Why so many jail bars?

[AtomicInternet]

I'm fairly certain those bars are protecting the battery from using too much power while it's still cold. Pre-conditioning should prevent them, but 20 minutes of driving should also eliminate them. Did they stay on your entire drive or eventually go away?

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[winbatch]

I'm fairly certain those bars are protecting the battery from using too much power while it's still cold. Pre-conditioning should prevent them, but 20 minutes of driving should also eliminate them. Did they stay on your entire drive or eventually go away?

Drive was only a few minutes so probably too short to benefit.

 

[Thor2j]

I'm fairly certain those bars are protecting the battery from using too much power while it's still cold. Pre-conditioning should prevent them, but 20 minutes of driving should also eliminate them. Did they stay on your entire drive or eventually go away?

Those bars will never go away if temp is cold outside. Or battery below 85 or speed over 72.

 

[AliRafiee]

I was not plugged in since I was at 80 and was only gonna drive locally. Perhaps silly question- but I should plug in even if I’m already at my desired SOC just for the purposes of keeping the battery warm? Is that the purpose/value of ‘pre-conditioning’? Tbh I thought the main benefit of that was just to get the cabin warm for humans.

It does not hurt to stay plugged in, or even charge every day.

 

[randomvoice]

Always have a departure time set for pre-conditioning in the morning. I've never seen more than 1-2 bars after I started doing that even with aggressive acceleration.

 

[Gullwingdmc]

Is that the purpose/value of ‘pre-conditioning’?

The primary purpose of preconditioning is to warm the battery so you it performs better and you don’t waste battery power warming it while driving. It also gets rid of the jail bars.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I see exactly those same bars at a higher ambient temperature on cold mornings when I haven’t plugged in. It’s not a defect, just battery chemistry and Ford’s monitoring to prevent damage. ??

 

[winbatch]

Always have a departure time set for pre-conditioning in the morning. I've never seen more than 1-2 bars after I started doing that even with aggressive acceleration.

I always worry about doing a departure time and then not actually driving anywhere. Does that have any negative impact?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Pre-conditioning should prevent them, but 20 minutes of driving should also eliminate them.

The battery does not warm up much from driving in cold temperatures. If it’s cold enough the jail bars may be there the whole drive.

I always worry about doing a departure time and then not actually driving anywhere. Does that have any negative impact?

No, just more electricity used.

 

[Gullwingdmc]

Those bars will never go away if temp is cold outside.

They do go away after you drive for a while. Since 6.6.0 they seem to get stuck, but eventually they unstick and all go away.

20 minutes of driving should also eliminate them.

That used to be what happened to my car. Since 6.6.0 they seem to stick around for a long time without moving. Then all of a sudden most of them disappear.

 

[Gullwingdmc]

The battery does not warm up much from driving in cold temperatures.

The battery doesn’t get warm from driving, but the car will warm the battery if it’s cold right? That’s what you were saying in your other post.

If the battery is cold, the Mach-E will steal your cabin heat to warm the battery.

 

[areacode413]

I live in MA and your jail bars are identical to what I typically see at that temp without preconditioning. Purchased my 23 gt built in September. Running 6.13

 

[LuckyKH4]

If it's not plugged in prior to driving, the only way to get rid of them is to plug a route to an EV charger in the Ford nav. If you're close enough to one, it will precondition your battery and the jail bars will reduce.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The battery doesn’t get warm from driving, but the car will warm the battery if it’s cold right? That’s what you were saying in your other post.

Correct, but heating is possible if it’s very cold (but it won’t heat it enough to make the jail bars go away). If the battery is only a little cold around freezing, then it won’t heat it and you’re stuck with jail bars.

If you drive the car hard, you might get a little heating from amp draw or regen that brings the pack up only a couple degrees slowly. But constant speed won’t warm it up really at all.

2/3rds power is probably going to be the norm in cold weather unless preconditioning is performed.

 

[Gullwingdmc]

Correct, but heating is possible if it’s very cold (but it won’t heat it enough to make the jail bars go away). If the battery is only a little cold around freezing, then it won’t heat it and you’re stuck with jail bars.

If you drive the car hard, you might get a little hearing from amp draw or regen that brings the pack up only a couple degrees slowly. But constant speed won’t warm it up really at all.

2/3rds power is probably going to be the norm in cold weather unless preconditioning is performed.

That is odd. It’s not what I experienced last winter. The jail bars didn’t go away entirely, but they did go down over time.

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