Do I need to precondition my 2023 Mustang Mach-E battery?

[BMH]

I'm new to EV's, but I have a level 2 charger at home for my son's car. I'm retired and use my Mustang sporadically only needing to charge it about once a week. And I only charge at home. Thus setting a daily departure time makes little sense. And preconditioning while navigating to a public charging station is not likely to ever happen. So should I try to precondition on very hot or cold days before leaving home to run errands? And if so how?

Sponsored

 

[generaltso]

No.

 

[Mach-Lee]

No, but just leave it plugged in on extremely hot and cold days. Preconditioning is for longer trips of 25+ miles or when it’s extremely cold.

If you don’t plug in you may lose heat when it’s below about 20°F if parked outside.

 

[OH2AZ2OH]

It won’t be worth it for you. A preconditioned battery will get you better efficiency for the first half hour or so. If you’re trying to squeeze an extra 10-20 miles of range on a longer drive in the winter, then it makes sense. If you’re running errands, you’ll lose any benefit in range while the car is parked and loses the added heat you put in to precondition it. Summer range loss is less severe than winter range loss unless maybe you’re in Death Valley.

 

[Bburrey]

I have the same circumstances (retired, home charging, etc.). I normally do not precondition but we had a spell of sub zero weather and I drove the car about 15 miles without reconditioning and almost froze in the car because all of the heat was going to the batteries and not heating the inside. Learned a lesson there.

 

[CTZ]

I thought that preconditioning only occurred when navigating to a DCFC. How do you precondition before using the car? Is the subject really preconditioning the cabin, not the battery?

 

[AKgrampy]

I thought that preconditioning only occurred when navigating to a DCFC. How do you precondition before using the car? Is the subject really preconditioning the cabin, not the battery?

If you set a departure time the car will precondition both the batteries and the cabin as long as you are plugged in to L2. If you are not plugged in you can still precondition cabin.

 

[Squid]

While it’s not technically necessary, starting the car with a pre-conditioned battery is always going to better than a cold start. It’s a good habit to get into if you can be bothered… should help with battery health over time.

To do this, you should set up departure times in the car and leave it plugged in.

Sponsored