Left unplugged to cold soak?

[Green1]

I'm in the process of considering the lightning as my next vehicle. I'm coming from a Tesla model S, so I'm quite familiar with electric, and as a Canadian I'm quite familiar with cold.
We're in the middle of a cold snap now, and I ended up having to drive out of town for the weekend. I've seen tons of posts and other information about range loss in the cold, that doesn't really bother me, I know all about that from my Tesla. But I haven't seen is information about cold soaking these.

For comparison, I parked my model s outside, unplugged, overnight (16 hours) at -40 (c or f doesn't matter at that temperature!). When I got back to it this morning to drive to the nearest charge station I couldn't get it over 30 km/h (about 20 mph?) Even with my foot to the floor, and when I got to the DC fast charger, it took a full hour to warm up the battery enough to even start charging. I parked it last night with 30% battery left, when I got in this morning it showed 0%, but slowly crept up to 15% while I drove.

I know this is an absolute worst case scenario, and I know that normally you wouldn't want to leave it unplugged for that length of time in this weather. But I also know that reality sometimes gets in the way of what you really want to/should do.

So I'm curious with the current polar vortex, if anyone has any similar experiences with the lightning to share, I'm curious as to how it would handle a similar situation. Better? Worse!?! About the same?

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[dingmah]

I assume you're in Edmonton or Calgary. I'm in Edmonton =)

Obviously on a cold soaked battery it will affect performance. But not as bad as what you're describing where you can't get it going above 30kph.

 

[Green1]

I'm out in the mountains of BC this weekend, but yes, I started in Calgary.

I have to say, I've experienced cold soak before, but never this bad. I'd love to hear any real world experiences with the lightning left unplugged in these temps for at least 12-14 hours. After all, that's just a standard work day for me.

 

[Green1]

Not sure why this moved to the charging section, this post was specifically asking about when you are NOT charging....

 

[TaxmanHog]

This node also covers battery health, discussions about it are here.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I'm in the process of considering the lightning as my next vehicle. I'm coming from a Tesla model S, so I'm quite familiar with electric, and as a Canadian I'm quite familiar with cold.
We're in the middle of a cold snap now, and I ended up having to drive out of town for the weekend. I've seen tons of posts and other information about range loss in the cold, that doesn't really bother me, I know all about that from my Tesla. But I haven't seen is information about cold soaking these.

For comparison, I parked my model s outside, unplugged, overnight (16 hours) at -40 (c or f doesn't matter at that temperature!). When I got back to it this morning to drive to the nearest charge station I couldn't get it over 30 km/h (about 20 mph?) Even with my foot to the floor, and when I got to the DC fast charger, it took a full hour to warm up the battery enough to even start charging. I parked it last night with 30% battery left, when I got in this morning it showed 0%, but slowly crept up to 15% while I drove.

I know this is an absolute worst case scenario, and I know that normally you wouldn't want to leave it unplugged for that length of time in this weather. But I also know that reality sometimes gets in the way of what you really want to/should do.

So I'm curious with the current polar vortex, if anyone has any similar experiences with the lightning to share, I'm curious as to how it would handle a similar situation. Better? Worse!?! About the same?

Im not in the same climate, nowhere close. But I have experienced the same issues in my S and X with power reductions, and not just motor power but even boot up of various systems when it gets below 0. I’ve had the mirrors get stuck folded, we leave those open now. Door motors frozen. The door themselves frozen, leading to broken actuators.

I have not experienced the same type of issues in my Lightning yet.

To give you an idea of how different and how comfortable I am, both Teslas go into the garage which is insulated and heated. (Despite the Lightning being worth more than both combined) They stay plugged in as much as possible, I will temporarily unplug one to charge up the Lightning if I need a charge but otherwise the Lightning stays outside and unplugged unless I’m below 40% range or anticipating taking a big trip the next day. Sometimes it sits for only 12 hours outside, other times it’ll sit for a week.

The worst I’ve seen is a slightly slower boot up of the system but I’ve literally gone 5-10minutes waiting for my Teslas to recover while it’s still less then 30second on the Ford.

Take this with a grain of salt. I’ll see negative temps but they’re not -40.

 

[Green1]

Im not in the same climate, nowhere close. But I have experienced the same issues in my S and X with power reductions, and not just motor power but even boot up of various systems when it gets below 0. I’ve had the mirrors get stuck folded, we leave those open now. Door motors frozen. The door themselves frozen, leading to broken actuators.

Thank you, that post was actually quite helpful. Although I will say, that even down into the minus teens the sort of power reduction issues just aren't really there in the Tesla. It's only down at these really extreme temperatures that we have the issue. I mean, technically, the model s does show power reduction anytime below about plus 10 Celsius, but nothing that affects a normal drive.
However I do agree with you on the mirrors, I turned off autofold a long time ago. And the boot up issues don't seem to be weather related at all. Nor do the door motors, though I've replaced about six handles so far.

One thing I really like about the lightning, is the absence of vampire drain. I don't even want to think about how much power I have spent on vampire draw in the last 8 years of ownership, but I can say it is quite substantial. When camping I have to budget at least 5% per night for the vampire. I doubt it's any better when I'm plugged in at home, it's just less noticeable.

Still curious though as to how the lightning behaves When it really does get thoroughly cold soaked at these frigid temperatures.

 

[Lightning Rod]

Bookmarked.

