Warming the Battery while in route to a fast charger?

[NJ-Taycan]

I’m hoping for some validation so I can understand if what I am experiencing is within normal limits and behavior.

It finally got a little cold here in New Jersey. When driving today the outside air temperatures were in the high 40s and my battery temperature was 55°. I entered an Electrify America charging station into the navigation system using the chargers option (did not want to just enter the address) and filtering for 150 kW and above, and selected a location and started to navigate. Since I had a longer drive I was paying careful attention to the speed at which the battery preconditioned and warmed up. It seemed that in the first 10 minutes of driving the battery went from 55° to 63°, a gain of 8° in about 10 minutes time. After 10 minutes it seemed it was gaining 1° of temperature every 45 to 50 seconds. Is this normal or should I be expecting a faster warm up time.

if this is the normal speed for warming, then it seems short drives to the charger would have no benefit. Thinking that way, could I power up my Taycan on the driveway, enter a charger station into the NAV system and let the car sit parked for 30 minutes to warmup the battery? Asking as the closest Electrify America is less than 3 miles from my home.

Thanks for the feedback!

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[JRNJTAYCAN]

Hi Chuck, it's Joe also in NJ. I had the same issue when I first got my car back in March and the days were cooler. I charge at my local Target which is only 10 mins from my house. The short drive never gave the batteries a chance to warm up much. I would charge the car for 29 mins then unplug and start a new session which needed about 12 more mins of charging to get me to 85%. In the warmer months my car would charge from 10 to 85% in about 18 mins on avg. The cold weather definitely makes a difference when charging and you will see your range drop as well.
Hope you are enjoying the green machine!

 

[NJ-Taycan]

Thanks for the tip Joe. With our free charging, do you simply re-connect to the same charger, or move the vehicle to another open charger so as not to be billed for usage? Does your car warm up at the same speed as mine, or have you simply given-up on entering the charger address in the NAV due to the close proximity? Hope all is well buddy!

 

[outie]

I‘ve always unplugged and plugged in for a new session without issue. Currently EA chargers are giving free sessions though so it doesn’t matter how long you plug in. They are upgrading the billing system or something. Been going on since last month.

 

[JRNJTAYCAN]

Thanks for the tip Joe. With our free charging, do you simply re-connect to the same charger, or move the vehicle to another open charger so as not to be billed for usage? Does your car warm up at the same speed as mine, or have you simply given-up on entering the charger address in the NAV due to the close proximity? Hope all is well buddy!

All is well thanks! I trust the same is true for you.
As to charging, unplug at 29 mins after the charger resets itself simply plug back in for another 29 mins if needed.It does not matter if you use the same charger or move to another as long as your off in 29 mins.
I do still tell the Nav system I am heading to a charger, what I have been doing is going to the car wash first or hitting Wawa just to give the batteries a chance to warm up more. It is amazing how fast the car will charge if you are under 20% and the batteries hit 100 degrees when you arrive.
Hope to see you around sometime.

 

[Scandinavian]

I’m hoping for some validation so I can understand if what I am experiencing is within normal limits and behavior.

It finally got a little cold here in New Jersey. When driving today the outside air temperatures were in the high 40s and my battery temperature was 55°. I entered an Electrify America charging station into the navigation system using the chargers option (did not want to just enter the address) and filtering for 150 kW and above, and selected a location and started to navigate. Since I had a longer drive I was paying careful attention to the speed at which the battery preconditioned and warmed up. It seemed that in the first 10 minutes of driving the battery went from 55° to 63°, a gain of 8° in about 10 minutes time. After 10 minutes it seemed it was gaining 1° of temperature every 45 to 50 seconds. Is this normal or should I be expecting a faster warm up time.

if this is the normal speed for warming, then it seems short drives to the charger would have no benefit. Thinking that way, could I power up my Taycan on the driveway, enter a charger station into the NAV system and let the car sit parked for 30 minutes to warmup the battery? Asking as the closest Electrify America is less than 3 miles from my home.

Thanks for the feedback!

You have to remeber that the battery weighs about 700 kg or so. To heat that mass a lot on a 10 minute drive would require a lot of energy. I think the power you use for preheating is in the region of 5-6 kW so that would not do a lot in 10 minutes.

I guess you have got it as good as it gets without preheating the car when plugged in at your home. You could try to set a timer for pre-heating to see if that gives you some help. It might give a bit more heat in the battery before you start, but not the same as the preparation for a 150kW+ charging session.

 

[W1NGE]

I’m hoping for some validation so I can understand if what I am experiencing is within normal limits and behavior.

It finally got a little cold here in New Jersey. When driving today the outside air temperatures were in the high 40s and my battery temperature was 55°. I entered an Electrify America charging station into the navigation system using the chargers option (did not want to just enter the address) and filtering for 150 kW and above, and selected a location and started to navigate. Since I had a longer drive I was paying careful attention to the speed at which the battery preconditioned and warmed up. It seemed that in the first 10 minutes of driving the battery went from 55° to 63°, a gain of 8° in about 10 minutes time. After 10 minutes it seemed it was gaining 1° of temperature every 45 to 50 seconds. Is this normal or should I be expecting a faster warm up time.

if this is the normal speed for warming, then it seems short drives to the charger would have no benefit. Thinking that way, could I power up my Taycan on the driveway, enter a charger station into the NAV system and let the car sit parked for 30 minutes to warmup the battery? Asking as the closest Electrify America is less than 3 miles from my home.

Thanks for the feedback!

This is entirely normal behaviour as the car calculates the distance to the EVSE selected and monitors this making adjustments as necessary such that the optimum temperature can be reached by the time you get to the charging location.

Obviously if you choose a location that is a mile (or a short distance) from your home and it is 0 deg C ambient with a chilly battery this will not (ordinarily) provide sufficient time to precondition the battery as there will be a trade-off between battery consumption required to heat in the first instance and the relative distance to the charging location.

It does heat reasonably quickly in my experience as long as you operate within sensible parameters (i.e. a sensible distance away).

Remember also that if you're using an ultra fast EVSE then heating is performed quite quickly during the early part of the charging session.

Your EA station is too close to worry about preconditioning.

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