Testing battery preconditioning feature!

[Evan]

Made a video where I test the in car navigation battery preconditioning. Temperatures were cold at around 12-18 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, this might be one of the cheapest DCFC I’ve seen! $5 per hour, which brought the cost down to cheaper than charging at home!

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[hbirring01]

Not trying to be negative but I dont think this is an accurate test. To me this doesnt prove the feature exists. I know its been debated and hard data has been posted but the fact that @Ford Motor Company never advertised this or mentioned it is baffling to me.

 

[Evan]

Not trying to be negative but I dont think this is an accurate test. To me this doesnt prove the feature exists. I know its been debated and hard data has been posted but the fact that @Ford Motor Company never advertised this or mentioned it is baffling to me.

No I get it. I wish I had something like an OBD scanner to monitor the temps as I was approaching the charger, but don’t have one at the moment. But the charging speeds did seem really good for being in 12 degree weather

 

[hbirring01]

No I get it. I wish I had something like an OBD scanner to monitor the temps as I was approaching the charger, but don’t have one at the moment. But the charging speeds did seem really good for being in 12 degree weather

Yeah and obd scanner would have been better for sure and I cant really speak to if they were since I never dcfc but it sounds like it was good. I still wish Ford would confirm/deny this feature. In my wife's tesla you can hear it working after putting in the dcfc destination. I never heard anything in my mach-e.

 

[Evan]

@Ford Motor Company can we get a confirmation? ?

 

[Jimrpa]

@Ford Motor Company can we get a confirmation? ?

Don’t forget to PM them your VIN and dealer so they can look into your battery preconditioning issue from their side ?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Made a video where I test the in car navigation battery preconditioning. Temperatures were cold at around 12-18 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, this might be one of the cheapest DCFC I’ve seen! $5 per hour, which brought the cost down to cheaper than charging at home!

So I don't think any preconditioning happened there because you cranked your climate temps up to 78ºF in 12ºF temps. That's too much of a cabin heating demand which cancels battery heating. If anything, you should be lowering the cabin temp (or completely turning off HVAC) as you approach the charger to increase the heat share available to the battery. You also need to use AUTO 1 or 2 so the fan speed is controlled low. High fan speed is bad in the winter, you just exhaust warm air out the back of the car and waste most of it.

The strategy looks at outdoor temps and the indoor delta between the current cabin temp and the set point temp. If the current cabin temp is too far below the set point temp, battery heating will be canceled. This is why setting a departure time to warm the cabin and the battery before leaving is part of my recommend procedure for best results, you want everything warmed up so you have spare heat available for the battery.

Also, I recommend not cancelling the navigation route until you are hooked up to a charger. If you are messing around getting the charger started for 10 minutes the battery is going to cool off.

Not trying to be negative but I dont think this is an accurate test. To me this doesnt prove the feature exists. I know its been debated and hard data has been posted but the fact that @Ford Motor Company never advertised this or mentioned it is baffling to me.

The engineering and marketing department don't communicate very well with each other at Ford. The release notes have been highly inaccurate lately, the features they mention are not actually added in the OTA the notes are attached too. For example, the voice feedback feature was actually added in the 4.1.2/4.2.2 OTA but was not mentioned until the release notes for 4.2.4, which was a telematics update only (no UI changes included).

Ford needs to write better release notes that are technically accurate. People notice. Engineering needs to write them, not marketing dept. They are REALLY BAD and not improving, whoever is in charge of release notes is asleep at the wheel. They should be embarrassed that they have no idea what the updates actually do.

My point is that you can't trust whether something is present or not based off Ford's release notes.

EDIT: See post below from Dave linking to official confirmation.

I was also highly surprised the marketing department didn't make a big story out of the addition of the feature. They missed a big PR opportunity, Tesla would have released a social media video about it to much fanfare. It is a very positive feature that people want, and is a competitive feature in the marketplace that not all EVs have yet. Someone probably forgot to tell marketing it was added.

In my wife's tesla you can hear it working after putting in the dcfc destination. I never heard anything in my mach-e.

If you put in a DC charger <18 miles and turn off HVAC you can hear the pump working as soon at you hit go on the nav (must be unplugged). If you hit the red X to cancel route, pump stops immediately.

With HVAC on the pump will be running, but you might not be able to hear it inside over the blower. You should be able to hear the hum outside though.

 

[Maquis]

Not trying to be negative but I dont think this is an accurate test. To me this doesnt prove the feature exists. I know its been debated and hard data has been posted but the fact that @Ford Motor Company never advertised this or mentioned it is baffling to me.

