Did Ford Change My Usable Battery Capacity to 135 kWh?

[LightningShow]

Mine has been doing this as long as i can remember. It also takes over an hour to charge from 99 to 100. I always figured it was just a software quirk.

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[Walle1jm]

With an OBD reader and Car Scanner, you would know your answers.

@Maquis's reasons are the answers. One thing to note - as the battery warms, it has more energy. So, if you charge to 100% in cool weather, but then begin your drive in warmer weather, the truck actually has more energy to use and it takes longer to drop from 100%. The OBD reader would show you the kilowatts available, and you would see them go up for a tad.

Agreed - it’s bitter cold in MI today as everyone knows and my 100% displayed on the dash is really only 84.5 kWh of my 98 kWh standard range battery per CarScanner app.

 

[RickLightning]

Agreed - it’s bitter cold in MI today as everyone knows and my 100% displayed on the dash is really only 84.5 kWh of my 98 kWh standard range battery per CarScanner app.

Right.

Now, if you set a departure time, and checked that after it was completed, it would be close to 98.

So if you don't do that, and leave the house with 84.5, as it warms you will see that number go up, unless you use the energy too fast.

 

[TheWoo]

All I know is I left the house after 15 min remote start in -7° temps with 90% SOC. I drove about a mile and a half and parked, went into a wine bar and had a glass of wine, remote started the truck about 10 minutes before leaving, and got in the truck to go to dinner where I had 92% SOC.

Either Ford reduced my available battery capacity while I had my wine, or SOC is variable by a few percentage points, especially in weather and with short drives.

I'm probably going with the latter.

 

[MickeyAO]

SOC is based on the pack voltage. As the internal cell temperature increases, the resistance drops, which leads to increased voltage. No mystery here.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

SOC is based on the pack voltage. As the internal cell temperature increases, the resistance drops, which leads to increased voltage. No mystery here.

Just to clarify, are you saying that the pack heats up while driving and that explains why we get 7-10 miles before the SOC drops from 100% to 99%? If that is the case, why is it a new finding by a few of us on this board? I will defer to your expertise on the temperature issue. That would be a plausible explanation, if not for the fact that it's a new finding. I watch this stuff all the time, and I've seen it repeatedly where I didn't see it before. Two others have corroborated it. So the question that needs answering is why are we seeing it now when we didn't see it before?

I proposed a couple of possibilities--either the usable capacity was increased by Ford, without changing the denominator. So we start at 135/131 and don't get down to 99% until 130/131. Dashboard won't show 103%, so it stays at 100 until it gets to 99. Or, the truck now thinks 127 is a full charge. There may be others, but saying that nothing has changed doesn't satisfy my curiosity.

Still waiting for the person with an OBDII reader to chime in. Not looking forward to getting bashed again here, though, and I know it's coming. Thanks for your help.

 

[Adventureboy]

I have had my Lightning for a year and I have seen the exact change the OP mentioned. Charging to 100% previously was more precise and the % would drop exactly as the power was used. It now has a "buffer" above the 100% mark when it takes 10-15km before it starts dropping. This is new in the past month or so in the last round of updates.

 

[MichaelCA]

FWIW, an iPhone is not a Lightning but probably similar logic may apply here. When my iphone's are charged to 100%, the 100% to 99% drop did take a longer than 99-98. I just think its some sort of internal calibration.

 

[Smokewagun]

Has anyone noticed when they drive under a high voltage line, their Lightning gauges all flicker, and their HVB SOC and range increase at a substantial rate?
Just kidding, unless…
I have never seen the OP’s issue, although I have noticed after driving interstate with a destination plugged in, when I go back to non-destination programmed driving, my range jumps and I can actually drive miles with minimal range loss. I can’t see my % yet, as the latest update won’t take, but is all of this related to the algorithms just being confused by so much data available under so many driving conditions?

 

[Zprime29]

Drop in elevation? Tail wind? Heavy stop and go traffic? Seems to me like it's probably regen keeping you topped up. I charge starting at 10pm and am often done just after midnight. Truck then sits in the garage until I leave for work without preconditioning, today it was 37F (was much warmer in the garage though I can't say by how much). My morning commute has a lot of down hill and I hang out at 80% for close to 8 miles before elevation levels out and I hop on the freeway. Today, I went up 1% in SOC after just one mile. So even though it was colder outside than the garage, just driving and giving a little regen can bump the battery voltage and make it take longer to drop.

I posted not long ago about a 10 mile trip I took, starting from 100%. After lunch and starting up to return, I was still at 100% SOC which confused the heck out of me. What I've come to terms with is that the SOC is solely dependent on battery voltage which is partly affected by temperature. Roads retain a lot of heat and just driving into an area with consistent traffic may be enough to warm the battery despite the ambient air temp being cooler.

I agree with others that what is being seen is not a hidden increase to capacity, but rather the affect temp has on SOC at a more subtle level.

 

[JRT]

Mine has been doing the same with a very slow decrease to SOC% since new, I have no OTA either as that is off. The dealership did the update when I bought it that maybe was rolled out to others. 30k with MME taught be don't trust GOM or SOC, be conservative in winter range always. I always figure 20% lose too.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

None of those conditions existed. My drive yesterday was all within 10’ of sea level and I hardly used the brake. Average speed probably 55. And I came out of a 65 degree garage and drove in 50 degree temp. (Not saying the battery did not change temps. Just that ambient temp was not the factor.)

I appreciate the efforts at explanation, but what we are looking for is the reason for consistent, new observed change by now 4 of us. Attempts at explaining it as normal or beyond our capability to observe it don’t address the observed change.

 

[Tom M]

I don’t have any data about increased useable battery capacity.

But, to the part of the argument posed is that Ford changed something in an update and didn’t tell us what was changed shouldn’t surprise anyone who has read the PowerUp release notes.

“Smart Changes

Refinements have been made to help improve connectivity.

Ford Power-Up delivers software updates that are designed to help make your Ford F-150® Lightning® truck better over time.”

 

[Henry Ford]

SOC is based on the pack voltage. As the internal cell temperature increases, the resistance drops, which leads to increased voltage. No mystery here.

This. I can't explain it more succinctly.

SOC is a calculation, not a measurement. When variables change - e.g. "internal cell temperature," see above - the calculation changes. Driving changes variables constantly. SOC isn't linier.

I find it unlikely Ford would reduce buffers without so much as a press release. The biggest complaint on this forum, by far, is range. Does it make sense that Ford would increase the range of Lightnings and not bother to tell anyone?

 

[JRT]

I just think Ford wants to make the masses happy by presenting an overly optimistic SOC give those in the know it is rarely right? The issue to me continues to be applying our conditional expectations from ICE fuel gages to a highly variable new energy source.

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