DCFC preconditioning is it coming????

Logal727

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I guess this is a step is the right direction but... damn. This is both insufficient and overly complicated.

Simple solution would be to give us a button that allows manual preconditioning when we want it. Ford blows right past that and instead gives us this automatic preconditioning based upon route planning, which is a nice idea, but starting only 20 miles to destination doesn't seem like it's gonna make a meaningful difference, and I'd prefer a manual option to Ford nav route planning.
This is how it's done in almost every other EV. I'm sure this will be a standard option eventually. But can we be happy about things being updated?
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I guess this is a step is the right direction but... damn. This is both insufficient and overly complicated.

Simple solution would be to give us a button that allows manual preconditioning when we want it. Ford blows right past that and instead gives us this automatic preconditioning based upon route planning, which is a nice idea, but starting only 20 miles to destination doesn't seem like it's gonna make a meaningful difference, and I'd prefer a manual option to Ford nav route planning.
Agreed, it needs to start 40-60 miles before the charger to have enough heating time for a meaningful effect. The 19 mi/30 km limit is too short.
 

dbsb3233

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I guess this is a step is the right direction but... damn. This is both insufficient and overly complicated.

Simple solution would be to give us a button that allows manual preconditioning when we want it. Ford blows right past that and instead gives us this automatic preconditioning based upon route planning, which is a nice idea, but starting only 20 miles to destination doesn't seem like it's gonna make a meaningful difference, and I'd prefer a manual option to Ford nav route planning.
I would prefer a manual feature too. And an indicator showing when/where it's happening. There's a ton of useful data that's available but they display very little of it in the car for us. We really shouldn't have to buy an OBD-II scanner and rig it up ourselves to see some of this basic real-time data. I wish they would add a button for "Technical Data" (or some such name) in Sync that would display a bunch of the useful OBD data, like HVB Temp, a power meter, etc.

In this case though, not sure if I'd even use this precondition feature. There's trade-offs that may not make it worthwhile. But I'd sure like the OPTION to use it if I wanted and it fit my situation.
 

dbsb3233

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Agreed, it needs to start 40-60 miles before the charger to have enough heating time for a meaningful effect. The 19 mi/30 km limit is too short.
Seems like that would really need to be optional to use that much power, since it's coming out of our range. For some cases that may be fine, but others not. Just depends on the route and our time plans. One time we may want charging time prioritized, another we may want range prioritized.

I know it's kinda/sorta optional in terms of setting a Ford nav route or not, but that's not really good. Shouldn't have to give up nav to maximize your range.
 

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@Ford, pease please please please please please please please please please please please please please please enable DCFC pre-conditioning via Apple Maps.
 


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Seems like that would really need to be optional to use that much power, since it's coming out of our range. For some cases that may be fine, but others not. Just depends on the route and our time plans. One time we may want charging time prioritized, another we may want range prioritized.

I know it's kinda/sorta optional in terms of setting a Ford nav route or not, but that's not really good. Shouldn't have to give up nav to maximize your range.
Itā€™s not that much though. If youā€™re also using the cabin heat the battery will only take an additional 2.5 kW or so. If it ran for a hour thatā€™s less than 8 miles of range lost. Itā€™s SLOW.

I would be totally fine using up to 5 kWh to heat the pack. I think thatā€™s an acceptable energy budget unless youā€™re running really low. Heater would have to run full blast exclusively heating the battery for an hour to use that all up.
 
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RickMachE

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An easy way in the App:

Vehicle >> Features and Settings >> Software Updates >> Recent Changes

Click on the date it has listed below recent changes, and it should tell you what the last update that was applied is. That is your current version. The only time I would expect those could possibly differ is if you went to the dealership and had an update manually applied or manually did an update yourself. If you're just getting OTA updates, whatever is listed there should be your current version.
Ford Mustang Mach-E DCFC preconditioning is it coming???? Screenshot_20230123-164651
 

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This is how it's done in almost every other EV. I'm sure this will be a standard option eventually. But can we be happy about things being updated?
Amen. There are people who just want to complain about everything. If it preconditioned the battery 40mi out people would complain that it was wasting energy.

I've cold-gated hard (stuck at 33kwh for almost 20min). I'm really happy they added this.
 

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I think once they finalize preconditioning, it'll probably only be effective for climates that rarely gets below 25f, and assuming they'll increase/allow preconditioning to happen ~40 mi radius. As others said, 20 mi out is too short.
 

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Agreed, it needs to start 40-60 miles before the charger to have enough heating time for a meaningful effect. The 19 mi/30 km limit is too short.
Navigation-based preconditioning is the right way to do on route preconditioning. As charge level goes up, so does optimal battery temperature for charging. Hopefully that is the path they are moving towards if they arent there already.

We are mostly enthusiasts, but telling a potential new EV driver that they have to mash a button XX miles before they charge is how you lose a convert.

ETA: I think I meant to respond to someone else, but my point still stands. :)
 

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As far as I'm concerned, This is not preconditioning. Raising the battery 5-10f isn't going to help with anything in most cases.

This should be dynamic. Look at the current battery temp, and how many miles to the DCFC, and calculate when to start warming to have it at a certain temp by arrival time. There will not be a good one size fits all that will give good results for the majority of us.
 

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Navigation-based preconditioning is the right way to do on route preconditioning. As charge level goes up, so does optimal battery temperature for charging. Hopefully that is the path they are moving towards if they arent there already.

We are mostly enthusiasts, but telling a potential new EV driver that they have to mash a button XX miles before they charge is how you lose a convert.

ETA: I think I meant to respond to someone else, but my point still stands. :)
I don't think anyone is saying it should ONLY be manual preconditioning, just that there should ALSO be a manual preconditioning button. Like for those of us using AA or Carplay nav instead of Ford nav. Or no nav at all.

Although I do think it would be good to have the option in Settings to turn automatic on or off, like there's options for setting many other defaults.

Speaking of a manual battery precondition button, there should be one in FordPass too. The only way to do it now is set up a recurring schedule. But that's kinda silly if you just want to do a one-time battery precondition when you wake up in your hotel room and just want the battery warm when you leave in 45 minutes.
 

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As far as I'm concerned, This is not preconditioning. Raising the battery 5-10f isn't going to help with anything in most cases.

This should be dynamic. Look at the current battery temp, and how many miles to the DCFC, and calculate when to start warming to have it at a certain temp by arrival time. There will not be a good one size fits all that will give good results for the majority of us.
Agree. The target temp for DCFC should be 25Ā°C and it should calculate how early to start so the battery is at that temp when you arrive. If the battery starts at 0Ā°C, it will likely take 1+ hour of en route heating to get it up to 25Ā°C.

The 18.6 mi threshold is only going to give you about 15 minutes of warming at freeway speed, which might be fine if itā€™s 65Ā°F outside, but when itā€™s 20Ā°F outside thatā€™s not nearly enough and it will still coldgate. It seems simple enough to write a quick program that looks at battery temp difference from 25Ā°C and outputs a range threshold based on the temp difference.
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