-20F to -30F performance and experience

[Maxx]

Has anyone done a DCFC in these temps with cold battery without preconditioning? Curious if it delays charging once you plug in and only starts once it reaches a minimum temp, or it stats charging very slow and speeds up gradually as it warms up, or it jams the electrons in from the start, damn the SOH.

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[Tundra]

My last truck, which had a baby diesel engine, would start in -40; that was not with the engine block heater plugged in either! Granted I used a decent amount of additive in the winter to keep thing moving; at that temp though it could take the cab over an hour to heat.

So far I have only hit a few degrees below zero in the Lightning. Today I drove 104 miles on the highway from 100% charge on my SR; I think I ended with about 25% charge. It was in my garage and was prewarmed/conditioned before I left. I drove 5 under the speed limit most of the time, and did not have things super warm, as I am still getting over range anxiety!

 

[YellowstoneLightning]

Has anyone done a DCFC in these temps with cold battery without preconditioning? Curious if it delays charging once you plug in and only starts once it reaches a minimum temp, or it stats charging very slow and speeds up gradually as it warms up, or it jams the electrons in from the start, damn the SOH.

With preconditioning I was getting over 160 kW in 7 degrees on a trip to Canada a few weeks ago.

 

[Lightning Rod]

I never looked at how the graphs shows available power.

Here is my dash tonight after my truck sitting in parking lot at work for 10 hours at 11 degrees F...

 

[Grumpy2]

Has anyone done a DCFC in these temps with cold battery without preconditioning?

There is a video on this topic with a Tesla model 3:

 

[Steveel]

Has anyone done a DCFC in these temps with cold battery without preconditioning? Curious if it delays charging once you plug in and only starts once it reaches a minimum temp, or it stats charging very slow and speeds up gradually as it warms up, or it jams the electrons in from the start, damn the SOH.

I did two DCFC sessions, one in Bozeman MT at -20. Not Pre-conditioned was at 146kw. The second was a scheduled stop thru navigation at -10 got 136kw. A Rivian next to me was getting 110 kw. (A side note my level 2 at -30 took 12 hours at 8kw to get to 100%)

 

[Steveel]

I did two DCFC sessions, one in Bozeman MT at -20. Not Pre-conditioned was at 146kw. The second was a scheduled stop thru navigation at -10 got 136kw. A Rivian next to me was getting 110 kw. (A side note my level 2 at -30 took 12 hours at 8kw to get to 100%)

Some other notes on supreme cold. While precondition warms the battery and cabin, as opposed to ICE, nothing else is warmed up. The water from the windshield flowed into the wiper well and down by the charge port and froze everything in solid blocks of ice. A heat gun would have been nice. Made a solution of alcohol and water. Took a while but worked. I kept a spray bottle for cameras and sensors the would keep icing up.

 

[RickLightning]

Has anyone done a DCFC in these temps with cold battery without preconditioning? Curious if it delays charging once you plug in and only starts once it reaches a minimum temp, or it stats charging very slow and speeds up gradually as it warms up, or it jams the electrons in from the start, damn the SOH.

The vehicle communicates to the DC charger what level of charge it can accept. Ford has recommended from day one to turn off your car heater for the first 10 to 15 minutes of DC charging so that all heat can be sent to the battery.

If you navigate to the charger, the truck will precondition the battery starting at 18.6 miles away (charger must be identified as a charger by the navigation, little charger symbol next to it).

Worse case, charging will be slower while the battery warms up, then speed up.

Many cases in the past of the charger itself being slow due to frigid temps.

 

[Maxx]

I did two DCFC sessions, one in Bozeman MT at -20. Not Pre-conditioned was at 146kw

Do you remember when you got there what percent Your power bar or battery temp bar was at?

 

[TaxmanHog]

I never looked at how the graphs shows available power.

Here is my dash tonight after my truck sitting in parking lot at work for 10 hours at 11 degrees F...

