Modern EVs have a function called pre-conditioning – a crucial function that you need to know about during the winter months. But what is pre-conditioning, what does it do and what is the secret function about pre-conditioning that everyone needs to know?
In essence, the primary function of pre-conditioning does exactly what its name suggests – it ‘pre-conditions’ the cabin of your car. Of most usefulness in winter and the colder months (although you can still use it in summer too), it means you can effectively programme the car to warm up the cabin to a pre-set temperature at a time when you normally leave your home.
That means that you don’t need to waste time scraping or demisting the front and rear windscreens before heading off to work on frosty morning, you can just jump in your car and go. Even better, some cars, such as our Polestar 2 will even also activate the heated seats and heated steering wheel if you wish too.
Obviously there’s a time saving function for you as a driver, but when it’s plugged in, it helps to preserve your range too. The reason is that the power for running the heater and heated seats will come via the charger, not from the car’s actual batteries, so you’re not eating into your range.
Yes, you’ll pay extra for that electricity, but unless it’s very cold, the pre-conditioning is likely to only require 1-3kW of power. And of course, you get the benefit of climbing into a nice warm car and not set off shivering while the heater gets up to temperature.
However, pre-conditioning isn’t busy just warming the cabin of your EV, it’s busy warming another part of the vehicle too – the batteries. As we explain here, an EV’s batteries perform best within a certain temperature window, so pre-conditioning also helps to pre-heat the batteries themselves so that they’re up to that temperature when you set off – again helping your range.
Of course, if the ambient temperature is low, then your battery will still need to work harder to remain in that range, but pre-conditioning can still help and, again, the electricity required to do so will come from the charper not from the car, helping to maximise your car’s range for the journey ahead.
