12 V Battery normal operation

[Golf Cart Driver]

Hi all. I just got my FFE and am really excited. I am wondering if there is somewhere that I can go to look at the details of the 12 V battery normal operation?

I am really interested in how it is charged in specific circumstances such as with the 110v charger plugged in vs the 220V charger?

Additionally, I am wondering if either charger is plugged in and you ask the vehicle to "remote start", will the car precondition the climate control and the battery temperatures by using the plugged in charger power or will that take the energy from the 12 V battery?

I am under the impression that the 12 V battery charges from the main battery during driving operations?

Does this all sound right, and if so, is there anyplace to verify these specifics?


Thanks in advance. My wife and I are very excited and love driving our 1 day old (to us) FFE.

 

[dmen]

As you suspect, the 12v battery is charged by the high voltage battery when in ready-to-drive mode. I believe there is mention of this in the manual. Not sure where you can get more details on the charging behavior of the small battery. Maybe make friends with a Ford engineer? Seriously many of us would love to get our hands on more technical info for this car but it just doesn't seem to be available. So we make educated guesses, glean from the manual and our conversations with service techs, etc.
Anyway the 12v does not charge when the car is plugged, whether on 120v or 240v.
So make sure you don't accidentally leave the car in accessory mode, as you can find many posts here recounting how owners found their FFEs with dead 12v after such oversights.

When you remote start or go-time start, the climate and battery conditioning will run off the plug alone if it can. If climate needs more power (heating is an energy hog, takes ~5kW so more than the 120v can provide), it pulls extra from high voltage battery, not 12v. The small battery runs the usual things- interior/exterior lighting, entertainment, seat warmers.

If you have a go-time set and you aren't plugged in, the car will skip the go-time. I can't remember if the car allows you to remote start with key fob or myfordmobile if it isn't plugged in. If it does, it definitely uses high voltage battery power, not 12v. I wouldn't recommend doing this though since the batteries will condition in a few minutes of driving and both a/c and heat get to set point very fast in this car. It would just be a waste of precious energy, so only do it if range is not a concern.

 

[Golf Cart Driver]

Thank you very much. That is helpful.

 

[AireV]

can't remember if the car allows you to remote start with key fob or myfordmobile if it isn't plugged in. If it does, it definitely uses high voltage battery power, not 12v...

Yes, FFE can be remote started either with key fob or myfordmobile.com when the car is not plugged in. When it does, the car draws electricity from the high voltage main battery.
Obviously, the distance within which you can use the key fob is limited. I use myfordmobile app in my smartphone regularly to remote start the car to lower the interior temperature before I get to it in southern California climate. Yes, I lose range but it is a nice feature in a situation where the cost of losing range is not so important.