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Benefit of leaving the truck plugged in when the weather is cold?

2439 Views 22 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  ChasingCoral
Now that the weather has turned cold, every time I shut down the truck, I get a message on the screen that because of the outside temperature I should leave the truck plugged in.

My question is if I am not charging and have not set a destination time, what is the benefit, if any, to leaving the truck plugged in during cold weather?
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Keep in mind that leaving your vehicle plugged in when it is very hot or very cold allows the truck to prevent stress on the battery. Whereas the unplugged vehicle will still keep the battery temperatures out of the danger area, when you get in to go it still may be pretty cold. We can begin the argument of how much stress it puts to use the battery cold, however most experts agree that it does stress a lithium battery to use it cold.

Conversely, most modern EVS will use a little bit more power to keep the battery in the "happy" zone when it is plugged in. The "happy" zone is the threshold where the stress is zero or negligible when the vehicle is used at that temperature.

For the longest and happiest battery life, most manufacturers will tell you to keep the vehicle plugged in, especially in extreme temperatures.
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Probably overthinking, but I'm supposed to get my truck next week and then I'm leaving town for 4 days (without truck, so it will sit in driveway). Weather is supposed to be cold/semi-cold in DFW. Not sure I want to leave my truck plugged in for 4 days right after I get it and I'm not home in case something weird happens. That said, it's probably not an issue either way.

What would y'all do? Just charge it up before leaving town and let it sit in driveway for 4 days unplugged or leave it plugged in?
I have multiple EVs, I am a collector lol. Any EV I am not currently using, sits plugged in, even if it's just to a 110 outlet. They can sit for months while I'm traveling in one of the other EVs. Leaving them plugged in, even if it's just to 110, keeps the 12 volt batteries happy, keeps the high voltage batteries conditioned, and is the way most of these vehicles are designed to sit unless it's going to be for over 6 months.

If it is going to be over 6 months, most of the manufacturers give you another path to go, to include getting the tires off the ground.
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