I love this truck but GD!

[Henry Ford]

I know it showed 1.2 but with 21% charge and 22 miles of range there’s no way it was actually 1.2. (131x.21x1.2=33 still pretty terrible) I wish the kilowatt per mile was a live number, but it’s some average that doesn’t read real time. And I’ve said it multiple times in this thread. I could not be on shore power I was in a parking lot. Thankfully, taxman had an actual tip to get your battery to precondition off plug. But if you look at the picture from my first post, the battery temperature is not bad. Battery temp was almost right at temp and I still got this horrible horrible range.

You left your house before you went to the hockey game, right? Had you preconditioned you would have arrived at the hockey game with more battery capacity. I don't know if it would have been enough because you are not providing enough information to determine such things.

Preconditioning will give you more range on the trip immediately following the preconditioning session. If you aren't preconditioning you are giving up range. The gauge on the IP isn't telling the whole story.

The range listed on the IP is a guess. This has been covered ad nauseum on this site. The m/kWh listed it the actual efficiency you got driving the way you drive. If everything is the same ahead you can expect to get the same number.

Do you charge to 100%? How far away is your hockey game? Did you warm the cabin at least before you left your house? This is all important stuff if you want to optimize range. You came to this forum so it seems you are at least a little interested in making the most out of your truck.

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[TMND]

Actually, before I left for the hockey game battery was charged to 80% with the truck in a heated shop.

I never charge to 100% less going on a long road trip just like Ford recommends. If I need 100% to go 90 miles round-trip on an extended range

and this isn’t about me not having enough range to get home I’m fully capable of making sure of that. It’s about the range being abysmal.

 

[21st Century Truck]

I know it showed 1.2 but with 21% charge and 22 miles of range there’s no way it was actually 1.2. (131x.21x1.2=33 still pretty terrible) I wish the kilowatt per mile was a live number, but it’s some average that doesn’t read real time. And I’ve said it multiple times in this thread. I could not be on shore power I was in a parking lot. Thankfully, taxman had an actual tip to get your battery to precondition off plug. But if you look at the picture from my first post, the battery temperature is not bad. Battery temp was almost right at temp and I still got this horrible horrible range.

By way of comparison, I also have seen comparable EV traction battery range losses... I drove my Mach E last January when we had the North American super-cold snap from Western Colorado across the Rockies thru Southern Minnesota to Virginia. I was towing a 1,500 pound teardrop camper trailer and had Winter tires on my wheels, both significant range eating factors. My range on that car's extended traction battery on some days was no more than 130 / 140 miles, vice its nominal 270+ miles.

Rocky Mountain road climbs up to and above 8,000 feet (Montrose Pass and camping at the Grand Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument), the two blizzards I drove thru and the howling prairie winds across Iowa and thereabouts certainly took their toll as well.

I bring this up here to contribute that the only ways I found during that by-design Winter stress test trip other than battery pre-conditioning (where possible), was to A). seriously bundle up and just not use cabin air heat, and B). slow wayyyyy down, sometimes to a consistent 40 mph, to be able to reach a known charging station. Additionally, I began to curse the visually cute yet functionally heat-venting and overall useless panoramic glass roof on that Mach E.

Of course, I had plenty of time and no children / family in the car other than the dog. Would I accept a daily long commute under such conditions? ...absolutely not, of course. And my current Lightning has a solid metal roof

Best of Luck on the OP's Lightning-related decisions.

 

[TMND]

This thread should have a “precondition” counter on it I swear seriously, though the battery temp itself wasn’t that bad (just below line). Look at the gauge again.

 

[Henry Ford]

This thread should have a “precondition” counter on it I swear seriously, though the battery temp itself wasn’t that bad (just below line). Look at the gauge again.

If the battery is using energy to warm itself it can't use that energy to drive. The temperature below the tic mark is a pretty good indication that the battery is using energy to warm itself. That's why people keep mentioning it!

You: my range isn't good.

People: you could increase your range by preconditioning.

You: that doesn't matter, my range isn't good.

 

[Firn]

This thread should have a “precondition” counter on it I swear seriously, though the battery temp itself wasn’t that bad (just below line). Look at the gauge again.

I'm pretty sure that line is a random marking intended to keep owners feeling happy, not to actually tell you anything. And OBD reader and an app would be MUCH better.

In all seriousness though, your battery was probably "warm enough" in the garage to register as normal, but probably cool enough to trigger the battery heater. Then once you pulled outside the outside weather started sucking every btu out of that battery. It's highly likely that preconditioning would have warmed the battery up more than the garage temp and the onboard heater would not have to had work AS hard. Nowhere near as much energy as warming a stone cold battery, but still energy.

What is your speed and how are the winds?

 

[TMND]

I'm pretty sure that line is a random marking intended to keep owners feeling happy, not to actually tell you anything. And OBD reader and an app would be MUCH better.

In all seriousness though, your battery was probably "warm enough" in the garage to register as normal, but probably cool enough to trigger the battery heater. Then once you pulled outside the outside weather started sucking every btu out of that battery. It's highly likely that preconditioning would have warmed the battery up more than the garage temp and the onboard heater would not have to had work AS hard. Nowhere near as much energy as warming a stone cold battery, but still energy.

What is your speed and how are the winds?

Between 60 and 67 never over. Thankfully that night there was no wind. head wind would’ve had me driving 35-40 mph or less. But generally, the winds around here are straight line and over 20 so you’ve got bad wind One Direction good wind hopefully coming home as long as it hasn’t changed. But I’ve fought wind both directions before. I’m just that lucky.

 

[21st Century Truck]

I'm pretty sure that line is a random marking intended to keep owners feeling happy, not to actually tell you anything. And OBD reader and an app would be MUCH better.

In all seriousness though, your battery was probably "warm enough" in the garage to register as normal, but probably cool enough to trigger the battery heater. Then once you pulled outside the outside weather started sucking every btu out of that battery. It's highly likely that preconditioning would have warmed the battery up more than the garage temp and the onboard heater would not have to had work AS hard. Nowhere near as much energy as warming a stone cold battery, but still energy.

What is your speed and how are the winds?

This pretty interesting thread reminds me just how enormous our ER traction batteries are on the Lightning, in a relative sense.

Change to internal conditions of traction battery X takes time... change to internal conditions of a yuuuuuge Lightning ER battery takes that much more time and energy. Especially in weather which is sub-optimally hot or sub-optimally cold.

Tooling around daily in my own Lightning, I tend to easily forget that.

 

[Dlindvig]

It’s like loving a cheater sometimes. (This is supposed to be an extended ranged btw)

 

[TMND]

Yeah, she always lies to me when I’m above 80% too. once I start driving I’ll lose 80 miles or so after going 10 miles

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