Battery preconditioning for CCS-1?

[DonTom]

I have a 2018 Tesla Model 3 which I recently changed the charging ECU for CCS-1 support. Tested on all chargers, works fine except I have one question.

I know to navigate to Tesla Superchargers as that preconditions the battery, especially for cold days. Says on the screen when it is doing such.

But when I navigate to a CCS charger, I get no such messages about the battery preconditioning.

Is there a way to precondition the battery for a CCS charge?

IMO, it would be nice if we could do such manually instead if needing to use the navigation.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Supcom]

I have a 2018 Tesla Model 3 which I recently changed the charging ECU for CCS-1 support. Tested on all chargers, works fine except I have one question.

I know to navigate to Tesla Superchargers as that preconditions the battery, especially for cold days. Says on the screen when it is doing such.

But when I navigate to a CCS charger, I get no such messages about the battery preconditioning.

Is there a way to precondition the battery for a CCS charge?

IMO, it would be nice if we could do such manually instead if needing to use the navigation.

-Don- Reno, NV

As of now, the best you can do is to plan a trip to the nearest supercharger to the CCS site you are going to. This will cause the car to precondition. Depending on how close the SC is to your CCS site, the car may not fully precondition, but you may get some preconditioning benefit.

There is no manual preconditioning available.

 

[DonTom]

There is no manual preconditioning available.

It seems to me this would be a very simple thing to fix with an OTA update.

If there was a supercharger nearby, I would simply use it instead of CCS.

Fortunately, I only rarely charge my Tesla on the road. I was more curious than anything.

But thanks for the reply.

 

[Supcom]

It seems to me this would be a very simple thing to fix with an OTA update.

If there was a supercharger nearby, I would simply use it instead of CCS.

Fortunately, I only rarely charge my Tesla on the road. I was more curious than anything.

But thanks for the reply.

I do a fair amount of road tripping, and yes, at the current state of things, I would always use a supercharger over a CCS charger when there is a choice. It's both cheaper and more reliable. I see CCS chargers mostly as a backup in areas where superchargers have yet to reach, like SE Oklahoma.

 

[kilpatds]

There's also the aftermarket solution. S3XY commander plugs into your CAN bus and injects commands, and can inject the "precondition the battery" command. Get a button and hide it somewhere and now you have manual preconditioning

 

[DonTom]

I see CCS chargers mostly as a backup in areas where superchargers have yet to reach, like SE Oklahoma.

And US-50 here in NV.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[DonTom]

There's also the aftermarket solution. S3XY commander plugs into your CAN bus and injects commands, and can inject the "precondition the battery" command. Get a button and hide it somewhere and now you have manual preconditioning

Interesting, thanks.

But I wonder what the odds are of adding this needed feature in a Tesla OTA update someday. That day will probably be the day after I install the Commander.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Supcom]

Interesting, thanks.

But I wonder what the odds are of adding this needed feature in a Tesla OTA update someday. That day will probably be the day after I install the Commander.

-Don- Reno, NV

I don't think it's likely for Tesla to add a manual preconditioning control. If a CCS charging network ever gets it's act together and provides reliable sites, Tesla is more likely to add them the the nav planner and precondition automatically for them.

 

[DonTom]

I don't think it's likely for Tesla to add a manual preconditioning control.

Is that because Tesla thinks their owners are too stupid to use it correctly? That is about the only reason I can come up with for not having it available to be controlled manually.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Supcom]

Is that because Tesla thinks their owners are too stupid to use it correctly? That is about the only reason I can come up with for not having it available to be controlled manually.

-Don- Reno, NV

I don't think it's a matter of denigrating users. Tesla's design philosophy is to automate things over manual control.

 

[DuncanM]

Is that because Tesla thinks their owners are too stupid to use it correctly? That is about the only reason I can come up with for not having it available to be controlled manually.

-Don- Reno, NV

I think the 'official' reason is that Tesla is afraid that owners will activate preconditioning, then arrive at a CCS1 DCFC only to find it down and then, due to preconditioning power consumption, the Tesla no longer has enough range to make to an alternate charging location. However, in the EU, IIRC, Tesla has implemented preconditioning when the vehicle navigated to a non-Tesla DCFC.

