Heat Wave Coming - Battery Health Tips to Remember

[Pregrid]

No. You don't really have to do anything special. You can park and plug and not give your car a second thought. If that process worked for you with a gas car then you must have owned some fantastic cars.

The excessive heat here in Phoenix affects gas cars too. If you don't check the vehicle then your life may be in danger if your vehicle breaks down on the side of the road.

If you are a CDL driver, the pre-trip inspection takes about 45 minutes. That is with a diesel burning engine. Looking after your equipment is kinda important IMO....

I get your point. Having raced Radicals for many years, I understand the need for pre-race inspections and checking nuts and bolts. I also owned a 43-foot RV and had to do the same thing. And you’re right about owning some fantastic cars, including Ferraris, Lambos, Vipers, Vettes, Maseratis, etc. And other than checking tire pressures, brake fluid, water and oil levels and battery charge, I really didn’t have to do much, even though they were not driven on a daily basis. My daily driver —BMW 750–just starts and goes. Can’t recall the last time I broke down on the road, although it happened a couple of times in the Radical on the track. I’m sure a detailed checklist might be more relevant in older, classic cars, given the older technology.

My only point is I didn’t think I’d have to race prep the MachE every day and night. It’s a daily driver, right? And if it can’t be used that way, well….it just may be a car before its time. I’’m suppose to take delivery of mine later this month, but it looks like the recall may affect that. Please don‘t get me wrong, I’m a fan of new technology, but I expect it to make my life easier, not harder. The only new technology that would put my life at risk is self-driving. My view is when you get behind the wheel of a one-or-two ton machine, you should pay attention—-and hope the guy coming at you in the other direction is doing the same.

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[Mach-Lee]

My opinion I say none apply to me even though I live in the hot desert southwest with 4 years of EV experience.

• Set a charge schedule so your car only charges at night (10 PM - 8 AM recommended), do not charge during the heat of the day. Can't do that - I charge after I get home from work. My incoming F150 Lightning will need to start charging during the day as it takes a longer time to charge to full.
• Keep battery charged between 15-85%, do not charge to 100% unless absolutely necessary. Very high or low charge levels put more stress on the pack in extreme heat. That's a myth - brought on by some recall by GM battery fires. I always charge mine to 100% - there are SOC buffers built in to prevent overcharging or even getting close to 100% in individual cells.
• Park in the shade as much as possible. I recommend window shades or ceramic tint. Tinting won't do much for the truck, just the inside. Shade parking if I can find it.
• Consider leaving the vehicle on while you go into a store (take all keys with you and be sure the doors lock). Vehicle will not shift from park without a key present, and will shut off after 30 minutes. I would never do that in urban, crime ridden city. Why would I leave the vehicle turned on to draw power from the EV battery??
• Plug in as soon as you arrive at your destination so the battery pack can cool itself with shore power if necessary. Only if I can find an available charger at a decent $ rate - at work I have access to a free charger, but no shade/roof.
• Ventilate your garage in hot weather so the heat can escape rather than building up inside, especially while charging. Charge outside if temps are cooler. Sorry, but leaving the garage door open causes not only 4 legged creatures to slip in and I have to hire an exterminator; but the 2 legged predators that will steal from my garage living in urban city.
• If you leave at a regular time, set a departure time (different than remote start) so your battery pack can cool before driving. Sorry, I can't do that - I leave a different times daily.
• Departure time cools the battery pack, unlike remote start which is focused on cabin cooling. ? I never use cabin cooling...
• Drive conservatively, using less regen is advised in hot weather to reduce pack heating (Whisper mode uses less regen). I use 1PD all the time and rely on regen when I drive my EV.
• Avoid DC fast charging if possible. Don't have one nearby.
• Consider reducing your EVSE charge rate setting to 32A or less to reduce charger heat load if you desire less fan noise or have charging errors. That won't work for my incoming Lightning - I have an 80A EVSE on order and will be using my current 48A EVSE charger in the meantime. 32A charger will take forever on my Lightning.
• Do not set climate temp below 70ºF and use recirculation mode in extreme heat/humidity to reduce cabin cooling demand (leaves more capacity for pack cooling). I never turn on cabin heating or cooling - summer I roll down the windows or winter use seat heaters.
• Expect that your Ford Mobile Charger may start to have charging issues (amber light) in the heat due to a poor thermal design, using an aftermarket wall-mounted EVSE is recommended. I don't use a Ford mobile charger daily - that will be in my frunk for travel. I use a 48A now and will get an 80A later.
• Some features may be unavailable (BlueCruise) and performance may be limited in extreme temps. Don't have BlueCruise (incoming Lightning Lariat base & ordered MME Select base).

