Climate or Start before departure?

[bbulkow]

I don't have a very fixed schedule, and some days my car doesn't even leave home, so Departure Schedule doesn't work for me. Start and Climate do, I am now in the habit if flipping open the app and heating the car when i know i am going to leave. If i am not on 'shore power' i use Climate (and like the new Ford Pass controls).

But

On these chilly days, i think of my chilly battery, and I would like it at operating temp when i leave the house. And, i can have a warmer cabin when driving because less power is heating the battery. Win win.

It seems i have two options, Climate and Start. Both are nicely in Ford Pass and work great.... And the car is plugged in...

Which to use *for heating the battery*?

Thanks

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[RickMachE]

Neither is an option...

Start is to restart the car charging, i.e. it's at 90% and it will go to 100% now.
Climate warms the cabin.

To heat the battery, only departure time is an option.

 

[Vulnox]

As noted, neither will heat the battery, at least not in terms of conditioning, I am sure if you start charging the battery there will be a very slight temp change, but not what you're trying for.

You don't "Start" an EV, which is an issue with that wording in the FordPass app because people have for decades associated "Start" with starting their car, including with remote start.

But again, you don't "start" an EV. That there is even a button in the MachE is entirely unnecessary and largely just a holdover of Ford not wanting to confuse customers even more.

With that said, the only button that actually warms your cabin is "Climate". All "Start" does is charge your car if you have a limit set either by time or battery percentage, it does not warm the cabin.

Unfortunately, Ford has still not provided us a way to manually condition the battery. The only methods so far (unless something new has come up) is with departure times or by setting a DCFC destination in the factory nav (and I think Google Maps nav on Android now?).

You still benefit quite a bit by conditioning the cabin while plugged in as far as battery range goes, but it still won't help the battery much. If you are going on a long trip, you should still use Departure Times, you would just set a single departure time for when you plan to leave on the trip.

If day-to-day commute though you are only using 15% of your battery, there is no point stressing about using an extra percent or two because the battery warms on the drive vs conditioning it at home. You only really should care if going on a longer drive, and even then we're talking a few percent.

 

[bbulkow]

Neither is an option...

Start is to restart the car charging, i.e. it's at 90% and it will go to 100% now.
Climate warms the cabin.

To heat the battery, only departure time is an option.

Dagnabbit.

I see what you mean, that upper chunk of the ui is always about charging state / actions.

I thought we had some kind of 'remote start'. I guess i hallucinated that perhaps from my ICE cars. Arguably it doesn't mean much in an ev except perhaps exactly this ?

What if i go over to my car and turn it on (with power attached) and leave it 'running' while i do my final getting ready to leave? (In park)

That's still easier than creating a departure time and removing it later...

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I thought we had some kind of 'remote start'. I guess i hallucinated that perhaps from my ICE cars.

There used to be a start button that folks decided remotely started the Mach-e. It didn’t and never did. All that, now gone button, did was start climate conditioning. It was replaced by the fan icon on more recent versions of FordPass.

There’s no such thing as remotely starting an EV. The motors don’t run when they’re not working. If you know you’re leaving a few hours out, just set a departure time. If you know the night before, set a departure time as well. You’ll just need to delete them after you’re done. Otherwise, ignore the battery preconditioning if your range needs are modest.

 

[AliRafiee]

What you can do is set a temporary departure time an hour before you want to leave. As long as the car is plugged into a L2 charger.

 

[bbulkow]

What you can do is set a temporary departure time an hour before you want to leave. As long as the car is plugged into a L2 charger.

That is too much trouble. I have to pick a day and a time and save it and check again. I also have to delete it later.

 

[bbulkow]

As noted, neither will heat the battery, at least not in terms of conditioning, I am sure if you start charging the battery there will be a very slight temp change, but not what you're trying for.

You don't "Start" an EV, which is an issue with that wording in the FordPass app because people have for decades associated "Start" with starting their car, including with remote start.

But again, you don't "start" an EV. That there is even a button in the MachE is entirely unnecessary and largely just a holdover of Ford not wanting to confuse customers even more.

With that said, the only button that actually warms your cabin is "Climate". All "Start" does is charge your car if you have a limit set either by time or battery percentage, it does not warm the cabin.

Unfortunately, Ford has still not provided us a way to manually condition the battery. The only methods so far (unless something new has come up) is with departure times or by setting a DCFC destination in the factory nav (and I think Google Maps nav on Android now?).

You still benefit quite a bit by conditioning the cabin while plugged in as far as battery range goes, but it still won't help the battery much. If you are going on a long trip, you should still use Departure Times, you would just set a single departure time for when you plan to leave on the trip.

