Finally personally saw the difference between battery preconditioning and no battery preconditioning

[kdonnel]

I am curious… isn’t preconditioning happening on longer trips by default? I don’t know how long it takes to precondition the battery but if you are already driving for 30 miles or 50 miles and directly go to a DC charger the battery should be preconditioned already.. Is my understanding wrong?

Pre conditioning only occurs when using the native navigation app.

I don't use the native navigation app.

In this case if I plugged in my final destination into the native navigation it tried to take me to a different charging destination than I wanted to use. Since I don't use the native navigation it took a while to happen upon a way to force it to use the charging destination I wanted.

Unless we get an option to manually trigger pre conditioning I think I will probably switch to the native app about 30 miles out so that I can get the benefit of pre conditioning and use another navigation app for the majority of the trip.

Sponsored

 

[the golden eel]

I am curious… isn’t preconditioning happening on longer trips by default? I don’t know how long it takes to precondition the battery but if you are already driving for 30 miles or 50 miles and directly go to a DC charger the battery should be preconditioned already.. Is my understanding wrong?

No, the act of driving is not enough to warm the battery for efficient DCFC charging.

The battery will slowly cool to roughly whatever the outside temperature is while you are driving. Unless it's very cold out (don't know the exact degree) then it will use the heater to warm the battery enough to keep it operational. But this will be nowhere near warm enough for efficient charging.

 

[kdonnel]

Here's a question I can't seem to get an anwer to. Beleive it or not your Native Ford Navigation is a "Connected Service". I think mine expires this summer or next, can't recall exactly. If I let the Navigation Service expire (as like you, I use a 3rd party app for navigation 95% of the time) how will I be able to precondition my battery when on a trip???

I think I saw another thread that showed that not only will you not have a way to precondition but it appeared you would no longer get SOC sent to Apple maps and would lose route planning there as a result.

 

[JellyBelly]

Pre conditioning only occurs when using the native navigation app.

I don't use the native navigation app.

In this case if I plugged in my final destination into the native navigation it tried to take me to a different charging destination than I wanted to use. Since I don't use the native navigation it took a while to happen upon a way to force it to use the charging destination I wanted.

Unless we get an option to manually trigger pre conditioning I think I will probably switch to the native app about 30 miles out so that I can get the benefit of pre conditioning and use another navigation app for the majority of the trip.

Ok thanks. I had assumed the battery should be warm enough after driving a while but I guess preconditioning is getting the battery ready more than what it can be at while driving. I too don’t use native app …

 

[Bonehead]

No, the act of driving is not enough to warm the battery for efficient DCFC charging.

The battery will slowly cool to roughly whatever the outside temperature is while you are driving. Unless it's very cold out (don't know the exact degree) then it will use the heater to warm the battery enough to keep it operational. But this will be nowhere near warm enough for efficient charging.

Any idea roughly what outside temperature does it become unnecessary to precondition? I don't use the native navigation app, and I'm planning on taking a long road trip through the Southwest in April.

 

[the golden eel]

Any idea roughly what outside temperature does it become unnecessary to precondition? I don't use the native navigation app, and I'm planning on taking a long road trip through the Southwest in April.

Other folks will have more knowledge than I, but I think I remember reading that setting a departure time and preconditioning the battery while plugged in will heat the battery to 59 degrees F. And preconditioning the battery while in route to a DCFC will heat it into the 70's, I think.

Hopefully someone else can chime in with some definitive numbers.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Any idea roughly what outside temperature does it become unnecessary to precondition? I don't use the native navigation app, and I'm planning on taking a long road trip through the Southwest in April.

For DC charging you should precondition via the nav any time the outside temperature is below 75ºF or above 95ºF. This will ensure you always get the optimal charging rate.

You also need to start the preconditioning 30+ minutes before arrival so it has time to heat.

 

[Just Lurking]

I preconditioned yesterday and got a peak of 123 kW. An ID4 next to me complained he was only getting 34 kW. When I talked about how important it is to have a warm battery, he dismissed it with a "the car should charge faster than 34 kW". Uh, OK dude, that'll work.

In fairness, it should "just work" and as EVs go more and more mainstream drivers shouldn't have to worry about this stuff. Better software and better UIs can mitigate this in the future (e.g. by doing a better job at automatically detecting planned DC fast charging and by educating the owner automatically with both the in-car and in-phone-app displays).

 

[generaltso]

Me personally I do not have the option for L2. The distance from the panel to the garage over almost 1000 feet away and above $3k to install.

Sounds like you do have the option. You spent $50k on a car. What’s another $3k for easy charging?

 

[Spike]

I hope that in the future we get preconditioning through other navigation.

I thought I read that Waze wanted to do that, but they have to get the automakers agree to have Car Play tell the car to do something and as of right now that functionality isn't there. You could see where the car companies would be loath to let an outside app make any input to the car.

 

[helium89]

I preconditioned yesterday and got a peak of 123 kW. An ID4 next to me complained he was only getting 34 kW. When I talked about how important it is to have a warm battery, he dismissed it with a "the car should charge faster than 34 kW". Uh, OK dude, that'll work.

34 kW sounds more like a failed temp sensor in the charger than a lack of preconditioning.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I thought I read that Waze wanted to do that, but they have to get the automakers agree to have Car Play tell the car to do something and as of right now that functionality isn't there. You could see where the car companies would be loath to let an outside app make any input to the car.

The phone needs to tell the car it's navigating to a DC charger for preconditioning to work. Apple doesn't allow the destination type to be shared. So nothing can be done until Apple decides it can share that.

 

[emichnov]

34 kW sounds more like a failed temp sensor in the charger than a lack of preconditioning.

That could very well have been the problem.

 

[Triggerhappy007]

34 kW sounds more like a failed temp sensor in the charger than a lack of preconditioning.

Yeah, sounds like a problem with the DC charging cable. I hope he tried to move to a different charger.

 

[Thunderanger]

I've had my car over 2 years now, with about 35K miles. I pre-condition as indicated via the native nav app, etc. Yet only maybe once in the entire time I've had the car has it charged over 100kw, that I can recall. Normally she tops out around 70KW on a 150kw or higher charger. What's the scoop? I am totally baffled by all of you folks indicating you get in the low 100's fairly normally. Any tips would be appreciated. My grumpy wife doesn't like waiting to charge.......

Sponsored