Ford's Important Tip For Driving Your Lightning in the Cold: Preconditioning / Pre-Heat Your Battery

[TaxmanHog]

Here is the results of todays testing, which as reported earlier had no substantial precondition of the cabin before we started the day. Temps were milder this morning ~40 and peaked at 65 degrees this afternoon, so the thermal burden was a lot less, we traveled the same 15.9 miles, according to the daily trip log we averaged 2.1 MPK, inferring 7.6 KWH of traction energy. SOC dropped from 90 to 83%

I topped off the battery, adding back the 7%, Emporia & FCSP logs show the following:

Total cost to operate the truck today per FCSP is $2.71 and Emporia is $2.76
17.4 cents a mile, much better than yesterday.

The Ford Pass charging progress record showed the following.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Early report about my revise testing of the Departure Timer while unplugged

This morning it was a balmy & foggy 50° so the thermal burden was the least over the past three days, set the departure time yesterday afternoon in the truck after she was fully charged to 90%
Our intended leave time is 8:00 am, but I set the departure time for 7:45 am, observed the truck parking lights come on at 7:40 am.

The home screen of Fordpass showed the truck's operation with a 15 minute countdown, needed to do a pull down & refresh to see the current status even though the truck was clearly ON.
I did another refresh with 4 minutes left on the timer.
Then another shot after the timer stopped at 7:55 am, consumed 1% ~1.31 KWH of energy

We went out to the truck at 7:58 am, it was off, cabin was mildly comfortable, seats were warm and the steering wheel was slightly warm. Started her up and the steering wheel began to fully warm up, blower was on AUTO-3 but the rate was slow and pushing previously warmed air, seats resumed their level-3 warming, it wasn't long before I turned that down to 1 and by the time we arrived at the grocery store, needed to turn off the steering wheel heater.

Lesson learned, set your departure time (UNPLUGGED METHOD) ten minutes prior to leave time, this gets the truck warmed to its optimum and minimizes post cool down impact.

I'll continue with the testing through early afternoon and do another replenishment charge and update this post. with final energy consumption.

Afternoon report, after doing 16.1 miles of local around town travel, 64° at this time so much less thermal load (minimal heat / cooling). Notice the remaining range of 252 plus 16 miles traveled is close to this mornings projected range of 271 per the o'll-reliable GOM. 2.1 MPK for the day.

FP & FCSP Charging stat's: FP thinks I restored 19 miles worth of energy, a little optimistic, the 8.911 KWH consumed is close to the 9.01 KWH Emporia measured 98.9% accuracy.

Emporia stat's

Pretty close to yesterday's performance at 16.6 cents a mile.

From this point forward whether I remote start 15 minutes prior to leave or use a departure time by setting for 10 minutes prior to leave, I'll have the warmed cabin ready to go while unplugged.

Then for longer trips, like our upcoming Thanksgiving ride to NH, that will involve being plugged in with a set departure time so that the battery is optimized for the long and potentially cold [22° to 42°] day of travel.

Long trips are rare for us, so for most of our local travel days, remote starting is the best option.

 

[sd25]

@TaxmanHog thanks for all the detailed tests!
This is fantastic info to help us get optimal results during winter driving.

 

[Lightning Rod]

I understand that the battery won't precondition just by having it plugged in and hitting start on FordPass app, but if my truck is already plugged in and not charging because it's already at the max charge percentage, if I hit the remote start while plugged in, will it warm the cabin using the battery's power or will it use shore power because it's plugged in?

 

[TaxmanHog]

I understand that the battery won't precondition just by having it plugged in and hitting start on FordPass app, but if my truck is already plugged in and not charging because it's already at the max charge percentage, if I hit the remote start while plugged in, will it warm the cabin using the battery's power or will it use shore power because it's plugged in?

Shore power, think of it as a pass through energy transfer, the PTC is powered by the traction battery, which is sent just enough power from the 240v charger to 400vDV converter to replenish what the PTC is drawing.

