Cold Cold Weather tips

[Maxx]

Unfortunately I don't use a scanner to monitor what the temps actually are in the cold soaked pack during charging process, but I have to assume that at least 25% of the energy is initially going to the warming process, the balance is going to the battery pack.

Assuming your highest concern is to not 'force' a charge while the battery is below freezing, without putting miles on the truck & using a faux destination to a DCFC to trick the BMS to commence battery warming, stationary in the driveway process

You could also try the following

• Edit the location based charging profile (in the truck) to 50% (assuming you're current SOC is above this value) that should inhibit charging for the next step, 50% is the minimum.
• Define a departure time that commences around the time you intend to do some charging, that will execute 30-60 minutes prior to faux leave time, warming up the battery.
• Once the departure time has lapsed, go out to the truck, edit the location based charging limit to whatever value you desire, let the charging proceed.
• This sequence of events should get the pack temps up, and it'll warm further from the charging activity.

You could do all of this from the comfort of your easy chair IF you turn on connected options......

Very Clear and helpful. Thank you for taking the time.

Sponsored

 

[Maxx]

Assuming your highest concern is to not 'force' a charge while the battery is below freezing, without putting miles on the truck & using a faux destination to a DCFC to trick the BMS to commence battery warming, stationary in the driveway process

‘This is a viable option when SOC is bellow 50% and I have to go out for something anyway. I just went out for 4 min and put a fast charger in Ford Navigation. OBD II shows battery temp to the tenth but it did not move. When you do this, does it take a long time to notice a difference? Or I am missing a step? I will go for a longer drive this afternoon for a second test.

 

[TMND]

I’ve not noticed my battery warming when navigated to a FC myself. Gauge stays the same at least, I don’t have a ODB.

 

[TaxmanHog]

‘This is a viable option when SOC is bellow 50% and I have to go out for something anyway. I just went out for 4 min and put a fast charger in Ford Navigation. OBD II shows battery temp to the tenth but it did not move. When you do this, does it take a long time to notice a difference? Or I am missing a step? I will go for a longer drive this afternoon for a second test.

I don't use a OBD2 tool, but the process is designed to work for ~20 minutes / 20 miles out from a DCFC, you need to give it a good 20 minute drive to see the impact, also the DCFC needs to be high capacity, IIRC 150KW or faster.

 

[TMND]

also the DCFC needs to be high capacity, IIRC 150KW or faster.

I guess that explains why it hasn’t done anything for me. The closest fast charger for me that’s over 120 is over 150 miles away.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I guess that explains why it hasn’t done anything for me. The closest fast charger for me that’s over 120 is over 150 miles away.

Earlier this morning it was 6° at dawn, my available power was 100% at a 90% SOC, the heating of the pack from the Sunday afternoon charge barely held up overnight as we headed out to the grocery store, MAN was it packed at 6:50 am, by the time we were done shopping and a quick stop at the ATM, and returned to the house, the available energy dropped to 96%. temp gauge was halfway below mid-point

Put the groceries away, then headed out to breakfast & coffee, then back to the house ~45 minutes more cold soaking and available energy had dropped to 91%, the truck sat in the driveway until 1300 hrs, it was still COLD, but warmed up to 26°, the available energy was still at 91%, gauge was still low.

The lunch trip was short, I programmed an EA that was only 6 miles away, slow local roads with Christmas shoppers slowed the trip to 20 minutes, by the time we got to our destination, the available power had not risen much and the battery temperature gauge was still below centerline.

I let the truck continue to idle with the DCFC destination still active, turned off the 30 minute timer, had lunch and returned to the truck which now showed the gauge slightly closer to midpoint and the available power to the motors was up to 96% an hour had elapsed to get the temps higher.

 

[Maxx]

I don't use a OBD2 tool, but the process is designed to work for ~20 minutes / 20 miles out from a DCFC, you need to give it a good 20 minute drive to see the impact, also the DCFC needs to be high capacity, IIRC 150KW or faster.

I went out for a 7 mile 20 min drive and raised the battery temp from 23 to 30. Ambient temp was between 20-30 for much of what is noted here. 3 hrs later on the way back raised it from 32 to 35 (not sure how it got from 30 to 32). Then plugged it in to charge at 32 A. Monitored the vitals with car scanner but phone got disconnected before I got to target 70% SOC. What is recorded is before SOC hit 58%. I thought some folks may be interested in a few of these charts:

In order:

12V SOC, Chargers Coupler Temp Location1, Chargers Output V

Charger Temp L2, Charger temp L3, Average Module Voltage

Coolant Inlet Temp, SOC displayed, HV Battery Temp

Battery temp went from 35F to 48F in this period. I am hoping that spike is a data glitch and hopefully it was not an exploding cell.

