How long to pre-condition?

[rob@rar]

This

Set the precondition departure time in the app and the car will automatically start the process at the right time. Only worth doing if on grid, even at peak rate

If you watch the charger load you will see around 7kw at the start of preconditioning, dropping to 4-5kw when cabin is up to temp - around 5 minutes in. Mine takes another 25-35mins to heat the battery where the load will drop to around 1kw at the time it announces its preconditioned.

Not worth it for short or medium journeys, just warm the cabin up 5 minutes before you want to go. But on marginal range trips or where you will have to stop to charge enroute it can make a decent difference as the first 15mins are much more efficient and regen will be available sooner.

Thanks for the indication of how long it takes to warm the battery pack and what it is pulling from the grid. Much appreciated.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I’m assuming an extra 90 minutes journey time

Part of which will be the lunch stop that you probably had back in ICE days? We enjoy our food, when on holiday, so will stop for an hour for that reason (and it will get the car from 10% to 100%, but the 80% - 100% will probably take half of that! so not strictly necessary). So I have found that fuelling is 60 minutes lunch stop (or overnight somewhere that has a charger) and 3x 20 minute additional stops

There’s a Shell reCharge 22kw charger a few minutes from my place in Arc 1800, so hoping charging while I’m there will be easy

I would fast-charge before departure, if you can face getting up an hour early. My experience was that a 10AMP (might even be 16AMP on Schuko) charge , for a couple of hours before departure, and with car in [unheated] garage, didn't warm the (cold soaked) battery much, and coming home I had limited regen on the way down which dwindled to nothing (perhaps battery got cold again). All those free extra miles swapped for brake wear!

not sure about taking an extra wheel, it takes up so much space

I'm in MS and only 2 of us ... but 4-up and/or M3 and it would be tight ...

 

[rob@rar]

Part of which will be the lunch stop that you probably had back in ICE days? We enjoy our food, when on holiday, so will stop for an hour for that reason (and it will get the car from 10% to 100%, but the 80% - 100% will probably take half of that! so not strictly necessary). So I have found that fuelling is 60 minutes lunch stop (or overnight somewhere that has a charger) and 3x 20 minute additional stops



I would fast-charge before departure, if you can face getting up an hour early. My experience was that a 10AMP (might even be 16AMP on Schuko) charge , for a couple of hours before departure, and with car in [unheated] garage, didn't warm the (cold soaked) battery much, and coming home I had limited regen on the way down which dwindled to nothing (perhaps battery got cold again). All those free extra miles swapped for brake wear!



I'm in MS and only 2 of us ... but 4-up and/or M3 and it would be tight ...

Usually I pack sandwiches for the drive and just push on rather than stopping for lunch. Fuel & toilet stops normally provide enough of a break, so I’m hoping the extra time required for Supercharging will mean an even more relaxed drive than what I’ve been used to. I‘m in a MY, just me on the way down and two of us on the way back on this trip. Normally there’d be enough space for a spare wheel but I’ve got some extra luggage on the way out so not sure how it would all fit.

Hadn’t thought about limited regen coming down the hill with a cold battery pack. Arrgghh! So many wasted electrons. Wonder if that will affect my route planning as ABRP has me using very little battery % as I drive down from 1800m to about 400m for the first Supercharger?

 

[WannabeOwner]

Usually I pack sandwiches for the drive and just push on rather than stopping for lunch.

We did "press on and get there" when we were younger. We arrived knackered. its France ... worth stopping for a decent bit of nosh With the enforced stops for charging we now arrive far more refreshed than Fossil days, so hopefully you'll find that too. Its what all the "Take a break on long journeys" government funded adverts have been saying ... all my life!!

Wonder if that will affect my route planning as ABRP has me using very little battery % as I drive down from 1800m to about 400m for the first Supercharger?

Various options I expect ... but my first thought is to "start" the ABRP journey at the bottom of the hill, and tell it you have 90% and see where it wants you to charge. If you leave on 90% I would expect you would be at 90% at the bottom, if you have almost zero regen ... but if you wind up having regen available and arrive at bottom of hill at 99% then you've got an extra 30-40 miles in the tank / shorter first Supercharge,

My experience is in MS. It might be that the MY will have way better regen in very cold weather (with a bit of charging / whatever)

 

[Oxstock]

I pre-condition for about 5 mins if the car is cold. I created an Apple shortcut to do it, although in your case you may want to skip the last step.

View attachment 996558

Wouldnt this pre-condition the car based on temperature values rather than when you actually need to drive the car? And so, you'll be burning up battery juice at times when you're not even using the car?

 

[WllXM]

Wouldnt this pre-condition the car based on temperature values rather than when you actually need to drive the car? And so, you'll be burning up battery juice at times when you're not even using the car?

Nope. This is what the shortcut does.

How it’s triggered (in Automation) is different, you can set it based on a schedule, location, WiFi or Bluetooth pairing, plenty of options to choose from. Have a look in your iOS shortcuts app.

 

[garycat]

Wouldnt this pre-condition the car based on temperature values rather than when you actually need to drive the car? And so, you'll be burning up battery juice at times when you're not even using the car?

No, I just say "Hey Siri get the car ready" about 5 mins before I'm going out and its ready when I get in. It's a one-time thing, not running constantly.

 

[Oxstock]

No, I just say "Hey Siri get the car ready" about 5 mins before I'm going out and its ready when I get in. It's a one-time thing, not running constantly.

Does this work with Google Home/Google?

 

[WllXM]

Does this work with Google Home/Google?

Yes, you could make it work though third party integration, with IFTTT / Tessie, or HomeAssistant for instance.

 

[Oxstock]

Yes, you could make it work though third party integration, with IFTTT / Tessie, or HomeAssistant for instance.

Weird why in this day and age, Tesla dont just sort their sh*t out and integrate with someone like google.

Thanks all the same WIIXM.

 

[WllXM]

They're definitely late on that front, but as they've recently announced they developed a new third party API, I can see it arriving soon. (For a fee?)

 

[WannabeOwner]

I just say "Hey Siri get the car ready" about 5 mins before I'm going out and its ready when I get in. It's a one-time thing, not running constantly.

Will it turn off after a bit - i.e. if you don't leave? I've got caught out by that before ...

 

[WllXM]

Will it turn off after a bit - i.e. if you don't leave? I've got caught out by that before ...

You get alerts on your phone once it has reached your desired temperature as a reminder... For auto turn off, iirc the manual mentions 4 hours for auto turn off.

 

[WannabeOwner]

For auto turn off, iirc the manual mentions 4 hours for auto turn off.

There used to be (half a dozen years ago) an auto turn of (20 minutes would be my recollection, but I may be way off). Then it changed to STAY ON. My wife had scheduled "Pre-condition, Mon-Fri at 6AM" before setting off to work. I only know about stay-on 'coz after a software update I went out some time after Christmas to find the car toasty warm and checking TeslaFi it had been on for 4 days!

Obviously not a very backwards-compatible change ... maybe they've added a time limit back in again.