DCFC preconditioning is it coming????

[Johnny572]

Well I have 4.1.2 and have a 200 mile trip tomorrow in 25 degrees. We’ll see. I never use Ford Nav but I guess I will tomorrow!

What temp should the battery be and how can I track it? What’s the best app? I have the OBDLink MX.

I think they are BS…Ford would be advertising this if it was in the update!!!!!

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[Ravensfan1996]

I think they are BS…Ford would be advertising this if it was in the update!!!!!

Exactly, this is a huge feature that Ford would want people to know about. We got emails from ford about big features like youtube, and Alexa, and and new UI, but they keep preconditioning on the fly a secret?

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Seems like according to certain insiders here, this (DCFC preconditioning) is actually happening now

It was supposed to come out separately as I recall. Whether it did/will/won’t or got rolled into another PowerUp I don’t know. But I find it difficult to believe that Ford would keep quiet about it. That serves no purpose whatsoever imo.

 

[Hammered]

I did it once on a cold day 20m out and it seemed to have better charge performance. I wouldn't put money on it though as I limit MME journeys to 300 miles at tops in any one direction so I don't hit the same chargers.

 

[billy_at]

What’s the use case for preconditioning at a DCFC charger? Aren’t those usually public chargers you’re just stopping at for a brief period of time? Honest question. I only use preconditioning at home so the car and battery are warmed up before the first start of the day.

 

[ebeponyan]

What’s the use case for preconditioning at a DCFC charger? Aren’t those usually public chargers you’re just stopping at for a brief period of time? Honest question. I only use preconditioning at home so the car and battery are warmed up before the first start of the day.

Since batteries need to charge more slowly at lower temperatures, the general idea is to heat up the battery on way to the to a charger for faster cold weather charging. This will divert heating power to the battery as you drive, so you're sacrificing some efficiency and possibly some comfort in order to charge considerably faster (say 120kw vs 70kW). It's a cool feature for Winter roadtrips.

 

[generaltso]

It was supposed to come out separately as I recall. Whether it did/will/won’t or got rolled into another PowerUp I don’t know. But I find it difficult to believe that Ford would keep quiet about it. That serves no purpose whatsoever imo.

Maybe the functionality was included in 3.6.2 but the indicator that shows it's working is in a future IPC update that hasn't come out yet. It would make sense that Ford might not say anything until it's fully functional.

 

[Logal727]

Maybe the functionality was included in 3.6.2 but the indicator that shows it's working is in a future IPC update that hasn't come out yet. It would make sense that Ford might not say anything until it's fully functional.

3.6.2 touched a lot of modules just for a GOM accuracy update, so I feel like this is probably the case

 

[dbsb3233]

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

That's unfortunate, but not too surprising as the Ford nav is a subscription service that people will need to start paying for from year 4 on. They probably want to make it more attractive to get people hooked on it, hoping it can generate revenue for them. Which will be tough to do when there's Android Auto and Carplay nav systems that work well and remain free.

A manual precondition button would be nice, but it's not a big deal to me. We do a lot of road tripping and a lot of DCFCing (almost 25k miles worth now), but DCFC charging times really haven't been an issue for us. Saving a few minutes would be nice, I guess, but eh.

 

[Logal727]

That's unfortunate, but not too surprising as the Ford nav is a subscription service that people will need to start paying for from year 4 on. They probably want to make it more attractive to get people hooked on it, hoping it can generate revenue for them. Which will be tough to do when there's Android Auto and Carplay nav systems that work well and remain free.

A manual precondition button would be nice, but it's a big deal to me. We do a lot of road tripping and a lot of DCFCing (almost 25k miles worth now), but DCFC charging times really haven't been an issue for us. Saving a few minutes would be nice, I guess, but eh.

It’s implemented through nav on other vehicles too. Hyundai doesn’t have manual activation for it on I5

 

[Jimrpa]

My Twitter account was suspended….lol

Did you offend the almighty Elon?

 

[generaltso]

It’s implemented through nav on other vehicles too. Hyundai doesn’t have manual activation for it on I5

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.

 

[Jimrpa]

(Raises hand): this may be a stupid question, but what exactly IS this feature that everyone is so concerned about?

 

[generaltso]

(Raises hand): this may be a stupid question, but what exactly IS this feature that everyone is so concerned about?

Batteries charge slowly at a DCFC when they're cold. Preconditioning will heat up the battery when the car knows you're on your way to a DCFC so that it's warm when you get there and can charge faster.

 

[billy_at]

So this would be some kind of control in the car that you’d manually activate to say “I’m heading to a DCFC charger now; start preconditioning the battery”?

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