@Ford Motor Company can we get a confirmation? ?

Yes….
Here’s the link.

 

[hbirring01]

So I don't think any preconditioning happened there because you cranked your climate temps up to 78ºF in 12ºF temps. That's too much of a cabin heating demand which cancels battery heating. If anything, you should be lowering the cabin temp (or completely turning off HVAC) as you approach the charger to increase the heat share available to the battery. You also need to use AUTO 1 or 2 so the fan speed is controlled low. High fan speed is bad in the winter, you just exhaust warm air out the back of the car and waste most of it.

The strategy looks at outdoor temps and the indoor delta between the current cabin temp and the set point temp. If the current cabin temp is too far below the set point temp, battery heating will be canceled. This is why setting a departure time to warm the cabin and the battery before leaving is part of my recommend procedure for best results, you want everything warmed up so you have spare heat available for the battery.

Also, I recommend not cancelling the navigation route until you are hooked up to a charger. If you are messing around getting the charger started for 10 minutes the battery is going to cool off.



The engineering and marketing department don't communicate very well with each other at Ford. The release notes have been highly inaccurate lately, the features they mention are not actually added in the OTA the notes are attached too. For example, the voice feedback feature was actually added in the 4.1.2/4.2.2 OTA but was not mentioned until the release notes for 4.2.4, which was a telematics update only (no UI changes included).

Ford needs to write better release notes that are technically accurate. People notice. Engineering needs to write them, not marketing dept. They are REALLY BAD and not improving, whoever is in charge of release notes is asleep at the wheel. They should be embarrassed that they have no idea what the updates actually do.

My point is that you can't trust whether something is present or not based off Ford's release notes.

EDIT: See post below from Dave linking to official confirmation.

I was also highly surprised the marketing department didn't make a big story out of the addition of the feature. They missed a big PR opportunity, Tesla would have released a social media video about it to much fanfare. It is a very positive feature that people want, and is a competitive feature in the marketplace that not all EVs have yet. Someone probably forgot to tell marketing it was added.



If you put in a DC charger <18 miles and turn off HVAC you can hear the pump working as soon at you hit go on the nav (must be unplugged). If you hit the red X to cancel route, pump stops immediately.

With HVAC on the pump will be running, but you might not be able to hear it inside over the blower. You should be able to hear the hum outside though.

That's wild!!!! ???

 

[RickMachE]

Already proven to work fine. No video needed.

 

[Shayne]

Isn't DCFC time and soc based? Fast blip of 150 only once now (thanks Kyle for showing them you can do it multiple times ) and a wall before the end. What would the battery temperatures have to do with charging speed when the logic appears independent of it? Maybe battery health but not speed so no hype? HVAC needs to be off if you want a chance of heating the batteries when "cold". Not sure software can change the heating power/setup.

 

[KadeBR]

Not trying to be negative but I dont think this is an accurate test. To me this doesnt prove the feature exists. I know its been debated and hard data has been posted but the fact that @Ford Motor Company never advertised this or mentioned it is baffling to me.

It does exist I live in North Dakota and only lvl 1 charge so I always have 1/3rd jail bars but if I navigate to a nearby charger it will start knocking chunks off tell there's only 1 or two bars left.

 

[BBRacer]

I know it has been stated that the navigation has to be set to the DCFC in order for pre conditioning to kick in. Does it still work if I have my destination set which may be 400 miles away and the navigation has suggested a charger along my route?

 

[Kmp14]

...With HVAC on the pump will be running, but you might not be able to hear it inside over the blower. You should be able to hear the hum outside though.

What does that pump/battery warming sound like? I often hear a buzzing/vibrating sound when the car is remote-started, even when not plugged in though, and wondered what that is. It is enough of a vibration that I can feel it in the steering wheel, just a bit, and goes away once I start moving.

 

[Howard]

BBRacer: Yes, my final destination was 648 miles. I planned a trip in FP app from Memphis, TN to Abilene, TX and downloaded the trip to my MME. The trip planner added my charging stops along the way; as I got within 20 miles of each DCFC charging stop, the heaters would come on and my battery temps would start to rise. I had my OBDII reader installed and paired with my phone via Car Scanner app. I was monitoring max charge rate, heater kw power, pump amps, etc. Temps were in the low 40's when we started the trip. At 22 miles from first DCFC, I turned HVAC system off and verified heater amps went to zero. At 19 miles from charger, heater kw power ramped up and battery temp started rising. So, as long as your charging stops are waypoints in your trip, it will start preconditioning battery once you get within 20 miles of the charger.

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