Is Battery Preconditioning a Premium Paid Option?

[Misterrobot]

@Ford Motor Company Is preconditioning the battery a premium paid option?

My car only preconditions the battery when using the Connected Built In Navigation which is $80 a year. It does not precondition using the Public Charging app in the car.

If I don't renew my Connected Built In Navigation, the free Ford options to locate a charger are, per your web site, the public charging app in the car, and the Ford Pass phone app. The Ford Pass app only utilizes Google and Apple maps so no preconditioning there.

I conclude that preconditioning the battery is a paid option.

NOTE:
1 - This is not a time to teach me about how preconditioning doesn't matter, I just want Ford to let me know if it is a paid option.
2 - I admit it could be the car. However the latest TSB for a software update was installed at my local dealership on Monday. The car acts the same as prior to the update.
3 - The Connected Built In Navigation doesn't show Tesla chargers but the Public Charging app does. This might be related?
4 - I could be ALL WET here. if I am... I can handle it.. (sniff sniff)

Ron
early 2023
Select Std Range
AWD

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[RickMachE]

Your understanding is partially correct.

Public Charging doesn't precondition.
Ford nav doesn't precondition to Tesla Superchargers.
GoogleMaps with Android Auto DOES precondition to Telsa SuperChargers (but not on my 2022 Lightning).
Yes, despite having adapters out for over a year, the navigation still doesn't have the Tesla Superchargers shown. Pathetic.

 

[Misterrobot]

Your understanding is partially correct.

Public Charging doesn't precondition.
Ford nav doesn't precondition to Tesla Superchargers.
GoogleMaps with Android Auto DOES precondition to Telsa SuperChargers (but not on my 2022 Lightning).
Yes, despite having adapters out for over a year, the navigation still doesn't have the Tesla Superchargers shown. Pathetic.

Thanks for the feedback Rick! Now if we can get @Ford Motor Company to admit that preconditioning is a paid, premium feature.

After a year of happy ownership I am taking my first REAL trip with the Mach e. Just over 7 hours round trip. I'm putting all of the capabilities of the various charging networks together and picking ONE for the trip - probably Apple Car Play since the introduction of Tesla Chargers.

This is an easy trip as I pass through 3 metropolitan areas on the way. If I can get through an easy trip over familiar highways maybe next time I'll be more adventurous - like going to Cleveland???

Kidding aside I was going to use the Ford Navigation as Plan A in order to use my free kWh at Electrify America. As EA chargers are known to be problematic the Tesla network is a strong Plan B.

Thanks again for the feedback

Ron

 

[RickMachE]

Thanks for the feedback Rick! Now if we can get @Ford Motor Company to admit that preconditioning is a paid, premium feature.

After a year of happy ownership I am taking my first REAL trip with the Mach e. Just over 7 hours round trip. I'm putting all of the capabilities of the various charging networks together and picking ONE for the trip - probably Apple Car Play since the introduction of Tesla Chargers.

This is an easy trip as I pass through 3 metropolitan areas on the way. If I can get through an easy trip over familiar highways maybe next time I'll be more adventurous - like going to Cleveland???

Kidding aside I was going to use the Ford Navigation as Plan A in order to use my free kWh at Electrify America. As EA chargers are known to be problematic the Tesla network is a strong Plan B.

Thanks again for the feedback

Ron

You don't need to use Ford Nav to use your free EA hours. You have to activate the chargers either with Plug and Charge, Public Charging, or FordPass.

 

[MacherAWD]

@Ford Motor Company Is preconditioning the battery a premium paid option?

My car only preconditions the battery when using the Connected Built In Navigation which is $80 a year. It does not precondition using the Public Charging app in the car.

If I don't renew my Connected Built In Navigation, the free Ford options to locate a charger are, per your web site, the public charging app in the car, and the Ford Pass phone app. The Ford Pass app only utilizes Google and Apple maps so no preconditioning there.

I conclude that preconditioning the battery is a paid option.

NOTE:
1 - This is not a time to teach me about how preconditioning doesn't matter, I just want Ford to let me know if it is a paid option.
2 - I admit it could be the car. However the latest TSB for a software update was installed at my local dealership on Monday. The car acts the same as prior to the update.
3 - The Connected Built In Navigation doesn't show Tesla chargers but the Public Charging app does. This might be related?
4 - I could be ALL WET here. if I am... I can handle it.. (sniff sniff)

Ron
early 2023
Select Std Range
AWD

Its free, works great on Android Auto. Apple charges for many apps that are free on android, this is just another consequence of using Apple, you dont get pre-condition.

This is not on Ford, this is on your choice to use a weird device that only cares about keeping your money in the apple universe

 

[Misterrobot]

You don't need to use Ford Nav to use your free EA hours. You have to activate the chargers either with Plug and Charge, Public Charging, or FordPass.