 

[Lucky Larry]

I also live in Calgary and the lightning is my first EV. i have only left the truck unplugged at work for about 6 1/2 hours during -25 c or -13 f weather, and didn't see much of a range drop in that time. I have also left the vehicle overnight several times when the temperature was around -6 c or 20 f without any significant range loss. I have the extended range battery and i am seeing a 29% range drop at -30 c or -22 f compared to +5 to 10 C weather. (the guess o meter shows 405 kms @85% SOC in the fall vs 285 kms at -30 c @85% SOC).

I would definitely recommend getting an extended range battery based on our temperatures.

One of the nicest things i like about the truck it that it will remind you to plug it in at temps below 0c. the other thing i like is being able to set a departure time. if the vehicle is plugged in the cabin and the battery will both be heated for you helping with comfort and range.

 

[Green1]

I also live in Calgary and the lightning is my first EV. i have only left the truck unplugged at work for about 6 1/2 hours during -25 c or -13 f weather, and didn't see much of a range drop in that time. I have also left the vehicle overnight several times when the temperature was around -6 c or 20 f without any significant range loss. I have the extended range battery and i am seeing a 29% range drop at -30 c or -22 f compared to +5 to 10 C weather. (the guess o meter shows 405 kms @85% SOC in the fall vs 285 kms at -30 c @85% SOC).

I would definitely recommend getting an extended range battery based on our temperatures.

One of the nicest things i like about the truck it that it will remind you to plug it in at temps below 0c. the other thing i like is being able to set a departure time. if the vehicle is plugged in the cabin and the battery will both be heated for you helping with comfort and range.

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm not particularly worried about the range, my model S lost nearly 50% of its range this weekend at -35c versus the same trip at +10c, so I'm used to it.

As for which battery, Ford never should have made the short range version, the big battery should have been the minimum, with a long range above it. That said, the short range version would be very similar to my 2014 model S which at the time was the longest range electric vehicle you could buy.

I'm starting to think that no one here is crazy enough to have left their vehicle unplugged outside overnight this week. Which I can't blame people for, because it really is best not to let it happen. I was just hoping for the data point.

 

[Lightning Rod]

I also live in Calgary and the lightning is my first EV. i have only left the truck unplugged at work for about 6 1/2 hours during -25 c or -13 f weather, and didn't see much of a range drop in that time. I have also left the vehicle overnight several times when the temperature was around -6 c or 20 f without any significant range loss. I have the extended range battery and i am seeing a 29% range drop at -30 c or -22 f compared to +5 to 10 C weather. (the guess o meter shows 405 kms @85% SOC in the fall vs 285 kms at -30 c @85% SOC).

I would definitely recommend getting an extended range battery based on our temperatures.

One of the nicest things i like about the truck it that it will remind you to plug it in at temps below 0c. the other thing i like is being able to set a departure time. if the vehicle is plugged in the cabin and the battery will both be heated for you helping with comfort and range.

How does our trucks remind us to plug in at lower temperatures?

Also, one disappointment I have with Ford and the Fordpass app is not having the ability to precondition HVB battery on demand. There should be a "Precondition Now" button in the app so that you can precondition, just like hitting the remote start button. It's 10 degrees F today with minus 10 windchill. I shouldn't have to go in and schedule a departure time, to precondition the battery if I have to make an unexpected trip.

What do you guys think?

 

[kstype]

How does our trucks remind us to plug in at lower temperatures?

Also, one disappointment I have with Ford and the Fordpass app is not having the ability to precondition HVB battery on demand. There should be a "Precondition Now" button in the app so that you can precondition, just like hitting the remote start button. It's 10 degrees F today with minus 10 windchill. I shouldn't have to go in and schedule a departure time, to precondition the battery if I have to make an unexpected trip.

Completely agree - a precondition now feature is really needed.

 

[Shawnson]

I'm in the process of considering the lightning as my next vehicle. I'm coming from a Tesla model S, so I'm quite familiar with electric, and as a Canadian I'm quite familiar with cold.
We're in the middle of a cold snap now, and I ended up having to drive out of town for the weekend. I've seen tons of posts and other information about range loss in the cold, that doesn't really bother me, I know all about that from my Tesla. But I haven't seen is information about cold soaking these.

For comparison, I parked my model s outside, unplugged, overnight (16 hours) at -40 (c or f doesn't matter at that temperature!). When I got back to it this morning to drive to the nearest charge station I couldn't get it over 30 km/h (about 20 mph?) Even with my foot to the floor, and when I got to the DC fast charger, it took a full hour to warm up the battery enough to even start charging. I parked it last night with 30% battery left, when I got in this morning it showed 0%, but slowly crept up to 15% while I drove.

I know this is an absolute worst case scenario, and I know that normally you wouldn't want to leave it unplugged for that length of time in this weather. But I also know that reality sometimes gets in the way of what you really want to/should do.

So I'm curious with the current polar vortex, if anyone has any similar experiences with the lightning to share, I'm curious as to how it would handle a similar situation. Better? Worse!?! About the same?

I am in edmonton. Currently doing some projects in the garage which has meant having to leave the truck outside overnight twice. This is the result. Didn’t actually drive anywhere except to put in in the garage to warm up. Learned that 120v in the lightning won’t maintain batter temperature as it can in our model 3.

 

[Tundra]

Yesterday I was at work for 12 hours, and the temp was just slightly below 0F. Even driving quite conservatively I certainly burned through the state of charge on the way home. I am curious once things get down to -40F here.

I have a 52 mile round trip commute, about 32 miles of it is highway (not ideal); I am not worried about making it to work and back, but for my SR if I am charging it to 80% when it is cold like this I probably am not going too many other places in a day, without charging somewhere that is.

 

[cal]

I think this thread might be helpful.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/24.18000/

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