DCFC preconditioning is it coming????

[SuperRob]

Needs a manual button. More so if it involves turning off the HVAC so it CAN heat the battery.

It should be a button if for no other reason than some people prefer to use phone-based navigation. Apple Maps gets destination SOC over CarPlay and I greatly prefer it to the in-car nav.

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[azerik]

Amp hour readings from the BMS take into account usable amps at it's current temp. If you can read those amps it'd be noticeable if you didn't drive the car and just let the battery heat up on it's own. I'm sitting in the perfect spot for that right now as it's getting to mid 30's at night and nearly 70's in the day. I'm going to have to find my Forscan.

 

[benk016]

Ok, but setting a departure time does precondition the battery, right? The only time I really need preconditioning is on long winter road trips - like the 180mi jaunt from Wichita to KC - when I need the improved efficiency just to take the direct route, and a faster DCFC session at my destination. That is infrequent and planned enough that it is feasible for me to set a departure time.

Yes this does warm the battery to give you better temps starting out. The issue can come if you're doing a trip when its cold. At a certain temp, the battery can actually get colder as you drive just from the ambient temps. So if the car knows you're on the way to a charger, it can get it back to a temp to allow for normal charging.

 

[RickMachE]

Yes this does warm the battery to give you better temps starting out. The issue can come if you're doing a trip when its cold. At a certain temp, the battery can actually get colder as you drive just from the ambient temps. So if the car knows you're on the way to a charger, it can get it back to a temp to allow for normal charging.

I can attest to the fact that leaving with a preconditioned battery, in 20 degree weather, results in a battery around 40 degrees several hours later. Charging is slower at 40 degrees than at the preconditioned temperature, which has been noted as 59. While charging, the battery rose from 40s to around 95. It then dropped back to 40 as I drove.

I did not compare the time to get to a higher sustained charging speed, but we know it's an issue. Preconditioning would save time with DC charging, noticeable time. The stopgap is to turn off your heat for the first 10 to 15 minutes of DC charging as Ford recommends, to let the heater warm the battery and get faster charging.

 

[dbsb3233]

Ok, but setting a departure time does precondition the battery, right? The only time I really need preconditioning is on long winter road trips - like the 180mi jaunt from Wichita to KC - when I need the improved efficiency just to take the direct route, and a faster DCFC session at my destination. That is infrequent and planned enough that it is feasible for me to set a departure time.

Yes, but only if plugged into L2 as I understand it. It'll warm the battery before you depart. Probably won't help your DCFC session much (if any) 3 hours later though.

 

[kltye]

Maybe some of the more dedicate members who understand the details of the mach e charging curve could calculate how much time this really can save. I sorta doubt it will be that significant (charging at 45 - 70 vs 80 to 100 on average is my guess). The IONIC has a much larger change (40 to 220) based upon batter temp.

Just based on your numbers, it's about a 1.5-2x savings in time, which is a lot since our 10-80% charge time is pretty terrible even in the best of conditions.

 

[Mirak]

Yes this does warm the battery to give you better temps starting out. The issue can come if you're doing a trip when its cold. At a certain temp, the battery can actually get colder as you drive just from the ambient temps. So if the car knows you're on the way to a charger, it can get it back to a temp to allow for normal charging.

Hmmm... good point. But in my use case, I think I'd rather just precondition from the wall in order to maximize my range, rather than wasting battery to keep it warm during the drive just to have a faster session at my destination.

Eventually when DCFC becomes much more plentiful, it might make sense to set a charging route and use enroute preconditioning to speed up sessions, but that only seems important for extended road trips with multiple charging stops.

 

[Blue highway]

Must use Ford Sync Navigation and have the DCFC as the destination or waypoint and have excess heat capacity in the system

This should be a press release.

 

[generaltso]

This should be a press release.

Maybe it will be when it arrives.

 

[benk016]

Hmmm... good point. But in my use case, I think I'd rather just precondition from the wall in order to maximize my range, rather than wasting battery to keep it warm during the drive just to have a faster session at my destination.

Eventually when DCFC becomes much more plentiful, it might make sense to set a charging route and use enroute preconditioning to speed up sessions, but that only seems important for extended road trips with multiple charging stops.

In your use case, yes you probably wouldn't use it much. This also is a good reason we need to know if the car is doing it or not and be able to cancel it if we don't want it.



Here is a scenario I went through where it would have really come in handy:

2 years ago I bought my FE. It was 0F outside that day. The dealer wouldn't let me plug it in to do a precondition because 'The battery is fully charged, we can't plug it in". I bought that car 300 miles away from home.

That trip home took me almost 7 hours because of the reduced range, and not getting over 36kw on charging.

Had the battery actually been able to warm up, that trip would have been more on the 4 hour timeframe like it should have been.

 

[Blue highway]

That's the case for almost all EVs. I think Lucid and the Hummer are the only EVs I've seen that let you manually activate preconditioning.

taycan

 

[Mirak]

In your use case, yes you probably wouldn't use it much. This also is a good reason we need to know if the car is doing it or not and be able to cancel it if we don't want it.



Here is a scenario I went through where it would have really come in handy:

2 years ago I bought my FE. It was 0F outside that day. The dealer wouldn't let me plug it in to do a precondition because 'The battery is fully charged, we can't plug it in". I bought that car 400 miles away from home.

That trip home took me almost 7 hours because of the reduced range, and not getting over 36kw on charging.

Had the battery actually been able to warm up, that trip would have been more on the 3 hour timeframe like it should have been.

Yeah, that sounds exactly like the kind of long distance, multi-stop, cold weather trip where en route preconditioning would have helped a lot.

I bought and drove mine home from Denver, but fortunately in the spring and it wasn’t that cold. I don’t anticipate ever doing this again. As much as I love driving my car, I’m in too big of a hurry to make all those prolonged stops. And car rental is so cheap in Wichita that I typically rent an ICE for long road trips and avoid putting the miles on my car.

 

[dbsb3233]

The stopgap is to turn off your heat for the first 10 to 15 minutes of DC charging as Ford recommends, to let the heater warm the battery and get faster charging.

Turn off cabin heat, you mean? I presume this means only if you still have the car running while charging?

What if you have the car turned off? Does it do any battery heating during DCFC for that?

 

[Blue highway]

Needs a manual button. More so if it involves turning off the HVAC so it CAN heat the battery. I would expect a LOT of people to lose their cool (see what I did?) or reality lose their heat, in the cabin 30 miles out from a charger in 20 degrees. Wind chill will strip the heat from the windows and that cabin will be COLD before you get there. Coupled with, wait for it, can't use the heat while charing? (Pretty sure I read that somewhere) If this is the case they won't turn on this 'feature' of making it look like the HVAC quit.

In my EV Focus if I lost heat it meant the battery was cracked. (twice it happened, twice I got a new pack) Heated seats or not, no one in the back will be happy about 30 min of no heat + 45 more min waiting in no heat to charge.

I know the L2 charger plugged in over night will run fans to cool the pack. Does it keep the pack above 40?

seems like a good argument not to have a manual button. If automatic only comes on if there is excess heat capacity.

 

[RickMachE]

Turn off cabin heat, you mean? I presume this means only if you still have the car running while charging?

What if you have the car turned off? Does it do any battery heating during DCFC for that?

If the car is off, then the heat is all set to the battery. If you leave the car running, turn off the heat.

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