Understood on not having to use Ford Nav for the EA chargers. I was just preparing myself to rely on Ford Nav to find the charges

 

[MadMatt]

Its free, works great on Android Auto. Apple charges for many apps that are free on android, this is just another consequence of using Apple, you dont get pre-condition.

This is not on Ford, this is on your choice to use a weird device that only cares about keeping your money in the apple universe

as someone that works in the cyber security field, I'm happy to have apple vet the apps in its ecosystem before i am allowed to install them. I suppose ignorance is bliss in your case.

 

[astrorob]

Apple charges for many apps that are free on android, this is just another consequence of using Apple, you dont get pre-condition.

uh what? apple doesn't charge anything for an app that the developer has marked as 'free'. if there are free apps on android that cost money on iOS then that's on the developer.

apple charges $100 per year for a developer account (which is needed to sign applications.) that is the only reason i can think of that devs might charge for apps on iOS vs. android (though maybe google also charges for dev accounts, i don't know.)

but apple doesn't "charge for many apps...", that is false.

 

[Sikkun]

I also had 0 problems at any of the EA that I used my free credits at.

I have actually had a couple problems at Tesla, but that’s one station fighting with Plug and Charge vs Tesla app for some reason.

 

[Sikkun]

uh what? apple doesn't charge anything for an app that the developer has marked as 'free'. if there are free apps on android that cost money on iOS then that's on the developer.

apple charges $100 per year for a developer account (which is needed to sign applications.) that is the only reason i can think of that devs might charge for apps on iOS vs. android (though maybe google also charges for dev accounts, i don't know.)

but apple doesn't "charge for many apps...", that is false.

Google also chargers a dev fee (it is less), and obviously takes a % of money made on the play store.

Both companies exists to make money ?.

 

[Mache_Nor]

Sorry my French, but how damn hard can it be for a company such as Ford to make a button to manually preheat? The new capri has one but god forbid we have such alien technology in a 50k+ car - after all it’s just about 60 years since we walked on the moon…

 

[MacherAWD]

I suppose ignorance is bliss in your case.

Also work in Technology.

You are right, apple is a genuine company that only ever has your best interest in mind. They would never do anything to intentionally make interactions with non-apple products worse. I guess they just arent a cutting edge company, some day you all might get pre-conditioning, but you can wait until you buy the iphone 20 for $10k to get that experience.

I just see this on many forums, a lot of Apple outrage at GM for choosing android automotive. Apple people saying they base their car buying on CP. To me that seems like they are exerting control well outside of their scope. But you all do you, gotta go take a drive and enjoy my EV integration on AA.

 

[astrorob]

I just see this on many forums, a lot of Apple outrage at GM for choosing android automotive. Apple people saying they base their car buying on CP.

that's really got nothing to do with this. Android Auto and Android Automotive are two different things. you can't connect your android phone to a new GM car just like you can't connect your iPhone to a new GM car. yeah i suppose you can probably log in to your car as though it was another phone, but the point here was for GM to get direct access to all the user interactions with the car so they could sell it/monetize it. that's where the outrage lies.

obviously ford still knows where you are going and how you are interacting with their software outside of CarPlay. and GM did too, but it wasn't enough for them. they want to know exactly what you are doing in every app that you use while you are in the car, and they couldn't get that without dropping 'casting'.

to my knowledge apple itself does not sell user info. obviously most apps are loaded with "spyware" that does. but with the new GM cars, you're giving away all of your private data to both GM and google as well, i'm sure.

personally i will never buy a car with Android Automotive because i don't want to give google my data, nor do i want to give GM my data. it's just that simple. am i giving some away to ford? yeah. but not the entirety of it.

i'm pretty sure you can load some kind of 'personal' VPN on an android phone which will block ads and block communication with known data collection servers. you can do this on iOS. can you do that on an Android Automotive-equipped car?

 

[MickeyFan0805]

Thanks for the feedback Rick! Now if we can get @Ford Motor Company to admit that preconditioning is a paid, premium feature.

Ron

They do. I actually saw this while doing some research as a new EV/Mach-E owner earlier today.

"En-route pre-conditioning will not work if you: ...Do not have a Connected Navigation Subscription."

https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...-mustang-mach-e-battery-for-dc-fast-charging/

 

[Sikkun]

To me that seems like they are exerting control well outside of their scope.

Seems like Google is also exerting a lot of control if people want to turn a thread that has nothing to do with Apple v Google flame wars into one.

Ford sells a car with Carplay support.
Ford doesn’t have preconditioning in CarPlay.
Ford also doesn’t have preconditioning on Android automative in non Google owned mapping applications (shocker).
Ford also doesn’t allow the user to start preconditioning at will.

Sounds like Ford has lots of options of ways to give ALL their customers the same features. Not just the ones that buy this or that.

Buying any vendors phone shouldn’t be a requirement to precondition.

And if you’re forced to use the Ford provided PAID navigation…update the damn thing to include the new chargers.

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