I guess if you entered the charger as a destination but did not drive to it, it would start to preheat for some time. It probably will stop after a while though. Worth a try
Life is too short!
Thank you for taking the time to write this. As you say, its not intuitive, but your explanation is very clear. I'm driving a day trip from the south east to Manchester next weekend and will try it outThanks for your kind words but there are many more knowledgeable people on the forum than me.
The short answer here is that it is not simple nor intuitive but there are a couple of things to bear in mind.
1. Preheating while on the road and heading for a charging location (en route or as a destination)
In this scenario the most effective way to achieve this is to use your Nav function and either add the charging location as your destination or as a stopover en route to your final destination.
Charging Planner (standard spec also) will provide the logic and calculations needed for Nav to manage the entire process.
If you enter your end destination into Nav ensure that you have the Porsche Charging Planner enabled (Nav - Route Options) which is generally a one time setting and is remembered for next use.
Once the destination is entered the Charging Planner will calculate whether you need to make a charging stop or not in order to ensure you have sufficient charge (to re-charge) at the end of your destination. This can be determined automatically by the charging planner or to a value that you have entered manually (in this example 25%). If I start my journey with 50% charge (SOC) and require 35% to get to my final destination Nav will plot a route indicating where I should charge and how long for to ensure I get to my end destination and that I arrive with 25% SOC.
Charging planner will look for DC charging locations that offer >= 50kW and will only use those locations which the Nav database provides i.e. there may be other locations (in fact most times there will always be) which Nav isn't aware of to add to your route. This can be an annoyance as you would expect each and every charging location to be listed so just be aware of that (these do get updated automatically from time to time).
If an alternative routing is selected then the Charging Planner will automatically adjust the drive mode to the route and will enable Normal or Range as it sees fit. This will be made obvious to you in the NAV screen. For each alternative route available each known charging location is listed along with the times needed to stop and charge. Once selected the 'magic of pre-heat / pre-conditioning' takes place and your battery will be optimised for charging at the nominated charging location to minimise the charge time and to keep within the predicted charging duration.
Additionally, if you select 'Edit Route' you can view details of each charging location listed where details such as the name, battery charge condition when reaching that location, arrival time at that location, distance to that location, charge duration and battery charge condition when reaching your final location.
Finally, you can add your own charging location by adding a Stopover which will appear as a blue flag (white flags for automatically added ones) on the route. These ones can be added from the provided search list or if you use Google to search for one. On the assumption that the Charging Planner recognises the destination as a charging station / location then the 'magic' of pre-heat / pre-conditioning will also occur.
Bear in mind that if you are just starting your journey and your charging location is only a few miles away then the pre-heat / pre-conditioning will likely not have time to complete. Obviously you can still charge but it may take longer depending on temp etc.
2. Setting Climate Control (departure timer)
Basic principle here is that you can set a pre-departure timer (either when on charge or not) and a pre-heated (or cooled interior) cabin.
This will raise the temperature of the battery simply because the battery (when not on charge) is being used to power the heat pump which naturally will heat the battery to a degree.
In my experience this doesn't make huge differences to the battery temp but is better if you leave on charge, set a departure timer and then use the car once the process is complete (otherwise the battery will start to cool down).
3. Drive like you stole it
This is a preferred method for some drivers and can be particularly effective in warmer climates and when in Sport or Sport Plus mode. Using the car in this way will clearly use a lot of energy resulting in a higher battery temperature.
4. The elephant in the room
This is the one thing that is fundamentally missing to make all of the above less of science experiment. There is no 'heat my battery now' button for reasons that we can only guess at but presumably for normal use the options above will achieve the desired result within reason and will be dependent on various other external factors beyond your control.
If you've not tried the Charging Planner method(s) mentioned above give them a whirl and this might just work out fine for you.
There will be variations to the above but in principle (and to my knowledge) this is how to pre-heat / pre-condition. I wouldn't get too uptight about it and just plan your journeys and trust the technology to get you to where you need to go (and back again). Living in UK will typically lead to 'not so warm a battery' given the ambient temperatures and time of year which means we can expect less range and longer stops at public charging locations.