Similar experience this morning, truck was parked overnight in the garage which was about 35 or so degrees due to residual heat from my MC workshop nextdoor, the Lightning showed 100% available power to the motors, with a SOC of 71%. I'm letting the SOC drop the rest of the week to validate another observation in another thread.

After shoveling out 5000 square of 2" fluffy snow, I pulled the truck out and took the lill lady to breakfast place a couple miles down the road, still had 100% to the motors, I used 2PD to have better feel and control of the slick neighborhood streets before reaching the state highway, which is well maintained.

It sat in the parking lot chilling in the 28° air, no more than 45 minutes, when we were ready to head out, the available motor energy was limited to 95%, looks like the chill brought this change on.

Now back at the house, and flurries continuing, I parked her in the garage, where slightly milder temps will melt any snow and moderate the battery temps, I anticipate seeing the available power going back up, also the afternoon run will be milder outside as well, remains to be seen how the recovery goes.

Film, at 1400+ hours

 

[Maxx]

Another data point here. I had never plugged in to condition the battery in the past but truck told me to do it so I did. Here is how it went:

At 10:31 AM, Battery was at 26.6 F and I had 41.33 KWh energy available.

Plugged in around 10:40 AM (I may be off a minute or two here). Second screen shot is at 10:43. There is no charging going on here. Just conditioning and as you can see it is using 6.24 KW to heat up the battery.

At 10:53 when battery temp is at 41 F, Conditioning stops At this point Energy available increases to 45.39 KWh.

So I spent 1.35 Kwh (13 minutes at 6.24 KW) to get 4.06 Kwh (45.39-41.33) back. This is battery being half full. If you are at higher SOC, I assume, you get more back. So the the idea that conditioning is not worth it, may not hold water in most cases. That is if you condition right before you leave. On the other hand if you keep it plugged in for extended period and spend a lot of energy keeping the battery warm without going anywhere, all bets are off. I have no idea what the implications of conditioning is for SOH if any.

Another consideration is if ambient temp is really low, you drive off and your battery gets cold fast, you may lose some of the energy you got back.

I have no idea how fast battery cools down when it is parked and at what temp the heater kicks in again. May be one of you guys can take over from here.

p.s. It looks like your 12V battery get juiced while preconditioning.


10:31 AM

10:43 AM

10:53 Am, Stopped conditioning

10:53 Second screenshot:

 

[Steveel]

Do you remember when you got there what percent Your power bar or battery temp bar was at?

No I don't exactly on the temp guage, I was watching the guage for changes to see if it preconditioned but it does not move much ever. I was at 38%. Went from 85% to 35% over 140 miles with two mountain passes at 66mph.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Film, at 1400+ hours

Update on my observations, due to extra blast of snowfall and then sleet & rain I held out on phase two of shoveling the driveway until 14:30 hrs, then a quick road trip to the coffee shop for a hot one, this is what I have at 16:36

Power was still limited, actually 1% lower, temps were just above freezing in the garage @33 and @32 outside, with the extra remote start sessions, SOC is dropping just for cabin warming.

Continuing the experiment, tonight will be frigid, I will be plugged into the FCSP @80 amp but no charging, I'm connected to see if the truck makes a call for energy overnight to autonomously condition the battery (no departure time scheduled), in the morning I will us remote start and grid energy for 15 minutes for cabin warming only) It will be interesting to see if the available power [94%] rises or falls by morning.

42 degr in the MC shop next door

 

[TaxmanHog]

This morning it was 15 degrees in the open air, garage where truck is parked was 23.
Truck was plugged in overnight, not one KWH of energy was consumed to maintain pack temp.
Remote start for ~10 minutes to get cabin warm on grid, consuming 1.06 KWH

After a couple hours in the open cold air, and some idling with the cabin temp set for 72.

Low temps overnight the rest of the week will be in the area of 15°, not as bad as you folks in the midwest, Canada or Alaska..

 

[Lightning Rod]

After sitting in the parking lot at work for 10 hours, unplugged, the temperature was 6 degrees F and my power was reduced even more, down to 84 percent this time. It always starts up, warms the cabin quickly and drives just fine though.

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