[ashman70]

This may seem like an obvious question, but can you have the car on while you charge, or turn the car on while you charge? Is there any risk of damage to the care or is it not generally recommended?

 

[bro1999]

Yes you can, and no, no harm whatsoever.

 

[XJ12]

do it all the time. but on L2 especially, if you're running the heat or air conditioner while in the car the battery will not get the full available wattage.

 

[ashman70]

Thanks!

 

[Vertiformed]

Powering up the car will let you see how much power is flowing into the battery, which can be useful to see.

It may however change the charging behavior; what happens is that if you power up the car, it thinks “oh, looks like we might be driving away soon!”. At a fast charger this may cause it to start trying to cool down the battery sooner, and at a Level-2 charger it may change the tapering behavior.

But overall, no harm at all.

 

[raitchison]

I do this routinely in the summer to get the car to cool the battery. Normally the car will cool the battery only at the end of a charge cycle (or if you plug in when you do not need a charge) but if you plug in and start charging with the car "on" and the passenger A/C running the car will cool the battery right away.

 

[NewsCoulomb]

One thing that I've observed is having the car on while charging appears to change the parameters for when the battery conditioning activates. Essentially, if the car is left off while charging (specifically DC fast charging), it will wait longer to cool the battery. Just an observation, but I'll have to map it out more thoroughly in the future.

 

[p7wang]

One thing that I've observed is having the car on while charging appears to change the parameters for when the battery conditioning activates. Essentially, if the car is left off while charging (specifically DC fast charging), it will wait longer to cool the battery. Just an observation, but I'll have to map it out more thoroughly in the future.

So if you want to baby your battery, would you then just plug in then set it to precondition the car?

 

[ZoomZoom]

I honestly don't think preconditioning your car while you charge it is going to be a difference in the battery health or longevity of your battery. It will put more cycles on the air conditioner though. I think most people are driving the car, charging it and enjoying it. But I'm the opposite, I've had my car for 10 months, haven't washed it yet.