store and evenly dissipate the heat. They do not improve efficiency.

 

[Jimrpa]

For anyone instead in the specifics of why you should do this, I just finished a very detailed comparison of preconditioning vs. not preconditioning in my cold weather testing topic. See #1 and #76: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mach-lees-mach-e-cold-weather-testing-taking-requests.24393/

In short, preconditioning effectively makes the battery bigger, so you get more miles out of it.

Thanks for doing all this. Is preconditioning as necessary in warm temperatures? I’m going to guess the answer is a resounding “No!”

 

[hbirring01]

Too bad I cant use "Set departure times" in my ford pass because it doesnt work @FordMotorCompany

 

[Msnwcpa]

Yes I've done some testing this week and by preconditioning and turning off eheat my MMEs efficiency drops by "only" 10%. You might freeze to death, but at least you'll save some battery lol

Agree, in PA this morning temp was 28, I still managed to get over 6.8m/ Kwh without e-heat. When the e-heat is turned on I get close to 3.6m/Kwh. The distance was only about 3.9 miles. The 6.8 is because I do have a 1/4 mile downhill ride

 

[Rohan]

Ford, just give us a "precondition now" button in the FordPass app!

This is one of those no brainer features that should have been added on year one.

 

[Space Ghost GT]

Ford, just give us a "precondition now" button in the FordPass app!

I second this as I don’t have a set work schedule so saving pre planned weekly departure times is pretty useless. Plus having to remember to delete them isn’t user friendly nor an efficient use of time. @Ford Motor Company

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