Again you can do what you can. Increase your charging hours, just try to avoid the 4-7 PM timeframe as that’s the worst. The charging limits are not a myth, if you read your owners manual you’ll see Ford only recommends charging to 90% or less every day. I’ve confirmed the voltage at 100% is too high for daily use and will cause degradation if you park it at 100% daily. The buffers do not mean you can charge it whatever you want without any damage. The Lightning will limit you to 90% daily, this is likely coming to the Mach-E too with a future software release.

If you’re worried about security you can install an exhaust fan in your garage. Leaving the car on while in stores is safe if you take your key with because even if someone jumps in they won’t be able to shift it out of park.

You can see how charge rates go, but if the car is charging at 48A in a closed hot garage the fan might be going nuts. Personally I’d cut it back until the fan runs at a moderate speed. 32A is what others found to work for reducing charge errors and fan speed, on the Lightning 56A would probably be a good reduced rate.

If you drive faster than about 50 MPH you should roll up the windows and use the A/C because it takes less energy than the drag from the windows open.

 

[SnBGC]

I get your point. Having raced Radicals for many years, I understand the need for pre-race inspections and checking nuts and bolts. I also owned a 43-foot RV and had to do the same thing. And you’re right about owning some fantastic cars, including Ferraris, Lambos, Vipers, Vettes, Maseratis, etc. And other than checking tire pressures, brake fluid, water and oil levels and battery charge, I really didn’t have to do much, even though they were not driven on a daily basis. My daily driver —BMW 750–just starts and goes. Can’t recall the last time I broke down on the road, although it happened a couple of times in the Radical on the track. I’m sure a detailed checklist might be more relevant in older, classic cars, given the older technology.

My only point is I didn’t think I’d have to race prep the MachE every day and night. It’s a daily driver, right? And if it can’t be used that way, well….it just may be a car before its time. I’’m suppose to take delivery of mine later this month, but it looks like the recall may affect that. Please don‘t get me wrong, I’m a fan of new technology, but I expect it to make my life easier, not harder. The only new technology that would put my life at risk is self-driving. My view is when you get behind the wheel of a one-or-two ton machine, you should pay attention—-and hope the guy coming at you in the other direction is doing the same.

You don't really have to do anything special. Those tips are just for those that are concerned about the heat and looking for reasonable ways to mitigate. Sometimes there is no avoiding.....just use the car as needed. But when given a choice......sometimes there are things we can do that might help.

It was just a helpful post IMO......not really trying to say we need, should or have to do any of those things. An EV is really a LOT less effort to operate compared to an ICE. At least that has been my experience so far.

 

[Ming]

The battery cells prefer a temperature range similar to humans, around 75ºF is optimal.

Not sure about this. Multiple times I saw car showing energy used for ext temp when it's in lower 80s, but not when it's 90s.

I feel the car warms up the battery to at least 80F, if not higher.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Not sure about this. Multiple times I saw car showing energy used for ext temp when it's in lower 80s, but not when it's 90s.

I feel the car warms up the battery to at least 80F, if not higher.

Depends what you're trying to do with the battery. For storage you want cool temps, but if you are trying to run a lot of power into or out of the battery you want it as warm as you can without overheating, which is around 95ªF. As long as you're not trying to DCFC I don't think it will heat the battery as long as it's above about 40ºF.

The external temp on the energy display is an estimate (not a measurement) of how much range is lost due to the pack being too cold or too warm. It does not reflect energy used to heat or cool it to my knowledge. Energy used to heat or cool the pack will show up under the climate use section. Climate use will show values even if HVAC is off, this is energy used to condition the pack. You need to think more in terms of pack temps, like was the car parked in an underground garage where the temp was less than 78ºF? If so then you might see an ext. temp bar from the pack being cold even though the air temp is in the 80's, it takes time to warm up.

 

[Rt1AWD]

Today the message popped up "It is too hot. Please leave your car plugged in when not in use" or something like that.
From that message I assume that when the car is on or when it is plugged in - battery cooling happens automatically when the battery needs it. Thus you shouldn't have to prepare for driving to keep batteries in good conditions

 

[Deleted member 3569]

Not sure how to avoid DCFC in the middle of summer in Florida

... actually summer temps here in FL is not that bad at all ...albeit the humidity! I haven't seen it hovers above 98ºF but what really scares me is to plug a CCS2 in the middle of a torrential FL squall ... it happened to me once ...and of course I was wearing flip flops ...and I was in ankle deep of rain water, my feet was completely under water. After that I learned to carry a pair of leather gloves and large umbrella ... btw flip flop is a obligatory footwear here in FL ...

