Does anyone have Lightning cold weather preconditioning detail information?

[sotek2345]

I guess my question is this--- if range is not a concern and I don't care that I'm "preconditioning"(departure time set)-- if there any advantage/disadvantage to plugging the truck in every night and leaving it plugged in prior to departure?

If I use the departure time in Ford Pass to start the truck a few minutes to go is there any more wear on the battery systems than if I were to leave the truck plugged in overnight and precondition off grid power?

For the blend of convenience and battery health I am driving down to 20% then charging to 90%...rinse/repeat vs topping off every night. Range not a concern for normal commute...can drive several days before I get down to 20%.

Thoughts?

I plug in most every night in the winter, mainly for peace of mind. Use shore power if needed to keep the battery warm and keep the truck topped up if I need the range. Also like to have the battery mostly full if there is a power outage (much more likely in the winter).

In the summer I usually let it drop down to about 50% before plugging it.

I doubt any of it really matters that much.

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[Pioneer74]

I guess my question is this--- if range is not a concern and I don't care that I'm "preconditioning"(departure time set)-- if there any advantage/disadvantage to plugging the truck in every night and leaving it plugged in prior to departure?

If I use the departure time in Ford Pass to start the truck a few minutes to go is there any more wear on the battery systems than if I were to leave the truck plugged in overnight and precondition off grid power?

For the blend of convenience and battery health I am driving down to 20% then charging to 90%...rinse/repeat vs topping off every night. Range not a concern for normal commute...can drive several days before I get down to 20%.

Thoughts?

If I had your use case I wouldn't plug in every night, and I wouldn't worry about it. I have to plug in every night to make sure I have enough range for my commute.

My wife doesn’t need to plug in daily either. We might have to charge her Mach-E in once a week, maybe twice.

 

[greenne]

If I had your use case I wouldn't plug in every night, and I wouldn't worry about it. I have to plug in every night to make sure I have enough range for my commute.

My wife doesn’t need to plug in daily either. We might have to charge her Mach-E in once a week, maybe twice.

In my mind I'd rather do 5x LESS charging cycles of deep (60% ish) vs daily repeated charging cycles(even if they are to top off). I don't know..my mindset is that all other things equal--the less time on the charger the better.. less opportunity for something to go wrong.

I've also gotta think limited the number of cycles needed has got to be better for battery health over its lifetime...

 

[Pioneer74]

I've also gotta think limited the number of cycles needed has got to be better for battery health over its lifetime...

It doesn't work like that. 1 cycle is from 0 to 100. Anything in between is not a cycle, it's a fraction of one. Topping off in short charges doesn't hurt the battery.

 

[Lightning Rod]

I saw a video today about charging EVs and some of the Dos and Don'ts. I knew that charging past 80 percent takes a while longer when using the DC fast chargers but this video says that unless you ABSOLUTELY need the extra range of charging to 100 percent, just charge to 80% while travelling long distances as charging it past 80% slowly harms the battery and its life expectancy. It also said that DC fast charging all of the time will reduce the life of the battery faster, so being constantly on road trips using DC chargers will reduce the battery's life over time quicker than using level 1 and level 2 chargers. Is this info correct or is this more misinformation that is floating about on the interwebs?

 

[Grumpy2]

Page 199 of the OM:
AC charging is the preferred method of charging. AC charging preserves the health of the high voltage battery for longer high voltage battery life.

But if your traveling, DCFC is the only option.

 

[Maquis]

I saw a video today about charging EVs and some of the Dos and Don'ts. I knew that charging past 80 percent takes a while longer when using the DC fast chargers but this video says that unless you ABSOLUTELY need the extra range of charging to 100 percent, just charge to 80% while travelling long distances as charging it past 80% slowly harms the battery and its life expectancy. It also said that DC fast charging all of the time will reduce the life of the battery faster, so being constantly on road trips using DC chargers will reduce the battery's life over time quicker than using level 1 and level 2 chargers. Is this info correct or is this more misinformation that is floating about on the interwebs?

It’s generally correct, but remember Ford locks up some battery capacity at both the top and bottom end. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but charging your Lightning to 100% isn’t 100% of the true battery capacity.
When I travel, I make sure I DCFC to a level to make it to the next stop with at least 10% to spare. If I happen to be eating dinner while charging and it goes past 80%, I don’t worry about it. Thanks to the taper that happens at 80%, it takes a while to go much further. I think 86 is the highest I’ve charged to on a DCFC. It will slow to near level 2 speeds past 90%.

 

[chl]

I would also love to know all of this... since you have your lightning it sounds like the perfect job for you to get started on!

I found this: https://www.ford.com/support/how-tos/electric-vehicles/ev-range/preconditioning-overview/

I would think with your shortish trips you wouldn't need to bother with it though.
In my Leaf I never use the HVAC, except maybe the defroster for a minute or two, but I have a heated seat and heated steering wheel standard.
I thought it was ridiculous that those were not provided standard in ALL the Lightning models!
DO you hear me @Ford Motor Company ?

 

[chl]

Page 199 of the OM:
AC charging is the preferred method of charging. AC charging preserves the health of the high voltage battery for longer high voltage battery life.

But if your traveling, DCFC is the only option.

Indeed!
But...if modular battery swapping every comes to America it will solve that problem.
It is taking off in China, so we'll see.

 

[RedLightning86]

FWIW, some data.

[Graphs]

0619 hrs - Preconditioning in Progress


0625 hr - Preconditioning Completed & Disconnected from FCSP - Before Drive


0647 hrs - 22 mins into the Drive - 45 mph


0712 - Parked at End of Drive

This info is killer. I am so getting mine out and plugging it in to get this kind of info.

 

[GoodSam]

@Ford Motor Company : Need easy way to set a time/power for one-time preconditioning. For instance, I have no set schedule, so I want to easily input that I am going to leave at some time less than 24 hours away, and have the preconditioning work. Also, easy setting of my desired power level for this one-time event.

Hopefully, based on TomM interview with Ford BEV VP, some good software updates are coming soon.

 

[BennyTheBeaver]

It’s generally correct, but remember Ford locks up some battery capacity at both the top and bottom end. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but charging your Lightning to 100% isn’t 100% of the true battery capacity.

I believe the actual capacity is 107.6kW on the SR, and 143.4kW on the ER.

So both have roughly 9.1% reserved by Ford.

 

[ivan256]

@Ford Motor Company : Need easy way to set a time/power for one-time preconditioning. For instance, I have no set schedule, so I want to easily input that I am going to leave at some time less than 24 hours away, and have the preconditioning work. Also, easy setting of my desired power level for this one-time event.

Hopefully, based on TomM interview with Ford BEV VP, some good software updates are coming soon.

+1,000,000

You can send routes to the nav from the app with a departure time. Why don't those trigger preconditioning?

Software for durable goods should be open-source by law. Or at the very least all the APIs and electronic interface specifications should be open. The remote capability is already there and there is no credible technical or security reason not to allow the people who own the vehicle access it.

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