DC (not so) Fast charging

[22legit2quit]

I recently posted about my extended trip this weekend and now today on the back end coming home… public charging.


is there a temperature threshold on fast charging that anyone has experienced? I have a 2024 flash, and other than in these increasingly cold temperatures, i have always been able to achieve some fairly fast charging numbers.

while I know that we may all speculate, here are the conditions:

KC, mo this weekend was in the lower single digits over last night and into the morning. It’s been no warmer than 33 or so on the trip with the wind chill being significant. No crazy driving, honestly the climate has been at minimum because it seems to hold heat fairly well. As before the climate was on the lowest auto setting.

My thesis on this, having no technical knowledge, is that there are multiple things happening here. First the grid is probably overwhelmed due to the cold, people running more power,etc. Next there probably is a temperature threshold for charging on both ends. I’ve noticed that it stays around 70-80 and it doesn’t matter what type of charger that is used or where and in what state as there are three that we pass through.

annoying enough, but a learning experience.

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[Heliian]

What was your soc? Battery temp? Did you use fordnav to precondition before the charger stop? What brand charger? What output was the charger? How many units were there and how many were being used? How long did you charge for and to what percentage?
The lightning is a 400v architecture, some chargers are labeled for their peak at 800v and will be a lower rate. Busy stations will power share at a reduced rate.

 

[potato]

I have noticed if the battery is really cold, sometimes the truck only requests 200 amps (~70 kW) even if the charger says it's capable of higher. In those cases I haven't seen the truck ramp up even after the battery has warmed. I haven't had a chance to test interrupting and restarting the charge at the same charger. I'll try that if it happens again. Though **hopefully** we are on the far side of the really cold temperatures for the season now. We shall see.

FWIW I have had zero success preconditioning using Ford nav. The process is so opaque. I have no idea why they can't just give us a "precondition now" button.

 

[Pioneer74]

One thing that keeps a cold truck from charging faster is having the cabin heat running. If the heater is warming the cabin, it can't warm the battery. Cold batteries can't charge as fast as warm without being damaged. That is why they charge slower.

 

[Firn]

I have not noticed a slowdown when the battery temps are in the middle 40s, not that that is really cold.

It "should" max out the heater and dump as much heat as it can into the battery. That is what it was doing for me even with the battery in the 40s. I see no reason why it wouldn't speed up once the battery warmed up, that's kind of the point.

I think it was said here that preconditioning is in the newer updates, 10.1.0 or later iirc

 

[RailroaderJ]

2023 SR. I have good results with 150-350kw chargers 35 degrees or higher. 35 or less and it takes longer. The best is still AC home charging.

 

[22legit2quit]

I guess to summarize, we got in late last night but the overall miles/kwh average was 1.8. The temperature on the drive either direction got no higher than 33, but the average was probably much lower due to the wind chill going 70ish mph.

I did notice stopping at an electrify America in Arkansas where it was above freezing that the chargers were capable of hitting 120 for short periods, but averaging around 110. I always charge between 15-25 percent on long trips and typically go to 85-90 percent depending on when the next stop would be. Fast charging, like the actual speed would have made each stop 30-45 min instead of 2-3x that. Additionally, home charging is the best like someone else has said and it’s also the most economical. All of the numerical data are exact data points from the trip and I’d be interested to see if others in much colder climates have had similar experiences.

 

[RailroaderJ]

I guess to summarize, we got in late last night but the overall miles/kwh average was 1.8. The temperature on the drive either direction got no higher than 33, but the average was probably much lower due to the wind chill going 70ish mph.

I did notice stopping at an electrify America in Arkansas where it was above freezing that the chargers were capable of hitting 120 for short periods, but averaging around 110. I always charge between 15-25 percent on long trips and typically go to 85-90 percent depending on when the next stop would be. Fast charging, like the actual speed would have made each stop 30-45 min instead of 2-3x that. Additionally, home charging is the best like someone else has said and it’s also the most economical. All of the numerical data are exact data points from the trip and I’d be interested to see if others in much colder climates have had similar experiences.

That was me! Which EA did you use?

 

[RyZac]

I have noticed if the battery is really cold, sometimes the truck only requests 200 amps (~70 kW) even if the charger says it's capable of higher. In those cases I haven't seen the truck ramp up even after the battery has warmed. I haven't had a chance to test interrupting and restarting the charge at the same charger. I'll try that if it happens again. Though **hopefully** we are on the far side of the really cold temperatures for the season now. We shall see.

FWIW I have had zero success preconditioning using Ford nav. The process is so opaque. I have no idea why they can't just give us a "precondition now" button.

Agreed, How hard would a precondition button be to add to the screen that you could press ~20 miles from your charging point?

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