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Battery preconditioning before driving

Britishlion

Britishlion

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Lucid Gravity GT
Advice please (for Gravity) for a first time EV car owner! I know it’s essential to precondition prior to DC charging ( not level 2)
But what about precondition prior to driving ? If the ambient temperature is < 10 F, or <20F does it make any difference? How about sub zero F?
If you never preconditioned, prior to driving, is there just a range impact and no battery detriment?
Thanks!
 
Don't know about battery degradation, but I've parked outside overnight, not plugged in when it was -25F. No driving issues other than limited availability of regenerative braking.
 
Britishlion said:
But what about precondition prior to driving ?
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Generally speaking (as I'm not yet a Lucid owner yet) the first 20 to 30 miles or so on cold batteries gets horrid range until they warm up properly. For me that's the vast majority of my drives around town. Doing a precondition for driving on a Tesla is recommended and I do it all of the time when it is cold. Apparently (although I have no stats) the energy expended for 15 minutes of precondition is less than the loss of range without preconditioning. Not to mention its nice to get into a warm car on a cold day.

I'd be surprised if Lucid is different. Sure, a cold battery will get you going when necessary. But it's better overall to precondition for drives - the colder it is, the more it helps.
 
Nunya said:
Apparently (although I have no stats) the energy expended for 15 minutes of precondition is less than the loss of range without preconditioning. Not to mention its nice to get into a warm car on a cold day.
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Question for Lucid owners: Battery preconditioning and warming interior of car; requires to seperate actions, correct?

Battery preconditioning: using the app, go into the Charging section and tap "Precondition Battery".
To warm car: using the app, tap on "Climate" and then set target temperature.

I believe the semantics are a factor here for me; some call using the Climate control on the app, preconditioning.

The Gravity (and possibly the Air) battery cannot be preconditioned while connected to home charger (LCHCS)?
For me, the "Precondition Battery" option in the car and the app appears only when charger is disconnected.
 
msaunders9430 said:
Question for Lucid owners: Battery preconditioning and warming interior of car; requires to seperate actions, correct?

Battery preconditioning: using the app, go into the Charging section and tap "Precondition Battery".
To warm car: using the app, tap on "Climate" and then set target temperature.

I believe the semantics are a factor here for me; some call using the Climate control on the app, preconditioning.

The Gravity (and possibly the Air) battery cannot be preconditioned while connected to home charger (LCHCS)?
For me, the "Precondition Battery" option in the car and the app appears only when charger is disconnected.
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All correct. On the charger, the BMS manages the temperatures for optimal charging. That’s why you can plug in while still preconditioning; it just takes over. But while plugged in to an L2, you wouldn’t want the battery to change its temps.
 
borski said:
All correct. On the charger, the BMS manages the temperatures for optimal charging. That’s why you can plug in while still preconditioning; it just takes over. But while plugged in to an L2, you wouldn’t want the battery to change its temps.
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Interestingly, when plugged in (home charger) the option to precondition disappears from the app. So if you want to warm the battery while plugged in, for a long (cold) trip it appears you’d first have to unplug .
 
Westchester Air said:
Interestingly, when plugged in (home charger) the option to precondition disappears from the app. So if you want to warm the battery while plugged in, for a long (cold) trip it appears you’d first have to unplug .
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Why would you first have to unplug.

I believe the solution to warming the battery before a long, cold trip is to schedule charging (the night before) to be completed just before the start of the trip. Based on what @borski
is saying, the BMS of the charger handles the pre-conditioning.

I recall a member posting that as their solution, just don't recall who and where.
 
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Interesting, and would like to hear more. With my Model 3, I will sometimes plug it in in the evening. It's done around 1am or so.

Its still plugged in, but no longer charging when I ask it to precondition. It does so without the need for me to unplug first.

I would think that is a common usage pattern.
 
Oh--seems like this thread should be in the "Charging" subforum.
 
hank-iv said:
Interesting, and would like to hear more. With my Model 3, I will sometimes plug it in in the evening. It's done around 1am or so.

