Aggressive power cutting at mid/low SOC and cool/cold temps

[LightningShow]

In recent weeks it’s been colder here in the northeast with many mornings in the 20s. I’ve noticed that when my SoC gets below 50% that i’ve been seeing power reduction when i leave in the morning. Usually reduced to 85-95%. Not a huge deal. I mostly keep the truck charged between 50% and 90% and haven’t noticed any power reduction in this SoC range. This morning i was down at 30% SoC after doing a bunch of driving over the weekend and not having a place to charge overnight. When i left this morning my power was reduced to 56%. That was pretty surprising and it wasn’t even very cold overnight. It was around 50F while driving in to work.

Has anyone been seeing more aggressive power reductions like this when going under 50% SoC? 10-15% isn’t a big deal but almost 50% is a big deal. What if i get down to 10% SoC and it’s 10F outside? Is it going to reduce to 20% power?

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[sotek2345]

This is pretty normal. The Lightning is actually better about it than our Mach-e GT. You will see power reductions at low % battery in ideal weather, the cold just makes it worse. Try to be plugged in whenever you can in the winter.

 

[LightningShow]

This is pretty normal. The Lightning is actually better about it than our Mach-e GT. You will see power reductions at low % battery in ideal weather, the cold just makes it worse. Try to be plugged in whenever you can in the winter.

That’s interesting. I had only noticed one time where i had a very minor power cut (i think it was 96%) prior to a few weeks ago. That when i was down to like 10% soc. 56% power at 30% soc and 50F is pretty excessive IMO. Granted, this has been an outlier but it does make me concerned about getting stuck in a situation where i’m getting down to 10% soc or less in very cold weather. Will the truck even be safe to drive?

 

[sotek2345]

That’s interesting. I had only noticed one time where i had a very minor power cut (i think it was 96%) prior to a few weeks ago. That when i was down to like 10% soc. 56% power at 30% soc and 50F is pretty excessive IMO. Granted, this has been an outlier but it does make me concerned about getting stuck in a situation where i’m getting down to 10% soc or less in very cold weather. Will the truck even be safe to drive?

I doubt it would go that low. Our Mach-e will lose 10% power at 50F even at 100% SOC, and will be down 40% to 50% in very cold weather at 100% SOC. the lowest I ever had it was about a 70% power cut with less than 1% SOC and ~40F. It won't get unsafe to drive unless you are just out of battery.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I seen this effect Thanksgiving afternoon, on the return leg from NH we were under 50% SOC and the available power was limited to 94% the entire trip home until we stopped to take on more charge in Wrentham, at that point SOC was 22%, but available power was still 94%. After the charging session to 80%, the available power returned to 100%

 

[LightningShow]

There may be a little software glitch going on here. I just had my truck plugged in at work for the morning. I ran out to grab lunch at 38% soc and it showed 55% power. On the way back from the store it jumped up to 94%.

 

[Lightning Rod]

There may be a little software glitch going on here. I just had my truck plugged in at work for the morning. I ran out to grab lunch at 38% soc and it showed 55% power. On the way back from the store it jumped up to 94%.

I would take it to the dealer and let them look at it. It very well be a glitch that may be easily fixable.

 

[SmoothJ]

I wonder if this could be related to what I saw this morning. It was 37 degrees out at the time, but I left with 90% SOC (preconditioned), and had 83% SOC when I finally arrived at work. .

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/temporarily-lost-power-to-front-motors.13332/

 

[LightningShow]

Interesting, I didn’t think to check the motor output screen. It it happens again i’ll check that screen. The abrupt jump from 55% to 95% would be in line with one of the motors being off line.

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