If day-to-day commute though you are only using 15% of your battery, there is no point stressing about using an extra percent or two because the battery warms on the drive vs conditioning it at home. You only really should care if going on a longer drive, and even then we're talking a few percent.

You do start this ev, because the mache has three states. 'off', 'accessory', 'on'. These are controlled by the friendly button in the cabin. There is a difference between what hvb and lvb power, between accessory and on, for example.

So, again, what if i get in the car, on shore power, start the car, leave it in park, go about my business for another 15 minutes?

It is certainly easier to physically start the car than set a departure time...

 

[MadMatt]

So, again, what if i get in the car, on shore power, start the car, leave it in park, go about my business for another 15 minutes?

It is certainly easier to physically start the car than set a departure time...

It will be the same as just hitting the climate button in the app with a lot more inconvenience to you. Pre-heating the cabin with shore power.

As said only the "departure time" will trigger battery conditioning, which also takes way longer than 15min..

 

[Vulnox]

You do start this ev, because the mache has three states. 'off', 'accessory', 'on'. These are controlled by the friendly button in the cabin. There is a difference between what hvb and lvb power, between accessory and on, for example.

So, again, what if i get in the car, on shore power, start the car, leave it in park, go about my business for another 15 minutes?

It is certainly easier to physically start the car than set a departure time...

I think you're missing the point. Instead of saying what the MachE has, start by asking why. What is the difference between Accessory and On? Essentially nothing. All that changes is whether you can move the gear shifter.

If you think that's important, than the question becomes, how do all these other EVs get along just fine without a start button? Tesla's don't have one. I believe a couple of the newer GM vehicles don't.

Start and Accessory matter when you are dealing with a gas engine, because there is a clear distinction between Accessory and Engine Running. There is no need for that distinction with an EV, none what-so-ever. Just because you are used to it from a life with gas engine vehicles doesn't mean it makes sense now.

If you have the MachE in "On" as you call it, it's still just using the 12V. Just as it would in Accessory. The HV only comes into play with the actual drive motors. As long as you aren't in Drive or Reverse, the HV is just a large weight, its only activity may be the DC-to-DC if it has to top up the charge on the 12V, but it can do that even when not in "On".

So again, instead of saying what the MachE does, ask why it has to, as my comment was just that there is no purpose in that button where it is needed in an EV. If you still think there is, then you have to again explain why other EVs do just fine without it.


As to the departure time vs starting the car, you could start it while plugged in I believe. But your random 15 minute timing is the problem. If it's 20 degrees outside and your car is outside, it will take longer than 15 minutes to get the battery up to temp. Departure time does a better job of starting the conditioning with the timing for when it's going to be ready for departure than you just guessing at a start time.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

You do start this ev

No. The start button is an anachronism there to soothe the new to EV crowd.

 

[Sikkun]

That is too much trouble. I have to pick a day and a time and save it and check again. I also have to delete it later.

Unless your daily, random, non scheduled trip, is long enough that you are going to have to stop and charge….worrying about the battery temperature period is too much trouble.

 

[dbsb3233]

There used to be a start button that folks decided remotely started the Mach-e. It didn’t and never did. All that, now gone button, did was start climate conditioning. It was replaced by the fan icon on more recent versions of FordPass.

There’s no such thing as remotely starting an EV. The motors don’t run when they’re not working. If you know you’re leaving a few hours out, just set a departure time. If you know the night before, set a departure time as well. You’ll just need to delete them after you’re done. Otherwise, ignore the battery preconditioning if your range needs are modest.

One of the ridiculous things about the departure times is that you can't set a one-time departure. Like the OP, I have no daily schedule. All my departures are unique, one-time events. If I'm staying at a hotel overnight, I'd love to just click a button when getting out of bed for "leaving in XX minutes" (with a dial for maybe 15-90 minutes) that would precondition the battery. But the only choice is to set a stupid repeating schedule. Which I usually forget about when I get home and later realize it's been preconditioning every Tuesday morning at 7:30am for 2 months. ?

 

[dbsb3233]

Neither is an option...

Start is to restart the car charging, i.e. it's at 90% and it will go to 100% now.
Climate warms the cabin.

To heat the battery, only departure time is an option.

They should change that upper button to "Charge to 100%" or something. Especially since "Start" was the button on the previous FP app performed a whole different function.

 

[RickMachE]

They should change that upper button to "Charge to 100%" or something. Especially since "Start" was the button on the previous FP app performed a whole different function.

Yeah, these kinds of changes to me said their in an echo chamber.

For those that had the vehicle before the app updated, they're like "Where the hell did Start go?" and "What the hell is climate?" Then "Oh, they moved Start up top, and now it's charging my car, what the hell!"

Have to wonder if they have any non-engineers making these changes.

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