pre conditioning for non-tesla charging stations

[intrepidtoo]

When navigating to a non-tesla fast charger is there a way to get the car to start preconditioning the battery? Suggestions from the US to simply put in a nearby supercharger don’t really apply in Aus when you’re back o’Burke (or in Tassie)

 

[SPadival]

Initially, the DCFCs owned by the local council was on the map. But since they are paid and not free, they have since disappeared!

I guess, over time, due to Tesla’s selection criteria, only the free ones and ones with cost/kwh significantly lower than Tesla SCs will remain on the map.

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

 

[dronus]

When navigating to a non-tesla fast charger is there a way to get the car to start preconditioning the battery? Suggestions from the US to simply put in a nearby supercharger don’t really apply in Aus when you’re back o’Burke (or in Tassie)

As a side question, at what kwh would it be worthwhile preconditioning 25/50/100 etc.
I guess also there is no guarantee you will get that power when you get there.

On my recent Adelaide/Victoria/Adelaide trip the car preconditioned when i was using Tesla chargers, but didnt when i was using anything else. I didnt notice anything untoward going on.. on the colder mornings when i plugged in there was a message saying the car was warming the battery so it could charge, but that wasnt for very long (and i was using 50kw evie chargers). When i used the NRMA Chargefox Ultra Charger in Horsham it didnt give me that message, but it was hotter than the sun outside so if anything im guessing it was cooling (going by the sound of the fans)

 

[SageBrush]

And I can confirm from a recent drive that if a DCFC is not listed in the “Charging” section of the Nav, then manually navigating to it will not trigger preconditioning.

I was thinking about this because I have a midpoint charging stop on an upcoming trip that may not be listed, and I suspect the battery will still be cold upon arrival. One work-around is to pick a pre-conditioning aware stop en-route that is not going to be used, but will heat up the battery. It will not be useful to pre-condition entirely because the car will actively cool the pack afterwards but I think I'll be able to heat the pack up to 80-ish F and have it stay there until I reach my real stop. This strategy requires the driver have a way to monitor pack temp. I'll use OBD

If I can start my charge at 100 kW or so, the remainder of the pre-conditioning should happen pretty quick.

 

[doggy1]

As a side question, at what kwh would it be worthwhile preconditioning 25/50/100 etc.
I guess also there is no guarantee you will get that power when you get there.

Certainly not needed for 25kW DC charging. It used to be very frustrating at JOLT chargers when the car (LR in my case) was sucking 6.6kW to unnecessarily heat the battery. They fixed that with a software update last year so now there is no heating or preconditioning for 25kW chargers even in fairly cold (Australian) weather. I suspect there might still be preconditioning and heating for 50kW but hopefully it is small. I have monitored the OBD when charging at NRMA 50KW chargers and there has been no battery heating happening. However, those tests were all in summer and after a long run of at least 200km so things will likely be different in colder weather or without a "warmup" run at decent speed.

 

[SageBrush]

Certainly not needed for 25kW DC charging. It used to be very frustrating at JOLT chargers when the car (LR in my case) was sucking 6.6kW to unnecessarily heat the battery. They fixed that with a software update last year so now there is no heating or preconditioning for 25kW chargers even in fairly cold (Australian) weather. I suspect there might still be preconditioning and heating for 50kW but hopefully it is small.

If you use cabin heating on those days where pre-conditioning occurs, the net hit to your driving time and range is not large. This is true because each case uses electricity converted to heat. The difference is time shifting, and some efficiency differences

 

[dronus]

Certainly not needed for 25kW DC charging. It used to be very frustrating at JOLT chargers when the car (LR in my case) was sucking 6.6kW to unnecessarily heat the battery. They fixed that with a software update last year so now there is no heating or preconditioning for 25kW chargers even in fairly cold (Australian) weather. I suspect there might still be preconditioning and heating for 50kW but hopefully it is small. I have monitored the OBD when charging at NRMA 50KW chargers and there has been no battery heating happening. However, those tests were all in summer and after a long run of at least 200km so things will likely be different in colder weather or without a "warmup" run at decent speed.

Cool thanks,
I can confirm that a couple of weeks ago when i was in country victoria i was getting messages saying "heating the battery" when plugged in to a 50kw evie charger on a colder morning.

 

[Quickst]

if a DCFC is not listed in the “Charging” section of the Nav,

Correct, they have to be "qualified" (accredited in other words) by Tesla and available for selecton in the Tesla navigation.

I wonder if Tesla takes a small clip in return for visibility in the Tesla nav?

 

[Hairyman]

My only experience with a cold vs warm battery that I could actually notice a difference was with a 350kW ChargeFox unit. At the same battery SOC I could get up to 187kW warm vs 100kW cold.

I agree that for the slower chargers - 100kW or less - it seems to be a bit of a waste of time.