This morning my truck was at 90% charge setting, I ran remote start for 15 minutes, a tiny amount of excess charging current was stored in the battery, it rose to 91% per the charging record I got this afternoon., I should have saved that to show y'all, it said also lost -5 miles for that activity which is totally bogus since adding energy should increase mileage

 

[Lightning Rod]

All electric vehicles experience a decrease in range during cold temperatures. To get ready for longer commutes during the winter, preconditioning lets customers pre-heat their EV battery and cabin with electricity from the charger, instead of their vehicle’s battery. This helps Ford EVs work smart, not hard, to preserve range.

Is there a way to have seat warm with a remote start? I did a quick check but I don't see where it can be done. I thought you could do this according to a few posts on this site.

Thanks,

 

[TaxmanHog]

Is there a way to have seat warm with a remote start? I did a quick check but I don't see where it can be done. I thought you could do this according to a few posts on this site.

Thanks,

Yes, mine are ALWAYS hot in cold weather and cooled in warm weather, take a look at your Sync settings in the truck, review settings related to REMOTE START, you've got a couple features that are adjustable related to warming. I leave mine in the AUTO position so that the truck decides what to do based on the temperature condition inside the cabin.

 

[brucek2]

Does having the truck plugged in to a 120v and setting a departure time pull from the 120v or the HV battery?

 

[TaxmanHog]

Does having the truck plugged in to a 120v and setting a departure time pull from the 120v or the HV battery?

The FMC running at 120 provides about 1.4 KW of energy, so likely the battery is shouldering the heating load.

The PTC which warms the cabin can draw as much as peak rate of about 18 KW for about 3-5 minute, but it slows down quickly, this is my Sunday 11/26/23 morning {REMOTE START} of 10 minutes, resulting in 1.63 KWH passing from the FCSP at 240v @ 80a no battery warm up it was 22 degrees this morning

This was the Remote Start Saturday morning, power flow by the minute and hour
Consumed 1.29 KWH to get cabin, seat and wheel warmed up, no battery warm up

I had set a departure time for Thanksgiving morning pre-trip battery conditioning to warm battery for a long distance trip and pre-warm cabin, goal was set to 07:30 am, chart on left started at 07:00, then I let the truck rest a while, the truck consumed [3.5 KWH].

The final warm up via {Remote Start} for 15 minute, notice the peak energy draw was a modest 5 KW which tapered down quickly, less energy was needed [0.68 KWH] as the battery and cabin were previously warmed.

I'm not certain of the battery thermal management strategy would try to warm the battery when using departure timer while the truck is plugged into 120v, if it does the energy being supplied would be trivial compared to the warming efforts of around 6 KWH

 

[brucek2]

Wow thank you for the detailed information! This is very helpful.

 

[Lightning Rod]

Yes, mine are ALWAYS hot in cold weather and cooled in warm weather, take a look at your Sync settings in the truck, review settings related to REMOTE START, you've a couple features that are adjustable related to warming. I leave mine in the AUTO position so that the truck decides what to do based on the temperature condition inside the cabin.

I found it in the touch screen in the truck. I enabled it, so when I leave here from work tonight, my seat should be nice and toasty after a remote start for about 8 minutes!

Thanks, Taxman!

 

[Fly-Phshr]

All electric vehicles experience a decrease in range during cold temperatures. To get ready for longer commutes during the winter, preconditioning lets customers pre-heat their EV battery and cabin with electricity from the charger, instead of their vehicle’s battery. This helps Ford EVs work smart, not hard, to preserve range.

Does the Ford Fleet Management system accurately capture this additional use of energy when calculating reimbursement?

 

[Dan's Lightning]

The times I set a departure time to precondition I noticed what it's really actually doing is charging the battery, in the the process of charging the battery is getting warm and conditioning so called.
Times where I leave unexpectedly not having time to pre-plan to set a departure time, I just hit the charge to 100% bottom in the app, I can be charging for 15-30 minutes before I leave. I also hit the remote start and that warms the cabin also at the same time its charging and conditioning. I noticed when I do that range holds much better! And acceleration is very responsive. This tells me hitting the charge to 100% botton on the app is in essence a precondition feature one can use when you don't have a departure time set a head of time...

