BEV climate control disabled during "Quick" (DCFC) charging - dangerous?

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If So Equipped

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I cannot get the AC or heater to work during quick charging. The Clarity BEV is obviously of two minds about it, since it ramps up the fan in pathetic anticipation of the AC or heat. First noticed last month on long trip home from dealer - it was 100 degrees outside; the car was starting to heat up rapidly so I tried to turn on the AC and got - the fan. Last night it was in the 40's as I was trying to charge (took almost an hour), and I really wanted some heat since there was nowhere nearby to hang out. Our previous BEV (and PHEV) did not do this - you could run heat or AC during charging. The Clarity behavior could be dangerous if one falls asleep thinking the AC is going to kick in, and the car gets to 130 degrees. The assumption is that this is how the car was designed; the hope is that the car is defective and can be fixed.
 
Not quite sure I understand the scenario. Isn’t this exactly what preconditioning is designed to do—run the heater or air conditioning to get the car to a comfortable temperature? And preconditioning certainly works while the car is charging [on fast 240V charge].

Of course the car has to be off, and maybe that’s the issue, but preconditioning works perfectly well while you’re inside the car as I recall. (Though if you open the drivers door it stops, oddly).

Or am I mistaken and, like on 120 V charge, preconditioning even on 240V won’t work until the battery is full?


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Sorry, I don't understand preconditioning. This restriction happens when you are on a trip and charging the BEV at a public DCFC charger; you cannot turn the car fully on while charging (normal for every BEV I know of). Typically the driver is in the car or nearby. Our other EVs have allowed AC or heating in accessory mode while charging; the Clarity BEV does not seem to allow this.
 
Agree that if the car is turned off and charging, you may be able to precondition (via HondaLink app). If you don't open the driver's door, it shouldn't get interrupted (but I haven't tried this from inside the car).
 
ClarityDoc said:
Agree that if the car is turned off and charging, you may be able to precondition (via HondaLink app). If you don't open the driver's door, it shouldn't get interrupted (but I haven't tried this from inside the car).
Click to expand...
I have. It works.
 
To the OP:

If you don’t know preconditioning, using it might be the solution to your problem. This is a system for turning on the climate control to warm or cool the car to a comfortable temperature while you are not in it. I use this routinely for warming the car in the morning on a cold day. It should work while the car is charging on a 240V charger (or even when plugged into a 120v charger, though in this case only if the car is done charging).

A minor annoyance: it is designed for use when you’re not in the car. Therefore, if it gets some indication that you are in the car, it will turn off (I suppose assuming that you will take control of the climate at that point). Specifically , if you open the drivers door (other doors are OK), step on the brake pedal, or have the car in a mode other than OFF, it will not work/turn off. It MAY also be that you have to have left the climate control in the “auto” mode when you left the car though I’m not 100% percent sure about this.

In any case, to turn on: best is with the Honda link app, under “turn climate control on”. This can be done from any distance.

It can also be done with the key fob, per p119 of the Owner’s Manual: (sometimes takes a bit to turn on):


■ To turn on the system
1. Press the lock button.
- Some exterior lights flash.
2. Within about five seconds, press and hold the climate button.
-Some exterior lights flash.
-After a few seconds, some exterior lights
flash six times and the climate control
system is turned on.
■ To turn off the system
Press and hold the climate button.
-Some exterior lights flash and the climate
control system is turned off


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I understand your frustration.
Our Bolt can be charged while the car is running (so to speak), so you can set the heat or AC as you wish while waiting during charging.
Its a nice feature.
 
Thanks for the information. Today I did testing with the preconditioning feature while charging. It works as described above, for the HEATER. I could not get the AC to work at all; just the fan. Desired temp had been set to 65, interior was 81. The preconditioning in this case just ran the fan. Verified by starting the car afterwards and the AC came on, so it still works. When you precondition, what sets the target temperature? I could not get HondaLink to display interior temp in realtime, so had to cycle it to see fan had reduced the interior temp to 79. Car's instrumentation does not seem to show interior temp (though obviously it knows it).

Even so, I like to use Android Auto while waiting for the car to charge (can take 45 minutes or more) and sometimes use the windows or defrost. There are just so many little quirks to this car - at least I can get heat by preconditioning which seems to work well.
 
KentuckyKen has posted a nice chart showing what the external/internal temperatures have to be before preconditioning actually comes on. If I can find that I will repost.

However, as far as I can tell no one has figured out—once the preconditioning comes on-what temperature It seeks to achieve (a generic neutral temperature versus the last setting), Or how it decides whether to use air conditioning or just the fan.

It definitely will run air-conditioning under some circumstances-I know this after leaving my car in the parking lot in the sun and coming back to it having engaged preconditioning 20 minutes before. It is nice and cool.


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Thanks - helps a lot. No trip to shop needed. Guess the AC did not come on because it was below the 86 degree trigger. Outside was in the 60s. Too bad Honda didn't give drivers any control over the preconditioning parameters. The pages don't reference the BEV but I think you can just substitute "DCFC" for Level 2 charging and it works the same. It will take some adjustment for me to get used to not being able to control the cabin temp while using the nice accessories during charging. I am starting to wonder if maybe the engineers had a little too much sake in late night design sessions.
 
I know most people here understand BEV and DCFC, but for those who don't, the OP has the fully electric Honda Clarity, not the plug in hybrid that most people on the forum have. The DCFC is the LEVEL 3 fast charging only available at select locations, not Level 2 240v charging that we are familiar with. That is crazy if you can't run heat or AC when using a Level 3 DCFC! In many cases, people would be sitting in their car while it was charging, especially with the tiny battery of the Clarity Electric.
OP, how long does the Clarity take to charge on DCFC?
 
The official Clarity Electric charging time is 30 minutes from 0 to 80% on DCFC. I have come close to that rate (40kW) perhaps 4 times out of maybe 45 charging sessions. Due to the low voltage of the battery pack, it takes a lot of amps to get to 40kW. Plus the battery has to be pretty hot to get a good charge rate (opposite from Nissan Leaf), so we don't see good rates until the 3rd charge of a trip, typically. Our Clarity has been charged on 50,100,125,150, and 350A chargers. Max rate (for a few minutes) was 44kW at 135A on a 350A EA charger. There is always a 20% dropoff at 75% SOC, then another at 95%. I do not understand the Clarity DCFC charging algorithm. From 10% SOC to 90%, figure 1 hr. 1st charge, 45 min. second, 30 minute 3rd. Need to learn how to get battery temp reading to be able to predict charge time and speed.
 
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