Cold weather battery tips

[new owner]

Nice
Thanks
I’ll just plan to charge at an EA to 80% or so before I let it sit overnight in deep cold

 

[The Gun]

I haven’t been able to find an answer to this question: Tom Moloughney in a recent article criticizing an F150 Lightning YouTuber (typical guy who gets cars to slam them to get clicks and then flips them for another one he probably can’t afford) who bashed the F150 for terrible winter range. He did a bunch of EV efficiency no-nos though. What Tom said were two things that caught my ear though. He said leaving the car plugged in keeps the battery warm even if it’s not charging, whereas leaving it unplugged cold-soaks the battery resulting in worse winter efficiency. Does the Lucid actually keep the battery warm by being plugged in even if not charging? Lucid basically recommends leaving the car plugged in all the time but I wasn’t sure if this is why. I feel like you’re wasting a lot of energy doing this because the 2kw phantom drain means the car is constantly recharging for no reason (leave car plugged in for 10 days and you’ve flushed 20kw or 15% SOC down the toilet). Also does pre-conditioning the battery while plugged in improve efficiency because then you’re driving a warmed up battery in cold weather? The Lucid doesn’t allow you to do this remotely, so you’d have to go out to the car and do it before unplugging. Hmmmm, time to experiment!

Notes from Great White North Air GT owner
Leave it plugged in - when in garage and hit charger on big screen - when cold this app asks for Pre Conitioning so always choose that. We have experienced some recent 15F cold and only minor issue top end of 80% charge is marginally lower when "cold"

Tesla Model S experience in -5F or -20C weather at Whistler during Polar Vortex
Unplugged lost 40-50km ~ 28 mi per night as the car/battery was not be allowed to drop below 42F or 6C so the battery drained big time as car heating worked hard. Expect the Lucid battery works same - does not like cold and there are limits - why it make sense to me to leave plugged in when in garage.

 

[eLUCID8]

It sounds like plugging in the car when cold may help with battery maintenance, presumably due to warming the battery in the background, but does anyone know if using scheduled charging has an impact? For example, could a cold battery still draw power from the power cord outside of a scheduled charging window? Or is all electric flow to the car disabled outside charge windows?

 

[segbrk]

It sounds like plugging in the car when cold may help with battery maintenance, presumably due to warming the battery in the background, but does anyone know if using scheduled charging has an impact? For example, could a cold battery still draw power from the power cord outside of a scheduled charging window? Or is all electric flow to the car disabled outside charge windows?

I honestly don't know if it's battery conditioning or buggy scheduling, but my car does randomly start pulling power outside of its scheduled time. Usually only goes for less than a minute, so it doesn't make much of a difference on my bill.

 

[kerplunk]

If keeping it plugged in still results in "power limited due to low temperature the" then is plugging in really keeping the battery warm?

I just do it anyway but I always wondered.

 

[Snafu]

If keeping it plugged in still results in "power limited due to low temperature the" then is plugging in really keeping the battery warm?

I just do it anyway but I always wondered.

Roads were too crappy to want to drive the LUCID the past couple days, and I kept it plugged in. My garage is not heated but is insulated, and for the third time this winter I have seen the blue coloring and warning of limited power due to cold, even as the car has been at 80% when I got in.

 

[Dhimiter]

I haven’t been able to find an answer to this question: Tom Moloughney in a recent article criticizing an F150 Lightning YouTuber (typical guy who gets cars to slam them to get clicks and then flips them for another one he probably can’t afford) who bashed the F150 for terrible winter range. He did a bunch of EV efficiency no-nos though. What Tom said were two things that caught my ear though. He said leaving the car plugged in keeps the battery warm even if it’s not charging, whereas leaving it unplugged cold-soaks the battery resulting in worse winter efficiency. Does the Lucid actually keep the battery warm by being plugged in even if not charging? Lucid basically recommends leaving the car plugged in all the time but I wasn’t sure if this is why. I feel like you’re wasting a lot of energy doing this because the 2kw phantom drain means the car is constantly recharging for no reason (leave car plugged in for 10 days and you’ve flushed 20kw or 15% SOC down the toilet). Also does pre-conditioning the battery while plugged in improve efficiency because then you’re driving a warmed up battery in cold weather? The Lucid doesn’t allow you to do this remotely, so you’d have to go out to the car and do it before unplugging. Hmmmm, time to experiment!

I would definitely get better overall efficiency on a road trip if the car had been plugged in before getting going, leading me to believe that the battery plugged is indeed kept at an ideal operating temperature. This was especially noticeable on shorter trips.

 

[Electrified]

I got the first two screens yesterday; then the car would not release the plug and then about 10 seconds after I entered the car she went dark. In any event the car came too about 30 minutes later and I moved it to the heated toy barn. Tonight the car is braving the elements while plugged in with no issues so far, and I'm hoping for no issues come 6:00 tomorrow morning.

I just woke the car up and it started charging, 1KW to start and then progressed to 10 KW in less than a minute.

 

[Snafu]

My garage is at 38 degrees, and the car has been plugged in for the past two days. I'm not sure how well this is actually protecting the battery.

 

[chucky0731]

Tesla Super Chargers down in freezing Chicago weather:

 

[joec]

Yes, even the “perfect” Supercharger network is no match for the extreme cold.

 

[Electrified]

No issues last night or this morning and the commute to work went off without a hitch, and then when I tried charging at my office I got this.

 

[Electrified]

I'm going to try to pre-condition for 20 minutes and see what happens.

 

[new owner]

I've Had that error message before on occasion. Do a soft logo reset takes 2 min then plug in

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Yes, even the “perfect” Supercharger network is no match for the extreme cold.

I get the battery chemistry is temperature sensitive, but why the chargers?
This is a bit mysterious to me. Are the relays inside the boxes freezing shut?

I thought wires like the cold = they become superconductive. What's inside the chargers that is cold sensitive?

I can't wait to read more on this.

 

[Electrified]

The pre-con didn't help

 

[Lucken]

What we need is a bit of ‘global warming’.

 

[new owner]

The pre-con didn't help

Try lucid logo reset
Then plug in

 

[Electrified]

Try lucid logo reset
Then plug in

I tried that and it did not work.
Then we did this:
My problem is the charger, we have two SemaConnect chargers here at my office so I swapped chargers with a Polestar and the Lucid took the charge, and the Polestar did not charge after the swap. The good news is at 70% battery I have plenty of juice to get to my home charger.

Now I get to see how Blink responds to covering an issue with a SemaConnect charger?

 

[Electrified]

What we need is a bit of ‘global warming’.

Ahh the old it's cold in my backyard so WTF are people talking about global warming for?