Ford's Important Tip For Driving Your Lightning in the Cold: Preconditioning / Pre-Heat Your Battery

[bewbie]

This whole time I thought starting the vehicle from the Ford Pass App about 30-40 minutes before my departure was essentially preconditioning both the battery and the cabin, made most sense to me. I too have unpredictable departure times from both occupations, seemed like a no brainer to use it this way.

If I am reading this correctly and simply starting the truck from the app only warms the cabin, that is a MAJOR oversight with @Ford Motor Company.

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[VTbuckeye]

This! I have absolutely no clue why I need to set this on a schedule for every day of the week. Just dumb, and a terrible assumption on the software designers part. While it make work for some people who are on a more rigid schedule, many people just jump in the car and go but know about it a few hours ahead of time.

Couple this with charge settings specific to locations. Feels like we only have the advanced option menu. I want the beginner menu to be made available (preconditioning with a single tap on the app and a global charge setting to be applied to all charge sessions anywhere. If you want to charge more, just set a higher level prior to charging or even while charging).

 

[TaxmanHog]

This morning temp's around 20 degrees Sunday the truck was not driven, cold soaked, with exception of 8KWH of charging Sunday morning to replenish Saturday's driving.

No indication on the Emporia power monitor of any current draw by the truck in 24 hours of cold conditions.

Manual request of remote start @ 8am, PTC ramped up slower pace to 16KW, then just short of 120 seconds later, settled to a stable 9.3KW

at 8:09 ramping down to 4KW

Couple minutes later and PTC is cycling to maintain output temperature to cabin.

After cabin warming phase stopped, the power continues to flow, not sure if truck is charging or cabin conditioning is still going past 15 minute limiter.

 

[TaxmanHog]

After heading to garage, confirming cabin fans off, but the the charging converter was running full tilt though truck was near SOC set point, that stopped when I pressed the latch release on the CCS1 handle

 

[TaxmanHog]

And funny business with the trip record in conjunction with the extra battery boost, negative energy consumption.

No record for the charging activity .

 

[TaxmanHog]

Cold weather enroute to charge stations with station listed in the Ford Navigation will trigger battery heating within 20 miles of charging station!!!!

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...ta-software-update-released.13570/post-295660

 

[ddbrooke]

Cold weather enroute to charge stations with station listed in the Ford Navigation will trigger battery heating within 20 miles of charging station!!!!

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...ta-software-update-released.13570/post-295660

How is there an update numbered 3.6.2 while we are waiting for one numbered 4.1.2?

 

[TaxmanHog]

How is there an update numbered 3.6.2 while we are waiting for one numbered 4.1.2?

Apparently there was an older update last fall, the Ford Guide might be referencing 3.5.2 instead of 3.6.2

 

[davehu]

I'll add my "me too" to the request for a "precondition now" button. I too leave at unpredictable times each day, but I usually know 30m before I need to walk out the door. If I could hit the "precondition now" button before I get in the shower, that would probably be entirely sufficient in the mild Las Vegas winter.

me too!

 

[queuewho]

me too!

A way around this is set your charge limit to a little less than you want to leave with, before you start to get ready to go, trigger 'charge to 100%'. The first thing the truck does when charging is warm up the battery if it is cold, and the act of charging the battery actually warms it up a bit too. By the time you go you only got a few percent more, but the battery should be warmed up for you to get better efficiency for the trip.

 

[designthis]

I’m just working my way through the Owner’s Manual and I see this:

“With charge scheduling, you can improve the high voltage battery's longevity by delaying the start of charging and setting a maximum charging limit. Set your preferred charging times to be at least 2-3 hours AFTER your typical plug in time. This allows the battery to COOL before charging begins.”

It sounds like Ford wants you to charge the battery when it’s “cool” for maximum longevity, but also wants you “warm” the battery before fast-charging for maximum uptake. They also say quite clearly that frequently DC fast-charging is not great for battery longevity.

 

[Maquis]

I’m just working my way through the Owner’s Manual and I see this:

“With charge scheduling, you can improve the high voltage battery's longevity by delaying the start of charging and setting a maximum charging limit. Set your preferred charging times to be at least 2-3 hours AFTER your typical plug in time. This allows the battery to COOL before charging begins.”

It sounds like Ford wants you to charge the battery when it’s “cool” for maximum longevity, but also wants you “warm” the battery before fast-charging for maximum uptake. They also say quite clearly that frequently DC fast-charging is not great for battery longevity.

After a huge discussion about this on the Mach-E forum, the consensus is that the “let the battery cool before charging” is outdated info copied from older Ford Transit /Fusion manuals that had only simplistic (or no) battery temperature management.
I’d be interested in @MickeyAO’s take on the topic.

 

[Peddyr]

A way around this is set your charge limit to a little less than you want to leave with, before you start to get ready to go, trigger 'charge to 100%'. The first thing the truck does when charging is warm up the battery if it is cold, and the act of charging the battery actually warms it up a bit too. By the time you go you only got a few percent more, but the battery should be warmed up for you to get better efficiency for the trip.

I've done the "Charge to 100%" in the Ford app before, and I've found that it messes with my charging schedule. My charging is scheduled to start at 1am and finish at 5am. However, if I look at the Ford app after I plug in later that day (say 6pm at night) the app says "Charging has paused". My Emporia states the truck is refusing the charge, when it normally says "Waiting to charge". The only way I can "fix" it is by deleting the charge location in the Ford app and Re-doing the settings. I haven't stayed up until midnight to see if the charging starts as usual when this happens because I leave at about 5:45am and I don't want to wake up to an uncharged battery. Has anyone else run into this?

 

[TaxmanHog]

I've done the "Charge to 100%" in the Ford app before, and I've found that it messes with my charging schedule. My charging is scheduled to start at 1am and finish at 5am. However, if I look at the Ford app after I plug in later that day (say 6pm at night) the app says "Charging has paused". My Emporia states the truck is refusing the charge, when it normally says "Waiting to charge". The only way I can "fix" it is by deleting the charge location in the Ford app and Re-doing the settings. I haven't stayed up until midnight to see if the charging starts as usual when this happens because I leave at about 5:45am and I don't want to wake up to an uncharged battery. Has anyone else run into this?

I would adjust the Ford charging profiles so that it charges anytime while plugged in, you can still have a max SOC = 85% or whatever works for your needs.

Then use the time restrictions programmed into the Emporia so that it provide the truck power according to your schedule, make power available past your departure time so that you can either use the remote start or departure timer to precondition to the last minute, if you use departure timer, remember to give a 30 minute buffer before leave time so that your heated wheel works during the morning drive.

Also if using the departure time, give additional time at the start so that battery warming and charging goals can be met, potentially 45-60 more minutes.

 

[Maquis]

I would adjust the Ford charging profiles so that it charges anytime while plugged in, you can still have a max SOC = 85% or whatever works for your needs.

Then use the time restrictions programmed into the Emporia so that it provide the truck power according to your schedule, make power available past your departure time so that you can either use the remote start or departure timer to precondition to the last minute, if you use departure timer, remember to give a 30 minute buffer before leave time so that your heated wheel works during the morning drive.

Also if using the departure time, give additional time at the start so that battery warming and charging goals can be met, potentially 45-60 more minutes.

Since his charge window closes at 5:00, and he departs at 5:45, he’ll need to set the departure time no later than 5:00 if he uses the Emporia to schedule. Because the EVSE will not make power available for preconditioning outside its charge window.

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