It's the Preconditioning, Stupid!

[MellowJohnny]

So...given my US friends are knee deep in 2024 election-ness, I thought I'd borrow one of my favourite political spinmaster quotes.

Long story short - I have never seen, in a year and a half of owning my Mach-E, more than about 80-ish kW at a DCFC. I just came back from a road trip to Montreal and decided to try and get preconditioning to kick-in. I saw a post last week that saw some really good speeds after preconditioning, so thought I'd try.

So here are the unscientific results:

1st charge - no preconditioning. Brand new DCFC which is in soft-launch, so does not appear anywhere yet. Pulled about 67 kW at 35% SoC, about 5c temps.
2nd charge - "faked" a charger location by choosing something close to where I wanted to actually charge. Lo and behold I plug in and see 116 kW!!! WTF? Never seen that, ever. Nice charging curve thus followed - 80-ish, 70-ish, then settled into mid 60s until about 80%. 37% SoC, about 10c temps.

3rd charge - same as the first. Could not precondition and had similar low 70s kW.

Two out of three charges on the way home were the same (except the last a Shell Recharge) - preconditioned and saw 115 kW peak at both Ivy and Electrify Canada, then high 80s etc.

The positive effects of preconditioning cannot be overstated. Love it. It's my new best friend. I will be doing it whenever, regardless of outside temps.

If you are wondering why it took so long, the Nav has never had all the local chargers (like Ivy) and I gave up early on. It's still less than perfect (today it suggested I drive into NY to charge....you want me to cross an international border to charge? Wow.) but it seems a bit better than it used to be.

Sponsored

 

[GreaseMonkey]

Can you approximate the average charging speed say between 10-80% of the above? I never preconditioned and have no interest to ever open the Ford nav. I routinely saw avg speeds of 95+ kW on EA between 20-80%. The charger is 2.2 miles from home, so preconditioning wouldn’t work anyway.

Just thought I’d ask in case you have that data handy.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Can you approximate the average charging speed say between 10-80% of the above? I never preconditioned and have no interest to ever open the Ford nav. I routinely saw avg speeds of 95+ kW on EA between 20-80%. The charger is 2.2 miles from home, so preconditioning wouldn’t work anyway.

Just thought I’d ask in case you have that data handy.

I do actually:

- First charge after preconditioning, added 32 kW, 33% to 80% in 26 minutes.
- Next charge w/o preconditioning was 32 minutes to add 33 kW, from 31% to 80%
- Electrify Canada charge was 27% to 89% (I was at a coffee shop 5 minutes away and didn't realize it was past 80%) took 40 minutes, so maybe take 10 minutes off for the 9% added at like 25-ish kW.
- Last charge (which should have preconditioned as I navigated using the Nav app) was 28% to 82%, adding 34 kW in 31 minutes. This one was a bit of a mystery - it was a 150 kWh unit but never went about mid-70s kW.

The first two are the best comparison - virtually identical kW added, and 6 minutes faster when preconditioning.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

I do actually:

- First charge after preconditioning, added 32 kW, 33% to 80% in 26 minutes.
- Next charge w/o preconditioning was 32 minutes to add 33 kW, from 31% to 80%
- Electrify Canada charge was 27% to 89% (I was at a coffee shop 5 minutes away and didn't realize it was past 80%) took 40 minutes, so maybe take 10 minutes off for the 9% added at like 25-ish kW.
- Last charge (which should have preconditioned as I navigated using the Nav app) was 28% to 82%, adding 34 kW in 31 minutes. This one was a bit of a mystery - it was a 150 kWh unit but never went about mid-70s kW.

The first two are the best comparison - virtually identical kW added, and 6 minutes faster when preconditioning.

Same equipment for first two? If so, 19% faster.

The charging speeds you’re getting are considerably slower than what I get here in the US. Do you have standard range?

EA 350kW averages 95-98 and EVgo 100kW averages 71kW. Both summer and winter weather and no preconditioning.

 

[Maquis]

You can’t fake a charger location. In order for preconditioning to work, you must select a charger presented by the nav.

Edit - did you select an actual charger, just not the one you actually used? That could work.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Same equipment for first two? If so, 19% faster.

The charging speeds you’re getting are considerably slower than what I get here in the US. Do you have standard range?

EA 350kW averages 95-98 and EVgo 100kW averages 71kW. Both summer and winter weather and no preconditioning.

Yes, SR pack. So for me seeing 115 kW was a complete surprise. I'd gotten used to seeing more like 77, 78 kW.

Equipment - no, different networks. The Ivy chargers don't indicate a speed, but the App says 100 kWh. Second dispenser was also a 100 kWh.

 

[MellowJohnny]

You can’t fake a charger location. In order for preconditioning to work, you must select a charger presented by the nav.

Edit - did you select an actual charger, just not the one you actually used? That could work.

Exactly. I picked a charger in Nav that was roughly the same distance away, which I did not want to use (it was a 50 kWh unit) and then drove to my preferred spot. For some reason the Ivy chargers rarely appear in Nav, so this is my solution. The Ivy chargers show up in Apple Maps, so I get the distance there, then just pick anything with roughly the same distance in Nav

Interesting as I drove past the location of the charger I picked in Nav, it seemed to then pick the next closest one for me. After the distance went to 0, it then jumped back up to 24 km...so I assumed it picked the next closest.

 

[Jimrpa]

So...given my US friends are knee deep in 2024 election-ness, I thought I'd borrow one of my favourite political spinmaster quotes.

