CT Preconditions for 100+ miles

[Spuzzz]

Just took a mini road trip. Left in cooler weather … say 45f and the truck was parked outdoors all night before. The moment I entered my nav destination, a supercharger was chosen about 130 miles away, and it started preconditioning immediately. It preconditioned the entire 2 hour drive. I hadn’t observed this behavior in my model 3 (but I don’t leave it parked out of garage). Seemed kind of wasteful to spend all that energy keeping the battery warm for 2 hours but what do I know? (Perhaps I should have set a scheduled departure will try that next time). Efficiency was pretty bad compared to lifetime but this is my first cool weather trip and maybe it would have been worse had it not preconditioned that way. Any insights/opinions? There’s no problem here I’m just a nerd who likes to understand how things work.

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[mark555055c]

Did you precondition before leaving? If not, that is something you definitely want to do in cold weather.

There is a lot more battery density on the CT also, so it will take longer in general.

 

[aeroguy]

Just took a mini road trip. Left in cooler weather … say 45f and the truck was parked outdoors all night before. The moment I entered my nav destination, a supercharger was chosen about 130 miles away, and it started preconditioning immediately. It preconditioned the entire 2 hour drive. I hadn’t observed this behavior in my model 3 (but I don’t leave it parked out of garage). Seemed kind of wasteful to spend all that energy keeping the battery warm for 2 hours but what do I know? (Perhaps I should have set a scheduled departure will try that next time). Efficiency was pretty bad compared to lifetime but this is my first cool weather trip and maybe it would have been worse had it not preconditioned that way. Any insights/opinions? There’s no problem here I’m just a nerd who likes to understand how things work.

Gradual temperature changes will allow the system to be more efficient, especially with heat pumps. You could switch over to service mode and take a look at the pack temps and coolant flow to see what temps it’s targeting.

What was your state of charge on departure? Did navigation pick the charger? 130 miles seems overly conservative unless that was a planned stop for a haircut.

 

[CyberGus]

In my experience, the display always shows "Preconditioning..." when the selected destination is a SuperCharger. I assume it is smart enough to avoid wasting energy. You should be able to check the Wh/mi figures for the trip.

It might even be as simple as letting the battery heat itself by forgoing any active cooling, which would actually save energy!

 

[Jackmaine]

I drove 45 minutes today at about 45 degrees and the battery never got warm(snowflake). Overnight temperatures about freezing. Got the truck in Mid-October and have only driven without a snowflake during a record warm spell. Maybe coldblooded.

 

[Spuzzz]

Gradual temperature changes will allow the system to be more efficient, especially with heat pumps. You could switch over to service mode and take a look at the pack temps and coolant flow to see what temps it’s targeting.

What was your state of charge on departure? Did navigation pick the charger? 130 miles seems overly conservative unless that was a planned stop for a haircut.

yeah it was pretty much the only sc before my destination. I still had 50+% when I arrived at charger…it was the only choice.

 

[Spuzzz]

Did you precondition before leaving? If not, that is something you definitely want to do in cold weather.

There is a lot more battery density on the CT also, so it will take longer in general.

Nope…lesson learned will do

 

[MyOtherTruck]

Is there another way to precondition? It is annoying to schedule it. My schedule changes by the hour. Sometimes I dont know I am leaving until 30mins prior. Would be nice to have a "start conditioning" now button...

 

[aeroguy]

Is there another way to precondition? It is annoying to schedule it. My schedule changes by the hour. Sometimes I dont know I am leaving until 30mins prior. Would be nice to have a "start conditioning" now button...

Just reset/bump the charge level and turn on climate control. That’ll wake things up and start some conditioning but you won’t get a whole lot in 30min if it’s cold soaked.

 

[Defiant]

Just took a mini road trip. Left in cooler weather … say 45f and the truck was parked outdoors all night before. The moment I entered my nav destination, a supercharger was chosen about 130 miles away, and it started preconditioning immediately. It preconditioned the entire 2 hour drive. I hadn’t observed this behavior in my model 3 (but I don’t leave it parked out of garage). Seemed kind of wasteful to spend all that energy keeping the battery warm for 2 hours but what do I know? (Perhaps I should have set a scheduled departure will try that next time). Efficiency was pretty bad compared to lifetime but this is my first cool weather trip and maybe it would have been worse had it not preconditioned that way. Any insights/opinions? There’s no problem here I’m just a nerd who likes to understand how things work.

I’ve noticed similar behavior on mine as well. I’ve noticed on some trips it has used so much energy preconditioning the battery that the amount of time saved was more in the seconds than even minutes.

So if I noticed that it’s starting to precondition significantly before I get to a supercharger I change my navigation to a manual waypoint at or near the supercharger and remove all charge stops. For me, saving three minutes isn’t really worth the extra energy and the excess noise that it makes.

 

[ChiTownCT]

Is there another way to precondition? It is annoying to schedule it. My schedule changes by the hour. Sometimes I dont know I am leaving until 30mins prior. Would be nice to have a "start conditioning" now button...

Agreed, my truck was snowflaked all day today here in Illinois.

 

[AlmostHuman]

I’ve noticed similar behavior on mine as well. I’ve noticed on some trips it has used so much energy preconditioning the battery that the amount of time saved was more in the seconds than even minutes.

So if I noticed that it’s starting to precondition significantly before I get to a supercharger I change my navigation to a manual waypoint at or near the supercharger and remove all charge stops. For me, saving three minutes isn’t really worth the extra energy and the excess noise that it makes.

The only reason I would not do this is part of the reason it warms the battery is to protect it while Supercharging. They found that DC fast charging cold batteries damages them more, causes micro fractures in some of the materials. It may not be enough to truly matter over the lifespan of the battery depending on how long you plan to keep it. I will always allow it to do whatever it thinks is needed.
I will say that the Cybertruck seems to be way more protective of its battery than our 2020 X. See the snowflake icon more often for sure. They can both be in the garage for the same amount of time without charging and the Cybertruck will have “Less energy availability due to cold battery” when the X has full energy available.

 

[Thunderstrike44]

Yeah my CyberTruck is only a week old in my possession and its been 30-40 deg everyday here and I see the snow flake every morning. Is it really true you only need to be concerned for charging reasons? And is it only for fast charging not Tier 1 or 2?
I also agree on the preconditioning, I have yet to get mine to do it, it would really be nice to just have a button to say "Precondition now"

 

[Spuzzz]

…I will say that the Cybertruck seems to be way more protective of its battery than our 2020 X. See the snowflake icon more often for sure. They can both be in the garage for the same amount of time without charging and the Cybertruck will have “Less energy availability due to cold battery” when the X has full energy available.

Thank you this is exactly the kind of insight I was hoping for. Makes complete sense.

 

[carsly]

With my Model Y and Cybertruck both parked outside overnight here in NJ most mornings the Cybertruck will be snowflaked, even with scheduled preconditioning and it plugged in all night. Meanwhile, the Model Y has yet to snowflake this season.

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