-23 F ….. Leave the Lightning at home 🥶!?

[Pjlightning]

With 4.1.3 SW it'll pre-condition the battery if you use the onboard navigation to get to a charger to allow you to charge at faster rates.

And in the end the decision was…..

I couldn’t pull the trigger on taking the lightning !

And I must admit…..

driving up I had Zero regrets !

I did not miss the range anxiety as a stiff 20 mph headwind battered the Mazda’s windshield.

and I arrived with 75% left in the tank !

slight guilt over burning the fossil fuels, but mostly just missed the awesome road trip ride of the Lightning, (and kept thinking I had Blue Cruise about to kick in ….not ! )

Coldest night ever on Mt Washington in NH I heard….

so if there was ever a night to leave the Lightning at home,

I think this was it !

(my 10 year old agreed to disagree)

Sponsored

 

[TaxmanHog]

Coldest night ever on Mt Washington in NH I heard….

-106° (windchill factored temp), actual was -47°

Glad your trip was a success, plenty of time in coming years to experiment with extreme weather travels

 

[Joneii]

Well, we took the Lightning and the truck is doing great. The charging infrastructure isn’t loving the temps. The range does get reduced significantly with a cold battery so preconditioning makes a huge difference. I saw the range gain 50 miles from before preconditioning to after. With a cold soaked battery I saw predicted range as low as 69 miles with 77% SOC. The mobile charger quit working over night (-23F) and the truck was plugged in but not charging. I warmed the mobile charger and got some juice flowing to the truck and the predicted range rose with battery temps. Given my mobile charger issues I elected to drive to a ChargePoint 125kW DCFC. I yo-yo’d the truck on the way there and watch my battery temps rise as well as my available power (it started at 54% with a cold battery and was up to 79% after 15 miles). The charger gave me 75 kW/h. We have been able to do the things we wanted to do, but trying to keep the truck happy has been more effort than it should be.

 

[Joneii]

Well, we made it back from the frigid north of Vermont to central PA, so I figured I’d post some final thoughts on extreme cold weather Lightning road tripping:
1. Over 1200 miles we averaged 1.7 m/kW with almost all miles below freezing and some as low as -18 F and about 1000 of them at highway speed (70 mph).
2. Driving in cold temps was not an issue as long as the battery was preconditioned or sufficiently warm. I did see the battery temperature gauge turn yellow. It happens when the temps get to the minimum temp line. I imagine it would go red if for some reason the thermal management system could not maintain temps at the bare minimum. Also yo-yo driving does warm the battery temps relatively fast and allows for normal charging speeds if you aren’t able to precondition.
3. Some EA stations seemed to have issues, but to be honest I’m sadly getting used to that. None of the 350 kW stations I used put out more than 130 kW/hr. I got up to 147 kW/hr at collocated 150 kW stations. I don’t think this was necessarily related to temps as EA is doing some things with their rates right now. Every ChargePoint unit I used worked fine.
4. My Ford Mobile Charger left me high and dry. Being able to charge at the AirBnB was a critical part of my mission planning. The mobile unit quit after the first night of -18F and never really recovered. I will be looking into if there is any warranty coverage for it. To be fair is does say it is only rated to -22 F, but when you need juice, you need juice!
5. On a good note, the chargers were almost completely empty! I must have made 8 charge stops throughout the trip and only saw 2 other folks as crazy as me to take their EV on a road-trip in those temps.

In summary: the truck seems robust and can manage the cold just fine, as long as the charging infrastructure (permanent and mobile) is available to support it.

 

[Pjlightning]

Well, we made it back from the frigid north of Vermont to central PA, so I figured I’d post some final thoughts on extreme cold weather Lightning road tripping:
1. Over 1200 miles we averaged 1.7 m/kW with almost all miles below freezing and some as low as -18 F and about 1000 of them at highway speed (70 mph).
2. Driving in cold temps was not an issue as long as the battery was preconditioned or sufficiently warm. I did see the battery temperature gauge turn yellow. It happens when the temps get to the minimum temp line. I imagine it would go red if for some reason the thermal management system could not maintain temps at the bare minimum. Also yo-yo driving does warm the battery temps relatively fast and allows for normal charging speeds if you aren’t able to precondition.
3. Some EA stations seemed to have issues, but to be honest I’m sadly getting used to that. None of the 350 kW stations I used put out more than 130 kW/hr. I got up to 147 kW/hr at collocated 150 kW stations. I don’t think this was necessarily related to temps as EA is doing some things with their rates right now. Every ChargePoint unit I used worked fine.
4. My Ford Mobile Charger left me high and dry. Being able to charge at the AirBnB was a critical part of my mission planning. The mobile unit quit after the first night of -18F and never really recovered. I will be looking into if there is any warranty coverage for it. To be fair is does say it is only rated to -22 F, but when you need juice, you need juice!
5. On a good note, the chargers were almost completely empty! I must have made 8 charge stops throughout the trip and only saw 2 other folks as crazy as me to take their EV on a road-trip in those temps.

In summary: the truck seems robust and can manage the cold just fine, as long as the charging infrastructure (permanent and mobile) is available to support it.

Sounds like a successful journey , and pretty impressive stats for the Lightning overall.

Thanks for sharing the data - I wouldn’t have expected 1.7 kW !

especially with the headwinds you must have faced, on top of the bitter cold.

