Pre-conditioning cabin

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11thIndian

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
46
Hey Everyone. As we're getting into an early summer here in Canada, and knowing that AC is likely to be one of the biggest EV range killers- my question is:

If I'm hopping into the car to go for a drive, I take it it's worth the 5 minutes to pre-cooldown the car while I'm still plugged into my home charger, just like if I was doing an scheduled pre-condition via the MMI. Once the car is cool, then unplug and take off. That way AC is only maintaining temperature.

I guess what I'm asking is does the car actively pull from the plug until it's unplugged, or does the car ONLY pull from the battery. So when you pre-condition on a schedule, does it drain battery then recharge again?

Does that make sense or am I talking gibberish?

* edited to add, it really sucks we can't use our phones here in Canada to start AC/Heat in our house 5 minutes before we're ready to leave.
 
I haven't received my car yet, but climate control is possible without Audi Connect according to Audi Canada - you need to use the charge scheduling to do it. Maybe you can take a look? It should draw on the EV plug instead of depleting the on board battery. Check out the "MMI Connect" app and register your car at login.audi.com and let us know!
 
Climate control is available via the MMI here in Canada, unfortunately NOT available remotely via the app. The A3 apparently does not come with Audi Connect in the Great White North.

My dealer said his understanding is that the climate control pulls from the battery, not straight from the firehose when plugged in. So when you tell your car to do a pre-condition, I think it cycles thru turning on the AC/Heat, and then recharging the battery. Maybe someone here knows different, but that's my understanding so far.
 
That's a good point. 11thIndian, what trim level do you have? I've been told specifically by Audi Canada presales that climate scheduling is possible but only if you have Technik or the Nav added to Progressiv.
 
@srwhitney

Yes, I have the Technik trim package, so I have access to the pre-scheduled charging and pre-conditioning via the MMI. But it's not available via the Audi app, which is sucky.

But my original point was if you hop in the car and you're still plugged in, if you pre-condition the cabin in the heat of Summer, is it pulling that power directly from the plug, or is it pulling from the battery and then charging.
 
Pre-heating/cooling your car is meant to draw from the connection. Not entirely sure if this will work when plugged into a 110v outlet. Using a 240v it seems to work fine.
Once you unplug, the car will keep the setting for a little longer then shut down.

Note, if you used the heated seat and didn't turn it off before turning off the car. It will still be on the next time you start the car.
 
I can tell you that preconditioning runs, from my experience it does not seem to draw from the battery but I can't say 100%. I can tell that on a 240 connection (my wifi-enable Juicebox) that it draws approx 1.2 kW while it runs 5 minutes prior to the scheduled time until 10 minutes afterwards.



Ian
 
Thank you Ian.

I didn’t know if it only worked while connected to a 240 volt plug.

Glad to hear that it works on 110volt also.
 
Hopefully there have been some tweaks in 2018. None of the heated seats, steering wheel, nor rear view mirrors come on -even if I leave them on when I turn the car off :/



Ian
 
In my most recent experience, I'd say you actually get more pre-heat from 240. From looking at my Juicebox tracking, it seems it pulls 3.5Amps when on high heat. In my previous readings I had forgotten to turn up the desired temperature on the conditioning before turning off the car -it wasn't that cold out yet so I didnt notice.

This is another caveat.. you need to remember to set the pre-heating temperture before turning the car off. This gets me, I'll often blow low cool air on my drive to defog windows and not kill the battery, but before turning off the car I have to remember to flip the temp up.

I wonder if these settings could be tweaked on ODBeleven. I'm going to look in to that on Audiworld forums, they seem to be pretty active over there in those types of mods.

Ian
 
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