 

[Supcom]

I think the 'official' reason is that Tesla is afraid that owners will activate preconditioning, then arrive at a CCS1 DCFC only to find it down and then, due to preconditioning power consumption, the Tesla no longer has enough range to make to an alternate charging location. However, in the EU, IIRC, Tesla has implemented preconditioning when the vehicle navigated to a non-Tesla DCFC.

In the EU, non-Tesla charging networks are reliable.

 

[DuncanM]

In the EU, non-Tesla charging networks are reliable.

Also a greater density of DCFC stations, so even with some down there are alternatives. However, in the last few months I have noticed that EA has improved their reliability considerably.

 

[DonTom]

I think the 'official' reason is that Tesla is afraid that owners will activate preconditioning, then arrive at a CCS1 DCFC only to find it down and then, due to preconditioning power consumption, the Tesla no longer has enough range to make to an alternate charging location. However, in the EU, IIRC, Tesla has implemented preconditioning when the vehicle navigated to a non-Tesla DCFC.

That confirms what I said. I would like to be able to decide for myself when the battery should be preconditioned and when it should and should not be used.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[DonTom]

Also a greater density of DCFC stations, so even with some down there are alternatives. However, in the last few months I have noticed that EA has improved their reliability considerably.

As EV-GO has done the opposite. Every EV-GO I have EVER used is now out of service. However, I understand they are removing all of their 50 KW CCS chargers. Some will be replaced with high power CCS chargers, and some will simply be removed. But if they are replacing any, they are sure taking their time to do such. Many important locations (such as Incline Village, NV) have been out of service for more than a year. And the Tesla Chargers next to those will be no good for CCS as they are Version two. Must be Version 3 or 4 (250 KW) to ever be compatible with CCS.

I wonder if Tesla will upgrade those. Then there will soon be no need for the EVGO there at all.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Earl]

Is that because Tesla thinks their owners are too stupid to use it correctly? That is about the only reason I can come up with for not having it available to be controlled manually.

-Don- Reno, NV

I suspect is is more warranty-related. My understanding is that higher temperatures are not good for battery life. If the time spent at higher temperatures is minimal (routing to a Supercharger), that won't affect battery life significantly and warranty can handle it. If folks can manually initiate battery pre-conditioning which increases the battery temperature, they may do so more often and when it is not needed. Extensive, possibly naively-motivated, use could accelerate battery degradation and Tesla would get bad press and have to pay out warranty claims.
Today, preconditioning will seldom help unless one is going to charge on a fairly fast DCFC, not the wimpy, 50 KW ones that make up the majority.
Today, also, 3rd party DCFCs are notoriously unreliable so Tesla doesn't want to route people to them or else, they might have to do a road-service tow to a working one if someone arrives, empty, only to find a station down.
I suspect that, when/if reliable 3rd party DCFCs start to emerge, the Tesla NAV will navigate to them and initiate pre-conditioning just as they do to Superchargers today.

 

[Genie]

I think the 'official' reason is that Tesla is afraid that owners will activate preconditioning, then arrive at a CCS1 DCFC only to find it down and then, due to preconditioning power consumption, the Tesla no longer has enough range to make to an alternate charging location. However, in the EU, IIRC, Tesla has implemented preconditioning when the vehicle navigated to a non-Tesla DCFC.

I don’t think Tesla puts that much thought into what owners experience when charging.

 

[MP3Mike]

Tesla has added the ability to to list third-party charges in the UI, but it doesn't seem they have started doing that in North America yet. (Or there aren't any chargers that meet the requirements to be listed.)

Improving Access to Third-Party Fast Charging | Tesla Support

Third-party fast chargers that meet our performance and reliability standards will be added to Tesla’s navigation automatically as Qualified Third-Party Chargers.

www.tesla.com

When drivers navigate to a Qualified Third-Party Charger, the battery automatically preconditions to arrive with an optimal temperature, reducing the amount of time it takes to charge.

Qualified Charging Station Requirements
To be considered a Qualified Charging Station, it must meet these conditions over a 60-day period:

1. At least one compatible charging connector
2. Frequently used by Tesla drivers at least once every four days
3. Average charge success rate is 90% or higher

 

[Supcom]

Also a greater density of DCFC stations, so even with some down there are alternatives. However, in the last few months I have noticed that EA has improved their reliability considerably.

They had better or they will be out of business.

 

[Supcom]

I don’t think Tesla puts that much thought into what owners experience when charging.

On the contrary, Tesla has put much thought and billions of dollars into making your charging a very boring experience. Drive up, plug in, go pee.