Long story short - I have never seen, in a year and a half of owning my Mach-E, more than about 80-ish kW at a DCFC. I just came back from a road trip to Montreal and decided to try and get preconditioning to kick-in. I saw a post last week that saw some really good speeds after preconditioning, so thought I'd try.

So here are the unscientific results:

1st charge - no preconditioning. Brand new DCFC which is in soft-launch, so does not appear anywhere yet. Pulled about 67 kW at 35% SoC, about 5c temps.
2nd charge - "faked" a charger location by choosing something close to where I wanted to actually charge. Lo and behold I plug in and see 116 kW!!! WTF? Never seen that, ever. Nice charging curve thus followed - 80-ish, 70-ish, then settled into mid 60s until about 80%. 37% SoC, about 10c temps.

3rd charge - same as the first. Could not precondition and had similar low 70s kW.

Two out of three charges on the way home were the same (except the last a Shell Recharge) - preconditioned and saw 115 kW peak at both Ivy and Electrify Canada, then high 80s etc.

The positive effects of preconditioning cannot be overstated. Love it. It's my new best friend. I will be doing it whenever, regardless of outside temps.

If you are wondering why it took so long, the Nav has never had all the local chargers (like Ivy) and I gave up early on. It's still less than perfect (today it suggested I drive into NY to charge....you want me to cross an international border to charge? Wow.) but it seems a bit better than it used to be.

It’s spelled “favorite” ?

 

[MellowJohnny]

It’s spelled “favorite” ?

Ha!

Queen's English, sir. We also have a Governor General in the House of Parliament, who represents the King of England, 'cause y'know, he can't always be in Ottawa.

Apparently we were OK with taxation without representation, and you hoodlums in Boston had some sort of issue with it...

 

[Jimrpa]

Ha!

Queen's English, sir. We also have a Governor General in the House of Parliament, who represents the King of England, 'cause y'know, he can't always be in Ottawa.

Apparently we were OK with taxation without representation, and you hoodlums in Boston had some sort of issue with it...

Hey, those rabble-rousers in Boston were just country bumpkin hoodlums. The real cradle of Liberty is Philadelphia ?

Yep, I caught that your were from Canada and was just messing with you ? Apparently, you missed out on the long discussion of English (the language) dialects and evolution of pronunciation. ?

 

[MellowJohnny]

Hey, those rabble-rousers in Boston were just country bumpkin hoodlums. The real cradle of Liberty is Philadelphia ?

Yep, I caught that your were from Canada and was just messing with you ? Apparently, you missed out on the long discussion of English (the language) dialects and evolution of pronunciation. ?

Yeah, I can take a ribbing

I work for a Philly-based software company, so I'm constantly checking my spelling in PowerPoint presentations and email. I love the history of our two nations - so similar, yet so subtly different. It's fun.

Was that discussion here?

I lived in London for a year and was there when David Bowie passed. People came into the office and said "did you hear about Bowie?" (Bow-ey pronounced like the bow of a boat). I had no idea what they were taking about, and then realized we in NA say his name (Bow-ey like bow & arrow) wrong. And that was just the tip of the iceberg...

Fun stuff!

 

[Mach-Lee]

Yup, preconditioning for DCFC can make a huge difference in winter temps. Provided it's not way too cold for it to even try. Most benefit will occur in the -5ºC to 20ºC regime. Try to use a departure time before leaving on a trip with DCFC stops as well.

I just always do it, if possible.

 

[Shayne]

So...given my US friends are knee deep in 2024 election-ness, I thought I'd borrow one of my favourite political spinmaster quotes.

Long story short - I have never seen, in a year and a half of owning my Mach-E, more than about 80-ish kW at a DCFC. I just came back from a road trip to Montreal and decided to try and get preconditioning to kick-in. I saw a post last week that saw some really good speeds after preconditioning, so thought I'd try.

So here are the unscientific results:

1st charge - no preconditioning. Brand new DCFC which is in soft-launch, so does not appear anywhere yet. Pulled about 67 kW at 35% SoC, about 5c temps.
2nd charge - "faked" a charger location by choosing something close to where I wanted to actually charge. Lo and behold I plug in and see 116 kW!!! WTF? Never seen that, ever. Nice charging curve thus followed - 80-ish, 70-ish, then settled into mid 60s until about 80%. 37% SoC, about 10c temps.

3rd charge - same as the first. Could not precondition and had similar low 70s kW.

Two out of three charges on the way home were the same (except the last a Shell Recharge) - preconditioned and saw 115 kW peak at both Ivy and Electrify Canada, then high 80s etc.

The positive effects of preconditioning cannot be overstated. Love it. It's my new best friend. I will be doing it whenever, regardless of outside temps.

If you are wondering why it took so long, the Nav has never had all the local chargers (like Ivy) and I gave up early on. It's still less than perfect (today it suggested I drive into NY to charge....you want me to cross an international border to charge? Wow.) but it seems a bit better than it used to be.

I have gotten 110 KW a number of times (ER pack) with no preconditioning at all. This is of course after driving it for hours on a trip. I have noted it is dependent a lot of the chargers themselves. Since the heater is not large enough to do the battery and the cabin at the same time you would need to shut off cabin heat to get any meaningful battery preconditioning. The NAV program has no IVY (Ontario hydro) chargers for me. With how low the number of chargers have been up here for the first 3 year it make the Ford program not too useful. If I used it I could go nowhere.

Sponsored