 

[Logal727]

... actually summer temps here in FL is not that bad at all ...albeit the humidity! I haven't seen it hovers above 98ºF but what really scares me is to plug a CCS2 in the middle of a torrential FL squall ... it happened to me once ...and of course I was wearing flip flops ...and I was in ankle deep of rain water, my feet was completely under water. After that I learned to carry a pair of leather gloves and large umbrella ... btw flip flop is a obligatory footwear here in FL ...

Yeah I’m in Florida too

 

[CiCi]

Good Morning

Question if you plug the mach e in a wall outlet even then you are supposed to only charge to 90%? And this 90% isn't just in hot heat? Ford recommends not exceeding 90% charge to a wall outlet?

 

[astronut325]

My Mach-E is on the dealer lot. Can I expect them to do this update or will I need to tell them do it before I pay for it?

 

[macchiaz-o]

Good Morning

Question if you plug the mach e in a wall outlet even then you are supposed to only charge to 90%? And this 90% isn't just in hot heat? Ford recommends not exceeding 90% charge to a wall outlet?

You can set whatever limit you want between 50 and 100% via the Preferred Charge settings in FordPass or via the car's touch screen. I have mine stop at 85% for example, and I've limited it to the hours where my utility offers the least expensive electricity.

My Mach-E is on the dealer lot. Can I expect them to do this update or will I need to tell them do it before I pay for it?

What update are you referring to? Your dealer will apply any updates that Ford requires them to perform and I wouldn't expect them to go further than that as it costs them time and labor.

 

[CiCi]

Good Morning macchiazo-o

I appreciate your informative response!

Thank you!

You can set whatever limit you want between 50 and 100% via the Preferred Charge settings in FordPass or via the car's touch screen. I have mine stop at 85% for example, and I've limited it to the hours where my utility offers the least expensive electricity.

What update are you referring to? Your dealer will apply any updates that Ford requires them to perform and I wouldn't expect them to go further than that as it costs them time and labor.

 

[azerik]

I drove around in this, yesterday, and without doing anything special about it...

@SnBGC lives nearby and drives in the same conditions but almost certainly different driving patterns than me... He's seen 140° shown on his display. So the sensor is clearly near portions of the vehicle that get fairly hot... But still, this is just normal summer time stuff here. Cars are built to deal with it.

Dragging this up as it's getting warmer, again. Does the AC in the car take a dive while it tries to cool the pack? My FFE (and @SnBGC can probably attest as well) wouldn't have functioning AC for sometimes 20 minutes (my black FFE, my silver FFE is much better, around 3 to 5 min) after sitting, unplugged, windows up, no sunshade (thanks wifey!) all day in a parking lot in 115+. Then around 5:30pm, wife would call and tell me the AC's broken again.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Dragging this up as it's getting warmer, again. Does the AC in the car take a dive while it tries to cool the pack? My FFE (and @SnBGC can probably attest as well) wouldn't have functioning AC for sometimes 20 minutes (my black FFE, my silver FFE is much better, around 3 to 5 min) after sitting, unplugged, windows up, no sunshade (thanks wifey!) all day in a parking lot in 115+. Then around 5:30pm, wife would call and tell me the AC's broken again.

I haven't been able to test that yet, it doesn't get hot enough here to cool the pack hardy ever. Basically the A/C system has both an evaporator for the cabin and a chiller for the battery coolant. Both the chiller and the evaporator have separate valves. So that means they could both be used at the same time, or it could shut down the evaporator so only the chiller is used. I'm not sure which strategy Ford uses or when, but I'm sure if the battery was really hot it would prioritize that and you might lose cabin A/C for a few minutes until it cools down.

 

[azerik]

The FFE only had a 32kw battery and it would flip from one to the other. You could see it in a dash display where it would show the climate kw usage. That's the only way I knew it was doing it on purpose. If you turned off the AC for a few min it'd sometimes come on. I'm thinking that system didn't have enough umph to try to run both very well, and the fan was underpowered but still sounded like a AV-8B Harrier II. (amazingly the same fan noise when charging)

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