I figured 1.1 kW into my estimates for my 150 trip to reach the EA station in my sights, which seemed to cut it too close, if not short altogether- so I chickened out on the attempt.

if I could have matched your 1.7, I would have been golden !

but then I envisioned an EA nightmare in the -20 temps with windchills below -35, with a zoo of vehicles desperately in need of a charge on a Friday night in Ski country…..with chargers either malfunctioning or running at a fraction of their usual output…..

but from your log notes, it seems EA held up ok, all things considered. And the crowds were not a problem.

Now I’ll never know if I might have made the slog ……

Glad it all worked out for you !

Score one for the Lightning…….

temperatures be damned !

 

[Joneii]

Sounds like a successful journey , and pretty impressive stats for the Lightning overall.

Thanks for sharing the data - I wouldn’t have expected 1.7 kW !

especially with the headwinds you must have faced, on top of the bitter cold.

I figured 1.1 kW into my estimates for my 150 trip to reach the EA station in my sights, which seemed to cut it too close, if not short altogether- so I chickened out on the attempt.

if I could have matched your 1.7, I would have been golden !

but then I envisioned an EA nightmare in the -20 temps with windchills below -35, with a zoo of vehicles desperately in need of a charge on a Friday night in Ski country…..with chargers either malfunctioning or running at a fraction of their usual output…..

but from your log notes, it seems EA held up ok, all things considered. And the crowds were not a problem.

Now I’ll never know if I might have made the slog ……

Glad it all worked out for you !

Score one for the Lightning…….

temperatures be damned !

The range does drop more on short trips with a cold battery. For example, after cold soaking all night at -23F the truck predicted just 0.69 m/kW. Now that is an extreme situation, but did impact us. Expecting the mobile charger to work, I planned to be able to transit to/from the ski area and our AirBnB and still have enough charge to return to the DCFC (a distance of 120 miles). That was not possible without being able to precondition or charge. Luckily there was an open charger within walking distance to where we were skiing. It was slow (6 kW/h), so it didn’t move the SOC much in 4 hrs, but it allowed the battery to return to normal temps and I gained around 50 miles of useful range. I will say that I was way more concerned about being able to do the things we were there to do than I wanted to be. I spent quite a bit of time monkeying with the mobile charger and in the end had to take the car to a DCFC that I didn’t intend to visit. That cost 2 hrs of time and more frustration than I wanted. So, you may have made the best choice for a worry free trip. However, that Lightning is a great riding vehicle!

 

[Grumpy2]

I believe your mobile charger has a 3 year warranty from FORD.

 

[Joneii]

I believe your mobile charger has a 3 year warranty from FORD.

Thanks. I just plugged it in here at home at 40F and it seems to be working. Hopefully no permanent damage was done. I checked the rating on my Tesla mobile charger and it was the same -22F or -30C, so that may be the standard.

 

[Pjlightning]

update:

Well a few weeks later and a few degrees warmer…..
and I made the same 150 mile trip I had bailed on during that -23F weekend.

The results tonight seem to confirm that I might have made the right call leaving the Lightning at home during that Polar plunge.

Tonight the drive was in +20 to 25F weather, with a decent wind too, and I made the 150 miles to the targeted EA station, but not with a heck of a lot to spare:

53 miles of range left, 27% of battery as I plugged into the EA in Lebanon NH.

only 2 out of 4 chargers were working, and thankfully only one other car was there, so I had an available charger to use.

Still, I knew I was in a relatively comfortable zone along the way, so I didn’t drive too conservatively, blue cruise set to 73mph the whole way on the highway (which was about 90% of the trip.)
I could have slowed down by 10mph and probably gained a decent amount of buffer on my range.

All-in-all….
the truck did great-
a wonderful ride….
but it certainly has its limits in cold temps, of course, and planning ahead is essential, and the wild card of the charging station functionality is still a high wire act in the depths of winter in upper VT/NH.

Actually, my “working” charger stopped working halfway through the charge, while we were across the street grabbing a bite to eat.
Luckily when I got back, I stumbled into an EA repairman who had pulled in, re-set my charger, and had me up and running before I got back to the truck. Now that’s a stroke of luck !!!

Interesting to talk with him though, and hear about his adventures running all over the northeast trying to whack a mole the EA network to keep it up and running!
Wow do we have a long way to go to get to a “stable” charging network!
Kinda scary!

but I made it, and my 10 year old got to say “I told you so”…..
From his perspective this trip proved we could have made it in the -23F temps.

Me, I’m not so sure

 

[TaxmanHog]

Interesting to talk with him though, and hear about his adventures running all over the northeast trying to whack a mole the EA network to keep it up and running!
Wow do we have a long way to go to get to a “stable” charging network!
Kinda scary!

but I made it, and my 10 year old got to say “I told you so”…..
From his perspective this trip proved we could have made it in the -23F temps.

Me, I’m not so sure

Don't you love youthful enthusiasm and confidence !!!

 

[TheBigBezo]

I wonder if there's any other avenues to transfer heat around the vehicle, i.e. Brakes, engine coolant. From what I've heard the two biggest pitfalls in the cold are the battery itself being cold and cabin heating requiring a ton of electricity. Maybe we need some deep cold rated mobile chargers to keep the truck nice and happy. Luckily I live so far south I haven't seen snow in years, but for these to be the future they got some wrinkles to work out.

 

[Joneii]

Infrastructure is the biggest issue right now. I’m currently sitting at an EA station in PA. EA shows all units available, but in truth only one is available. The other three are getting routine maintenance. There is a line of three vehicles waiting for the one actually available charger. This routine maintenance will not be considered down time in the new metrics for the federal EV infrastructure money, but I dare anyone to explain that it isn’t down time to the folks waiting in line right now. This is the only DCFC in the vicinity. Yeah, we have a long way to go!

Sponsored