How long do you wait to charge after driving?

[Up and Over]

Do you allow for 2-3 hours of battery cooling or do you start charging sooner?

Sponsored

 

[Blue highway]

plugged into an L2 at home it doesn't really warm the battery enough to notice.

DCFC, I am on a trip and don't wait at all.

If you are worried about this, the cooling system for the battery is adequate so pls don't worry. When it's charged, its ready to go.

 

[RickMachE]

I plug right in. I only delay it if the battery might be very warm, which is rare.

 

[Up and Over]

More curiosity than worry! Thanks for your reply!

plugged into an L2 at home it doesn't really warm the battery enough to notice.

DCFC, I am on a trip and don't wait at all.

If you are worried about this, the cooling system for the battery is adequate so pls don't worry. When it's charged, its ready to go.

 

[axelheimer24]

The manual says to wait a couple hours, so I set the car to start charging at 10pm. Probably unnecessary, but that was an easy adjustment that costs me nothing. Most work days I’m home before 6pm, so 10pm is overkill most days.

 

[JamieGeek]

Plug in right away. If the battery is too warm it will cool it first. On L2 it doesn't really heat it up that much anyway.

Just this past weekend I plugged it in and immediately the vents opened up and the fans came on. After a minute or so it must have realized it wasn't that hot as the vents closed and fans stopped.

 

[redranger04g]

About 4 hours, but that’s just because the car doesn’t charge till 9pm because of cheaper electricity rates

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

My car does not start charging until Midnight, because the electricity is cheaper.

 

[mkhuffman]

I charge whenever I need to. So if I need to plug in right after getting home, I do. I don't worry about it even though Ford says to wait.

 

[phil]

The same amount of time I wait to fill up my gas tank after driving.

 

[dbsb3233]

For DCFC, we obviously plug in right away because it's during a road trip and time matters. Most of the videos I see suggest it's a GOOD thing to have the battery warmed up first. Although I'm sure if the weather is really hot that can probably work in reverse.

At home, I simply have the schedule set to start at 11pm, not because of temperature, but to be a "good citizen" and help the power grid by charging off-peak. My rates are the same 10c/kWh 24x7 regardless.

 

[Teslaeata]

The same amount of time I wait to fill up my gas tank after driving.

Absolutely!

Wait 2 hours after driving before charging?

I can’t find that in manual, can anybody point me at this, pls?

Or is it another April fool I’ve fallen for ?‍

Drive a few hundred miles, pull onto charge station forecourt, sit for 2 hours and then put car on charge?

Really?

Surely that is utter nonsense!!

If that is the rule, nobody would ever buy an EV, what’s the point?

At home Big Red does have a few hours after driving because economy 7 [hours] don’t start until 1:30am but c30% of my charging is out on the road due to the distance I cover.

 

[Up and Over]

Page 157 in my manual under “Overnight Charging.” I double checked before posting—I didn’t want @RickMachE to call me out for not reading the manual!!!!

 

[axelheimer24]

I can’t find that in manual, can anybody point me at this, pls?

It’s on page 157. This is really for optimal battery health - obviously not for DCFC.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I've said this before, but I think the "cooling off period" is just a carbon copy from the Fusion or Cmax hybrid manuals. On those cars the battery actually gets pretty hot while driving and they had an abysmal air cooling system that didn't work very well, so you wouldn't want to charge those right when you got home if you can help it.

But on the Mach-E the battery is so big it barely gets warm while driving, so there's really no need to wait before charging unless you live in Arizona and it's 100+ degrees out. On my typical 30 mile commute the battery only warms up a couple degrees C, almost nothing.

Sponsored