Leave Lightning plugged in when on business trip or not using for days or 1-2 weeks?

[itdwebman]

Love the Lightning and try to drive it every day - but sometimes need to take a business trip or leave it in the garage for a week. Should I leave the Lightning plugged in and charged 85-90%? Do not want the 12V battery to drain little access to the Frunk in the garage.

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[MillieChliette]

Yeah, plug it in.

If you're going the extra mile (heh) for battery longevity, plug it in at or around 50% and set that as the charge limit. The 85-90 figure you mentioned should be fine, though. 2 weeks isn't very long.

 

[spadesaspade]

I leave my truck at the airport parking lot (in midwest winter) with maybe 2-5% drain over a week unplugged with zero issues. No observed drain in summer months. Just saying, Do as you please but the battery should not degrade due to cold, heat kills the battery. Li-Ion batteries do not like higher percentage of charge nor lower than 20%. They're like a balloon and need just the right amount of charge. Keep it around 50% and it will be perfectly happy. I charge to a 100% only before a long road trip. I charge to 85% and let it discharge to about 25% before charging again.

 

[davehu]

I leave my truck at the airport parking lot (in midwest winter) with maybe 2-5% drain over a week unplugged with zero issues. No observed drain in summer months. Just saying, Do as you please but the battery should not degrade due to cold, heat kills the battery. Li-Ion batteries do not like higher percentage of charge nor lower than 20%. They're like a balloon and need just the right amount of charge. Keep it around 50% and it will be perfectly happy. I charge to a 100% only before a long road trip. I charge to 85% and let it discharge to about 25% before charging again.

Just clarifying, batteries love cold weather for storage. However, using them when cold drains them much quicker. so

 

[Adventureboy]

You are good either way, plugged in or not.
Even plugged in, the 12v battery will dissipate once you hit the target SOC on the HVB. It will give you a message in 3-7 days when the 12v battery dissipates to 50% and the truck will go into deep sleep mode (Shuts down non-essential modules like the modem, killing FordPass access). When it does this, it will also charge the 12v battery to 100% from the HVB. It will start everything back up when you start the truck the next time.

If you want full access from FordPass while you are away, the only way to do it for periods longer than 3-7 days is to attach a 12v battery maintainer to the 12v battery so the truck doesn't go into deep sleep mode. It's tough to do if access to the frunk is challenging since that is where the battery is. It doesn't matter if you plug in the normal charge cable or not, the SOC should stay very close to the way you left it if you use the 12v maintainer and drop a bit as per Spadesaspade message if you don't use the maintainer.

 

[Akemisdad]

You are good either way, plugged in or not.
Even plugged in, the 12v battery will dissipate once you hit the target SOC on the HVB. It will give you a message in 3-7 days when the 12v battery dissipates to 50% and the truck will go into deep sleep mode (Shuts down non-essential modules like the modem, killing FordPass access). When it does this, it will also charge the 12v battery to 100% from the HVB. It will start everything back up when you start the truck the next time.

If you want full access from FordPass while you are away, the only way to do it for periods longer than 3-7 days is to attach a 12v battery maintainer to the 12v battery so the truck doesn't go into deep sleep mode. It's tough to do if access to the frunk is challenging since that is where the battery is. It doesn't matter if you plug in the normal charge cable or not, the SOC should stay very close to the way you left it if you use the 12v maintainer and drop a bit as per Spadesaspade message if you don't use the maintainer.

So do you mean connect it to like a trickle charger while I am away?

 

[Mike G]

So do you mean connect it to like a trickle charger while I am away?

I've been away for almost two weeks now, and just to ensure my truck's 12V battery was fully charged in the event my daily check for OTAs did turn up something interesting while I was away, I had it on a charger.

I didn't want my 12V battery's low SOC to be the reason I missed an update. Well that and not wanting my HVB to have to step in and top up my 12V battery the whole time I was gone. So I connected up a 4A charger/maintainer to keep things going. My MME on the other hand I left plugged in to the wall charger to help with that.

 

[Adventureboy]

So do you mean connect it to like a trickle charger while I am away?

Yes, a trickle charger of several amps on the 12V battery behind the panel in the Frunk will keep your 12v topped up and keep the truck from going into deep sleep. If you are in a place where you can do this, it keeps your 12v system healthy and allows any OTA updates to proceed while you are away. That said, for periods of a couple of weeks and if you don't care about checking on FordPass status, it really isn't needed. The truck will charge the 12v battery periodically anyway.

Important: The positive wire on the charger can be clipped directly to the positive terminal on the battery, but the negative charger wire should be clipped to a point on the frame or the small forward point where the cable attaches to the battery terminal, not directly on the battery post - this keeps the Battery Management system on the truck informed of the power going into/out of the battery so it won't shut things down.

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