Charge Speed For Precondition

[Gtaylor]

New to the Mach E world, and while miles wise I really don't think I need more than Level 1 at home (mostly drive less than 20 miles per day) I'm wondering about battery preconditioning in the winter. I'm in central Texas so not contending with extreme cold for the most part, but how many kw will the battery pull to precondition for a departure time? And does it do any battery heating passively if it gets below freezing in general?

Imagine the meager kw pull from Level 1 won't be enough to have much of an impact, curious on what kind of kw capacity is needed for battery heating alone.

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[hybrid2bev]

The battery will not precondition itself for a departure time. You would need a L2 power supply to precondition the battery for a departure time. Also to cool the battery if it’s too hot you would still need a L2 power source.

The only time the battery will use it’s own power to precondition is if you are in route to a DCFC location using the onboard navigation.(may update soon to use Apple/Google Maps)

 

[Gtaylor]

Correct, what I'm asking is what kw speed needed for it to do that?

Like I said I don't really need it for the miles, so wondering if I just converted that line to 240v and changed the receptacle would 16amps at 3.8kw give it enough? Or is it something that really needs at least 24amp charging for the battery to do it's thing.

 

[hybrid2bev]

Correct, what I'm asking is what kw speed needed for it to do that?

Like I said I don't really need it for the miles, so wondering if I just converted that line to 240v and changed the receptacle would 16amps at 3.8kw give it enough? Or is it something that really needs at least 24amp charging for the battery to do it's thing.

The onboard PTC heater is 5kW. Newer models I think have a 7kW heater.

If you’re using the mobile EVSE I think you should setup for a 40 amp breaker/wires. The mobile unit will try to draw 32 amps using the 14-50 connector.

 

[RickMachE]

Which means that neither 16 nor 24amps is enough.

 

[Gtaylor]

Yep, sounds like it. I'm currently using the evse from my other car (phev), but was hoping to avoid having to run a new line and just getting a 16amp mobile evse. Sounds like no way around that one, so definitely at least 32amp is on order. Thanks!

Shame, that line has another outlet in the garage I could have rewired some tools to 240v too.

 

[redgrandam]

New to the Mach E world, and while miles wise I really don't think I need more than Level 1 at home (mostly drive less than 20 miles per day) I'm wondering about battery preconditioning in the winter. I'm in central Texas so not contending with extreme cold for the most part, but how many kw will the battery pull to precondition for a departure time? And does it do any battery heating passively if it gets below freezing in general?

Imagine the meager kw pull from Level 1 won't be enough to have much of an impact, curious on what kind of kw capacity is needed for battery heating alone.

You don’t really need to precondition the battery pack. You can just remote start before you go out and hit the road. Especially for short drives it’s really just a waste of energy.
You just need it warmed up if you are fast charging or maybe going on a long trip and wanted everything optimized.

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