Pre-conditioning.

Robert1380 · May 29, 2025

earlyadopt said:
If you are on the road travelling, this is what happens:
Yes, the Ford Lightning will pre-condition its battery when a DC fast charger is set as a destination or waypoint in Google Maps on Android Auto. This feature, known as En-Route Preconditioning, ensures the battery is at its optimal temperature for fast charging when you arrive.

Here's how it works:

Using Google Maps:
When you set a DC fast charger as a destination or waypoint in Google Maps (projected onto your in-vehicle display through Android Auto), the vehicle's system will automatically begin to cool or warm the battery as you approach the charger.

Timing:
The preconditioning starts a certain distance from the charger, allowing the battery to reach the optimal temperature before charging begins.

No need to manually start:
You don't need to manually trigger preconditioning; the system will automatically do it based on your navigation.

Benefits:
This ensures that you can achieve the fastest possible charging speeds at the DC fast charger.

Really great information. When I took delivery of my truck a little over a week ago, they paired my phone and showed me where to plug it in for charging. That was it. No explanation of any of the systems or how they work. Was a fiasco. Thanks for your help and I appreciate you.

Firn · May 29, 2025

earlyadopt said:
If you are on the road travelling, this is what happens:
Yes, the Ford Lightning will pre-condition its battery when a DC fast charger is set as a destination or waypoint in Google Maps on Android Auto. This feature, known as En-Route Preconditioning, ensures the battery is at its optimal temperature for fast charging when you arrive.

Here's how it works:

Using Google Maps:
When you set a DC fast charger as a destination or waypoint in Google Maps (projected onto your in-vehicle display through Android Auto), the vehicle's system will automatically begin to cool or warm the battery as you approach the charger.

Timing:
The preconditioning starts a certain distance from the charger, allowing the battery to reach the optimal temperature before charging begins.

No need to manually start:
You don't need to manually trigger preconditioning; the system will automatically do it based on your navigation.

Benefits:
This ensures that you can achieve the fastest possible charging speeds at the DC fast charger.

Have you verified this is true for the Lightning? What yesr and Software version?

It has been said that the latest updates may have included this feature but it was confirmed that prior to that the Lightning did not actively precondition the battery for DCFC, and that has been validated by a few (myself included).

There was discussion that perhaps 10.2 did add this feature but there have been no confirmation that this is functional on the Lightning as of yet.

earlyadopt · May 29, 2025

Robert1380 said:
Really great information. When I took delivery of my truck a little over a week ago, they paired my phone and showed me where to plug it in for charging. That was it. No explanation of any of the systems or how they work. Was a fiasco. Thanks for your help and I appreciate you.

You are welcome, I have two EV's and done lots of research on them. Google is also amazing. The challenge sometime on these forums is a bit of opinion comes into the mix and can cause confusion. I was watching the thread and the answers are not wrong, just that if charging at home, the pre-conditioning works to preserve your battery. En-route pre-conditioning is done to optimize the charge experience and reduce time at the DC charger. Two totally different objectives. Enjoy the truck, they are awesome and cheap to operate. No stock car can beat you off the start line. This truck is "lightning fast" LOL

potato · May 29, 2025

The word "precondition" is used for both the cabin and the battery, although they are completely separate things. I think that's the biggest confusion. I wish there was a better word used for preparing the cabin.