 

[TaxmanHog]

The times I set a departure time to precondition I noticed what it's really actually doing is charging the battery, in the the process of charging the battery is getting warm and conditioning so called.
Times where I leave unexpectedly not having time to pre-plan to set a departure time, I just hit the charge to 100% bottom in the app, I can be charging for 15-30 minutes before I leave. I also hit the remote start and that warms the cabin also at the same time its charging and conditioning. I noticed when I do that range holds much better! And acceleration is very responsive. This tells me hitting the charge to 100% botton on the app is in essence a precondition feature one can use when you don't have a departure time set a head of time...

Kind of but here is what I measured today when I was prepping for a 150 mile round trip this evening, Roll out time was 5pm, I set the preconditioning schedule for 4:45 to condition battery & warm cabin.

Earlier in the day I charged the truck 66% to 95%, that probably generated some nice heat, but the truck sat for several hours before the truck decided it was time to begin "Preparing for the trip" It kicked off at 4:04 PM as noted on pink colored portion of the chart, at this point the SOC had settled to 94% so the onboard charger also called for charging energy as well as warming energy to the PTC.

During the green phase, the battery reached the goal of 95% and stopped charging, but continued with moderate energy to continue warming the battery.

During the orange phase, the cabin heating began at 4:30 and continued for 15 minutes, I then got an alert that the cabin / truck was ready at 4:45, it continued to moderate the warming phase until 4:57 when I unplugged the truck.

Over all this process consumed 6.69 KWH of energy, ~1.3 KWH for battery charge of 1%, 1.5 KWH for cabin warming and the balance of 3.89 KWH for battery warming, this is much less than I've spent on prior {colder} days when the battery was cold soaked and nearly fully charged. So the premise that charging induce heat is true and has been measured by a few members over the past couple of years. A last minute 15-30 charging session helps but not as much as a scheduled event, when you know far enough in advance.

PS: road trip the the [Nam Knights MC] fundraiser was a success, 148 miles of spirited driving, trip up was 1.8 MPK, trip home was 1.4 MPK, average was 1.6 MPK, SOC from 95% to 22%, with remaining range available of 47 miles (ER 131 KW pack)

 

[Lightning Rod]

Kind of but here is what I measured today when I was prepping for a 150 mile round trip this evening, Roll out time was 5pm, I set the preconditioning schedule for 4:45 to condition battery & warm cabin.

Earlier in the day I charged the truck 66% to 95%, that probably generated some nice heat, but the truck sat for several hours before the truck decided it was time to begin "Preparing for the trip" It kicked off at 4:04 PM as noted on pink colored portion of the chart, at this point the SOC had settled to 94% so the onboard charger also called for charging energy as well as warming energy to the PTC.

During the green phase, the battery reached the goal of 95% and stopped charging, but continued with moderate energy to continue warming the battery.

During the orange phase, the cabin heating began at 4:30 and continued for 15 minutes, I then got an alert that the cabin / truck was ready at 4:45, it continued to moderate the warming phase until 4:57 when I unplugged the truck.

Over all this process consumed 6.69 KWH of energy, ~1.3 KWH for battery charge of 1%, 1.5 KWH for cabin warming and the balance of 3.89 KWH for battery warming, this is much less than I've spent on prior {colder} days when the battery was cold soaked and nearly fully charged. So the premise that charging induce heat is true and has been measured by a few members over the past couple of years. A last minute 15-30 charging session helps but not as much as a scheduled event, when you know far enough in advance.

PS: road trip the the [Nam Knights MC] fundraiser was a success, 148 miles of spirited driving, trip up was 1.8 MPK, trip home was 1.4 MPK, average was 1.6 MPK, SOC from 95% to 22%, with remaining range available of 47 miles (ER 131 KW pack)

Which product do you use to retrieve this data?

Thanks.