Its still plugged in, but no longer charging when I ask it to precondition. It does so without the need for me to unplug first.

I would think that is a common usage pattern.
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The difference seems to be the charger does the pre-conditioning when plugged into the Gravity. You can't select pre-condition when a charger is connected.
 
On a cold winter day, I'd be parking the Gravity on my driveway outside (no garage here at Lake Tahoe). It'd be nice to charge late at night when electricity rates are lowest, but still be able to warm the battery up with power from the charging cable before heading off on a trip. But sounds like that's not actually possible to do? Or maybe pre-warming the cabin is effectively heating the battery as well?
 
DS9 said:
Since the weather has chilled I charge to 70% overnight and then change the slider to 80% an hour before I leave. Additionally, I turn on climate 10 minutes before I'm scheduled to leave.
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Agreed. This was my work around as well. It's a little irritating though. I think the theory is that the battery doesn't need to be pre-conditioned if already charging, but I too usually charge around 1am and am typically done in an hour or two. So..I've done the same....slid from 70 to 80 a while before leaving.
 
Just an FYI...was 18F degrees by me this morning. My Air was parked outside and plugged in. Had charged just after midnight to 75%. At 6am, I set it to charge by moving the slider to 85%. It actually took about 15 minutes before it even started to charge. It was "preconditioning to warm the battery for optimal charging". Once it started charging, it only added maybe 3%, but the objective was really to warm the battery anyway, not to get a higher charge.

Long story short, my 70 minute commute averaged about 3.1 m/kwh, pretty good I think, given the conditions LOL.....
 
Prior to yesterday I was averaging in the low 3's in 30 - 40 degree weather with preconditioning. Yesterday I went in for my annual eye exam - about 12 miles round trip with temperatures in the low 30's, rain and no preconditioning - I averaged 1.7 miles/kwh. Short trips in the cold with no preconditioning are definitely not good for efficiency.
 
Nunya said:
Generally speaking (as I'm not yet a Lucid owner yet) the first 20 to 30 miles or so on cold batteries gets horrid range until they warm up properly.
Click to expand...

I’m taking my first cold weather EV roadtrip this weekend. The charging infrastructure in TN is pretty rough. So I’m guessing I should precondition before we hit the road to make sure to maximize my battery on the trip?
 
Westchester Air said:
Just an FYI...was 18F degrees by me this morning. My Air was parked outside and plugged in. Had charged just after midnight to 75%. At 6am, I set it to charge by moving the slider to 85%. It actually took about 15 minutes before it even started to charge. It was "preconditioning to warm the battery for optimal charging". Once it started charging, it only added maybe 3%, but the objective was really to warm the battery anyway, not to get a higher charge.

Long story short, my 70 minute commute averaged about 3.1 m/kwh, pretty good I think, given the conditions LOL.....
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Aren't you concerned that only 3% was added instead of the 10% you set to be obtained?

Any idea why less energy was added? Ran out of time to wait?
 
msaunders9430 said:
Aren't you concerned that only 3% was added instead of the 10% you set to be obtained?

Any idea why less energy was added? Ran out of time to wait?
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I read it as '...before I had to leave'
 
borski said:
I read it as '...before I had to leave'
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Yes... @borski has it right. The point was just to get the battery warmed up.

Honestly, I feel like some of this is pretty random LOL. This morning, the temps only dropped to 31F, but I charged for longer and to @msaunders9430 point, got the full 10% extra. Took the same drive and got basically the same 3.2mi/KwH I did the day before. (Probably worse traffic...)

The best you can do is try to do the right thing (warm the battery one way or another) if you can. The rest, cold(er) temps, more traffic, rain/wind all go into some giant black hole and your performance comes out the other end.

The ongoing lesson...the KwH can be interesting for those of us that like to crunch numbers, but ENJOY the car and don't worry too much about that stuff unless you're hyper-mile-ing your way home after a long trip :).
 
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