How to Precondition the Battery effectively in cold weather Gen 2?

[Doug]

Put it in the garage, that’s the best you can hope for to keep the battery relatively warm. Plan on losing a third of your range in winter. In fact, you’ll probably wipe out any gains in trying to keep the battery warm while you are driving by losing the warmth while driving down the highway cooling it off with the cold air sapping it out of the battery from below. That’s a long big battery hanging down there. Sadly it’s just a fact of EV’s in winter, be content you don’t live somewhere that gets really cold, like MN.
And if you don’t have a garage leave it plugged in while sitting outside. Tesla used to say a happy Tesla is a plugged in Tesla in winter

I do live in MN(We do get really cold) and yes the best thing you can do is keep it in a garage(preferably a heated garage). I usually get about a third less for efficiency in the winter sometimes less if it is extremely cold. Last winter during an unusually cold spell I pulled it in to charge while working out of town. It is always good to keep it plugged in as much as possible.

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[Rural1T]

I drive a G1 in Montana. I park outside at home all winter. The best trick I've found to "precondition" the battery in cold weather is to schedule a L2 charge so the charging completes 30 min or less prior to my planned departure time. Assuming a 3 hr or longer charge time, the battery temp is usually in the high 50°F range when I depart and my driving range is very close to the same as it is in warmer conditions.

 

[Jared2]

I drive a G1 in Montana. I park outside at home all winter. The best trick I've found to "precondition" the battery in cold weather is to schedule a L2 charge so the charging completes 30 min or less prior to my planned departure time.

That’s a very interesting idea…

not sure why they can’t just make a setting/button for this, but your approach sounds good.

 

[GA_Rivian]

I drive a G1 in Montana. I park outside at home all winter. The best trick I've found to "precondition" the battery in cold weather is to schedule a L2 charge so the charging completes 30 min or less prior to my planned departure time. Assuming a 3 hr or longer charge time, the battery temp is usually in the high 50°F range when I depart and my driving range is very close to the same as it is in warmer conditions.

Along the same lines, R1T in an unheated open shed in MT also. I default recharge to 75% overnight / off-peak hours when returning, then schedule 80% or 85% an hour or so before departure time as we don't drive every day. That makes it pre-heated on the "to town" portion of the drive, but doesn't help much with the return.

 

[THX1139]

Just got a RT1 Tri. Had the same question as this is a piece of cake to do in our Macan 4. Got it on the charger now prior to departure and hoping it will warm the battery up a bit when I head out to bump up charge level a few % abd preheat the cabin as it is below freezing here and we have a longish round trip with no charging planned.

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