Mach-E / Lightning cold weather driving tips direct from Darren Palmer

[GuliblGuy]

On Tom's YouTube channel, yes focused on the Lightning, but they basically talk about both vehicles in Darren's segment, some big takeaways for me:

• If you know you're leaving at some point in the day but not sure when, still set a precondition time for when electricity is cheap, the car will barely lose any of that precondition even hours later and will make a big impact on your range.
• Expanded info is coming as far as "Where did my energy go"
• They are looking at a more efficient heat pump type solution for down the road
• Even more cool updates/changes are coming to the vehicles
• They keep an eye out and talk to customers all the time about how the vehicles are being used.

Here is the part where they start talking about preconditioning , but the whole Darren part is great:

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[Dustus]

Good stuff. I had turned off my preconditioning just because of what he said, I don't leave at a regular time. After hearing that, I'm going to turn it back on. should really help since its been about 0 degrees here all month.

 

[Jimrpa]

Ok, this answers my biggest question: I’ve never bothered with preconditioning because I didn’t like being tied to a specific time of day. Now that I know that preconditioning doesn’t tie you to the exact time you set, I’ll just set my pre-conditioning time to the end of my cheapest TOU period, which is 6:00 AM.

 

[AstralLiving]

Does preconditioning only work if you're plugged in?

 

[GuliblGuy]

Does preconditioning only work if you're plugged in?

Yes plugged in with a departure time set. Otherwise it's just heating the cabin, not the battery.

 

[RickMachE]

He also said the changes are coming to ALL the vehicles, including the older Mach-Es. Hopefully this stops the "but Ford never said that" response.

 

[DarkStang]

Interesting to hear that a preconditioned battery only loses about 1 degree per hour. I bet that varies wildly depending on ambient temperature though. I recall seeing a thread where someone measured the battery temp after preconditioning and it was falling pretty rapidly once unplugged and driving.

It would be great if this is true. I mostly have given up on preconditioning unless going on a longer drive because most of my drives are like 2 miles. But if it has a positive effect for the next 10 hours or so, it would be worth doing everyday.

 

[Mirak]

If I don’t actually end up driving near my departure time, how long does the car continue to heat the cabin before turning off?

 

[GuliblGuy]

If I don’t actually end up driving near my departure time, how long does the car continue to heat the cabin before turning off?

I think at your departure time it treats it like it was remote started and goes 15 min after that time

 

[Mach-Lee]

Interesting to hear that a preconditioned battery only loses about 1 degree per hour. I bet that varies wildly depending on ambient temperature though. I recall seeing a thread where someone measured the battery temp after preconditioning and it was falling pretty rapidly once unplugged and driving.

It would be great if this is true. I mostly have given up on preconditioning unless going on a longer drive because most of my drives are like 2 miles. But if it has a positive effect for the next 10 hours or so, it would be worth doing everyday.

I think he means it will cool off about 1°C per hour around 0°C ambient. When the temperature differential is much higher it cools off faster. But I would say the pack will stay above freezing for 2-6 hours after preconditioning.

Yeah, preconditioning isn’t worth it for only 2 miles. Just plug in instead to keep warm.

If I don’t actually end up driving near my departure time, how long does the car continue to heat the cabin before turning off?

15 minutes afterwards.

 

[Mirak]

Thanks. I might actually start using departure times during the winter months.

 

[Jimrpa]

I think he means it will cool off about 1°C per hour around 0°C ambient. When the temperature differential is much higher it cools off faster. But I would say the pack will stay above freezing for 2-6 hours after preconditioning.

Yeah, preconditioning isn’t worth it for only 2 miles. Just plug in instead to keep warm.


15 minutes afterwards.

Now I’m confused again. Is the guidance that preconditioning is only necessary if you will be driving a longer distance? If I drive a short distance each morning, say 2-3 miles, do I have to worry about preconditioning, or can I just remote start?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Now I’m confused again. Is the guidance that preconditioning is only necessary if you will be driving a longer distance? If I drive a short distance each morning, say 2-3 miles, do I have to worry about preconditioning, or can I just remote start?

Well that's up to you. If you only drive a couple miles gingerly, then the >0ºC battery temp from being plugged in is probably enough and preconditioning isn't as necessary. My personal recommendation is you only need to precondition if the trip you're taking is longer than about 20 minutes. Or if you plan on parking the car outside unplugged for an hour or longer. With short trips, the battery isn't going to cool off very much. But if you're out for a while, then you want the extra temperature in the pack from preconditioning to tide you over until the next time you can plug in. The strategy is to keep the pack above 0ºC so that should guide your thinking.

If you're on a time of use plan, the extra costs incurred should be considered if you want to use it during on-peak times. Preconditioning will override your preferred charge times. Preconditioning takes about 2-3 kWh.

 

[cmbfod]

Will preconditioning be accomplished on a Level 1 charger or is Level 2 required?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Will preconditioning be accomplished on a Level 1 charger or is Level 2 required?

Here's your answer: https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...ting-taking-requests.24393/page-7#post-570808

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