How do you charge for a trip?

[beatle]

This seems like an easy problem to fix, but I'm not sure I've got it figured out. I am planning to leave on a trip at a certain time tomorrow and want to charge to 100%. My plan was to use one of the departure time windows set to a time a little before I want to leave, and then set a one-time charge limit of 100%. Right now my scheduled departure times are mostly blank except for that one scheduled time. I recently charged to 90% which is what I have set for my default home charge level. If I leave today and come back, then plug in again, will the truck charge to 90% or 100% right away, or will it wait until the next window?

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[RickLightning]

This seems like an easy problem to fix, but I'm not sure I've got it figured out. I am planning to leave on a trip at a certain time tomorrow and want to charge to 100%. My plan was to use one of the departure time windows set to a time a little before I want to leave, and then set a one-time charge limit of 100%. Right now my scheduled departure times are mostly blank except for that one scheduled time. I recently charged to 90% which is what I have set for my default home charge level. If I leave today and come back, then plug in again, will the truck charge to 90% or 100% right away, or will it wait until the next window?

Once you hit your charge window today, simply click on Charge to 100% and the truck will do that.

Or, you can simply tell it right now to charge to 100%.

Set a departure window to condition the battery (not needed in summer) and precool the car. Or, do a remote start 5 minutes before leaving.

After you leave, go delete the departure time or it will repeat in a week.

The next time you plug in, it will be back on schedule.

I don't understand the last question, but maybe... You charge to 100%, go to the store, then come home with 97% and a 90% charge limit? Nothing happens, because you are 7% above. If you want 100% again, hit Charge to 100% again.

 

[FlasherZ]

The night before, I just do a one-time charge to 100% and bring it up there.

Tesla used to allow you to force a full charge by dropping the %age, then re-increasing it to 100%, but they cut out that ability a few releases ago, and now you cannot "top off" before you depart.

We used to top off to leave at the last minute because it means I could make the DCFC 2 stops away (right on the edge in winter) without having to go out of my way to stop at one in the middle.

Now that the coverage is better, and the stops are better, I don't worry so much anymore about leaving at 90% vs. 100%.

Some people try to minimize (to the MINUTE) the amount of time the battery sits at 100%... I don't.

 

[Sklith]

Topping up to 100% a few hours before leaving is fine. Just don't do it daily.

 

[beatle]

I currently don't use a charging window - I normally just plug in and charge immediately. I did however just set a departure schedule for tomorrow at 1:30 and then set the one time charge to 100%. It tried charging immediately instead of waiting for the next departure. Then I tried setting the desired charge point for home to 100% and again it started charging immediately.

I have unchecked "charge when plugged in" and instead selected "use preferred charge settings." The departure time seems to be the only way to set a desired time/percentage goal but the system appears to ignore it and only wants to charge immediately.

This isn't really a big deal tomorrow since I'll be awake during the day, but when I leave for Thanksgiving or Christmas I typically get on the road by 5am, and I'll need to have the truck waiting for me with a full charge.

 

[beatle]

Just tried setting a charging window to begin at 7pm and end at 6pm. I left my departure at 1:30pm tomorrow. This prevented the truck from charging immediately, but the message I received was that the truck would start charging at 7pm. There doesn't seem to be any logic in the charging algorithm to have it compute how long it will take to reach the desired state of charge given the current EVSE it's plugged into and what it's capable of providing. The DIY approach becomes more complicated if you're charging at a speed and from a lower SoC that would require you to start charging at some earlier point in the previous day. Most people aren't even going to bother trying to figure out how many percentage points are added per hour.

This is also kind of wasteful if you want to precondition the battery in the winter. With the way it is now, the truck will charge the battery early, then it'll cool off, then it will presumably run the battery heater closer to the departure time to condition it (again). Instead it should wait to charge the battery so that it finishes charging around the time of departure so that the waste heat from the charging process "naturally" warms the battery, and if the battery heater needs to do any further work, it'll already have a head start.

Does anyone else have a different experience using the departure feature? If letting the battery sit at 100% all night isn't actually an issue, I can drop this, but that's not how I've rolled before. I usually try to leave within an hour or so of it hitting 100%.

 

[RickLightning]

It is not an issue. You are way overthinking this.

 

[detroitlightning]

It is not an issue. You are way overthinking this.

This should be a sticky in every thread on this board

 

[RickLightning]

This should be a sticky in every thread on this board

Or one could simply read the manual. Says to charge to 90%, 100% for a trip. It's not rocket science.

 

[detroitlightning]

Or one could simply read the manual. Says to charge to 90%, 100% for a trip. It's not rocket science.

I just meant people overthinking things - it’s everywhere around here

 

[beatle]

It is not an issue. You are way overthinking this.

Trying to figure out a feature that doesn't actually work is tough. I assumed the truck would be able to schedule its charging time to coincide with the departure time, but apparently it doesn't do that. What a shame.

 

[RickLightning]

Trying to figure out a feature that doesn't actually work is tough. I assumed the truck would be able to schedule its charging time to coincide with the departure time, but apparently it doesn't do that. What a shame.

Because it doesn't matter. You are thinking that it is somehow damaging for the truck to sit for hours at 100% charge. It isn't. It can sit for many days at 100% charge. And, in fact, since there is room at the top and bottom of the battery, we know it isn't even at 100%... You called it a problem in your original post, but it isn't a problem, so it doesn't need to be solved.

Mine charges to 90% starting at 7pm at night. If I am leaving tomorrow, I tell it to charge to 100%. It hits that in a few hours. I don't set a departure time unless it is winter and garage is below 50 AND range matters on my trip. I may remote start, but even that is a waste unless it is hot out, like 80 degrees plus. Otherwise, I load car and remote start when we're locking up the house.

 

[beatle]

Because it doesn't matter.

It does for the reasons I listed earlier, though if you choose to not value those, that's up to you. If departure time has no basis on charging schedule, Ford should not use phrases like "it plans to finish charging and heat or cool the cabin before the departure time." If they did not insert "finish charging" in the description for departure times, I'd know that Ford did not implement this feature and this thread would not be necessary.

 

[hturnerfamily]

Because it doesn't matter. You are thinking that it is somehow damaging for the truck to sit for hours at 100% charge. It isn't. It can sit for many days at 100% charge. And, in fact, since there is room at the top and bottom of the battery, we know it isn't even at 100%... You called it a problem in your original post, but it isn't a problem, so it doesn't need to be solved.

yep, so many get caught up in this somehow 'damaging' the battery by charging to 100%...well, I for one will charging to 100% every day, I could care less about whether anyone says that you should do something different. My truck is to be used, and I want the full battery when I leave. Period. Easy, too, just plug in and forget about it.

I've owned several EVs and have never had not a single issue keeping them full charged every day.

 

[RickLightning]

yep, so many get caught up in this somehow 'damaging' the battery by charging to 100%...well, I for one will charging to 100% every day, I could care less about whether anyone says that you should do something different. My truck is to be used, and I want the full battery when I leave. Period. Easy, too, just plug in and forget about it.

I've owned several EVs and have never had not a single issue keeping them full charged every day.

To be fair, saying "not a single issue" is very subjective, because you have no tools to see if in fact you've had any battery degradation as compared to someone charging to the manufacturer's recommended level daily. If one keeps a vehicle for a few years, or even more than a few years, they may not notice any degradation but that doesn't mean there isn't any.

This thread is focused on charging for a trip, and the desire for the vehicle to charge to 100% as the owner is preparing to leave, which is not an option for either the F-150L or the Mach-E, and not necessary.

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