HVB Voltage, Primary Motor Coil Temp, Primary Motor Inverter Temp

Secondary Motor Coil Temp, Secondary Motor Inverter Temp.

 

[Cvh8601]

For what its worth, i just made a ~350 mi trip south starting from Buffalo yesterday and made a pre-conditioning observation:

- Started the day @ 0F outside temp plugged into a destination charger with a departure time set. The truck had been @ 99% for several hours (but flipped to 100% after un-plugging). As others have noted, it was my observation that the cabin and battery heating for departure was lower than normal as the battery was trying to do its top balance. Note: this charger was only supplying ~3kW at the time due to sharing. Battery temp @ departure was about 30F based on HVBmin Carscanner data.

- Drove a 130 mile leg using Apple Maps to a tesla, so no preconditioning of the battery. Outside temp was ~10F most of the that leg. Same HVBmin data showed < 40F at arrival, but DCFC still charged >160kW. So, unlikely that battery preconditioning with Ford Nav would have done anything useful.

- Shortly after departure Apple Maps flashed up a “battery level unreliable” message. This was while battery still showed 100%. Of note, it showed 100% for far too long given that i was showing ~1.2 mi/kWh at that time. We thought we might have to pull over for a 12V reset at this point. Carscanner showed true SoC ~91% while the displayed was still 100%.

- Maybe 3-5 miles later, Apple Maps flashed up “battery level reliability restored” at which time the lightning ticked down to 99% on the gage.

TLDR:
- Ford Nav battery temp preconditioning on a 10F day (with HVBmin > 30F) doesn’t seem like it would have changed the DCFC performance at all.
- Charging to 100% very slowly with Outside temps near 0F seems to have confused the HVB BMS for a while.

 

[Maxx]

- Drove a 130 mile leg using Apple Maps to a tesla, so no preconditioning of the battery. Outside temp was ~10F most of the that leg. Same HVBmin data showed < 40F at arrival, but DCFC still charged >160kW. So, unlikely that battery preconditioning with Ford Nav would have done anything useful.

Great report. I have made a similar trip (MD to Toronto round trip) with my Standard pack in perfect weather with no problem but a little bit of a chicken to try it in winter.

One thing to note; based on my understanding HVBmin (High Voltage Battery Minimum) should not change for the length of the session if the temperature only goes up. I doubt this is an actual sensor. I think it is just a value in the memory that will get reset probably next time you turn on the truck. On my custom Temperature screen, I have the current battery temp (the number in yellow), min, max and range.

In the following my battery temp has been going down. Not sure what is going on with range. I wonder if it reset daily.

 

[21st Century Truck]

Good discussion - thanks for posting.

 

[Cvh8601]

Great report. I have made a similar trip (MD to Toronto round trip) with my Standard pack in perfect weather with no problem but a little bit of a chicken to try it in winter.

One thing to note; based on my understanding HVBmin (High Voltage Battery Minimum) should not change for the length of the session if the temperature only goes up. I doubt this is an actual sensor. I think it is just a value in the memory that will get reset probably next time you turn on the truck. On my custom Temperature screen, I have the current battery temp (the number in yellow), min, max and range.

In the following my battery temp has been going down. Not sure what is going on with range. I wonder if it reset daily.

Great note, i hadn’t even considered custom CarScanner cards. I’ll definitely look into that.

Not sure what route you take, but if you primarily do US 15, the Selinsgrove Supercharger is a game changer, and there is a new-ish station in Painted Post also. I think, if you can do superchargers, the SR should be able to make the trip no problem. The superchargers seem to be spaced very consistently and closely along the US-15 -> I-99 -> I-86/390 route to Buffalo.

 

[Maxx]

Great note, i hadn’t even considered custom CarScanner cards. I’ll definitely look into that.

Not sure what route you take, but if you primarily do US 15, the Selinsgrove Supercharger is a game changer, and there is a new-ish station in Painted Post also. I think, if you can do superchargers, the SR should be able to make the trip no problem. The superchargers seem to be spaced very consistently and closely along the US-15 -> I-99 -> I-86/390 route to Buffalo.

Thanks for a great tip. I have only done it once with Moto Moto (my Pro). And planned the rout to clean up my 250 Kwh EA credit first. I hit a few supercharger on the way back. since it was my first public charging trip with an EV, I took slower routs to maximize range just in case. To my surprise EA was flawless but Tesla had one station giving me error (but 7 more were empty). The next trip will probably be the same rout as yours and using mostly superchargers.

In winter, I may not be emotionally ready my wife's subaru with 600 mile range is cheaper and has free heat so I have to dig deep for my inner adventurer to go with Lightning. For anything under 200 mile, it is a clear choice. I know I have to do it to build confidence. I am working on it.

Sponsored