vollmarj
Member
- First Name
- Jesse
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2021
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 48
- Location
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Vehicles
- None
- Occupation
- Software
- Thread starter
- #1
We just returned home from a week long 3400 mile road trip with our R1T. This is our first EV. The TLDR; the truck performed exceptionally well and charging 26 times was no hassle at all.
My wife and I live in Ann Arbor, MI. We got our R1T about two months ago and decided to take it on a road trip to a wedding in Colorado. I wanted to see what a long distance trip in an EV would be like and I wanted to get it on some trails in the mountains.
The trip was smooth with zero serious incidents. We mostly used the built in navigation to plan our charging stops with some occasional help from plugshare. One gripe with the navigation is that you can't add a stop along the route. For the most part we agreed with the planned charging stops. There was once or twice on the entire trip that we decided to override the charging location and do something that seemed more efficient.
We did have one time where trusting the range estimate gave us a scare. We were crossing Kansas on a long stretch of highway with very few fast charging options. After about an hour of driving I started to notice that our range seemed to be declining much faster than the distance we were covering. I started monitoring more closely and sure enough our range was dropping aggressively. The strong headwinds across the plains were really decreasing our efficiency. A quick check on plugshare confirmed that we had no other fast charging options between us and our planned destination. It was clear we were not going to make it if we just kept on cruising at 75mph. We ended up drafting off a semi going a little slower and saw efficiency pick up from 1.6 miles per kWh to 2 miles per kWh. By time we rolled up to the dispenser, we were at 3 miles of range. Yikes.
Unfortunately, my off-roading experience wasn't all that good. Most of the trails I wanted to go on were closed for no apparent reason. The two trails we did climb on were extremely rocky and in areas with no cell reception. I don't have a spare... I've tried my best to get one from Rivian, but they have a shortage and absolutely refuse to let me buy one. I couldn't enjoy the trails because I was too nervous about getting a puncture and being stranded without any way to do a repair.
Overall, charging was very smooth. The most problematic fast charging experience was having to wait about 15 minutes for a dispenser to open up. Seriously. We stopped to charge 26 times and nearly zero issues. Most stops did have at least one dispenser down for maintenance, but it was no problem because we could just plug into another one. One time a charger seemed to stop because the cable overheated (it was hot to the touch). We simply unplugged and plugged into the other one. Many of the NFC readers were not functioning so we had to spend the extra 20 seconds opening the app to initiate payment a few times. No big deal.
We attempted to charge overnight at hotels with mixed results. My wife has Diamond status with Hilton and we booked their properties that claimed to have EV charging. The first stay was at a Tru by Hilton in Omaha. We rolled up to the station and plugged in no problems. The next one was a Home2 Suites. It only had Tesla stations and they were both blocked by ICE vehicles. After that we got a lot more nervous and gave up on trusting the "EV charging" badge that the hotel advertised.
One night we stayed at an RV park and used the portable charger to plug into the 50a service. This was an overly expensive way to charge. We paid $85 for the site and then another $50 for a tent site because they wouldn't allow us to tent on an RV site. Had we not done this, our cost per mile would have been $0.12 not $0.15.
Here are all the charging stats:
Finally, a few minor gripes about the vehicle now that I've got over 5k miles in it:
My wife and I live in Ann Arbor, MI. We got our R1T about two months ago and decided to take it on a road trip to a wedding in Colorado. I wanted to see what a long distance trip in an EV would be like and I wanted to get it on some trails in the mountains.
The trip was smooth with zero serious incidents. We mostly used the built in navigation to plan our charging stops with some occasional help from plugshare. One gripe with the navigation is that you can't add a stop along the route. For the most part we agreed with the planned charging stops. There was once or twice on the entire trip that we decided to override the charging location and do something that seemed more efficient.
We did have one time where trusting the range estimate gave us a scare. We were crossing Kansas on a long stretch of highway with very few fast charging options. After about an hour of driving I started to notice that our range seemed to be declining much faster than the distance we were covering. I started monitoring more closely and sure enough our range was dropping aggressively. The strong headwinds across the plains were really decreasing our efficiency. A quick check on plugshare confirmed that we had no other fast charging options between us and our planned destination. It was clear we were not going to make it if we just kept on cruising at 75mph. We ended up drafting off a semi going a little slower and saw efficiency pick up from 1.6 miles per kWh to 2 miles per kWh. By time we rolled up to the dispenser, we were at 3 miles of range. Yikes.
Unfortunately, my off-roading experience wasn't all that good. Most of the trails I wanted to go on were closed for no apparent reason. The two trails we did climb on were extremely rocky and in areas with no cell reception. I don't have a spare... I've tried my best to get one from Rivian, but they have a shortage and absolutely refuse to let me buy one. I couldn't enjoy the trails because I was too nervous about getting a puncture and being stranded without any way to do a repair.
Overall, charging was very smooth. The most problematic fast charging experience was having to wait about 15 minutes for a dispenser to open up. Seriously. We stopped to charge 26 times and nearly zero issues. Most stops did have at least one dispenser down for maintenance, but it was no problem because we could just plug into another one. One time a charger seemed to stop because the cable overheated (it was hot to the touch). We simply unplugged and plugged into the other one. Many of the NFC readers were not functioning so we had to spend the extra 20 seconds opening the app to initiate payment a few times. No big deal.
We attempted to charge overnight at hotels with mixed results. My wife has Diamond status with Hilton and we booked their properties that claimed to have EV charging. The first stay was at a Tru by Hilton in Omaha. We rolled up to the station and plugged in no problems. The next one was a Home2 Suites. It only had Tesla stations and they were both blocked by ICE vehicles. After that we got a lot more nervous and gave up on trusting the "EV charging" badge that the hotel advertised.
One night we stayed at an RV park and used the portable charger to plug into the 50a service. This was an overly expensive way to charge. We paid $85 for the site and then another $50 for a tent site because they wouldn't allow us to tent on an RV site. Had we not done this, our cost per mile would have been $0.12 not $0.15.
Here are all the charging stats:
Network | Date | Location | Ending SOC | Charging Mins | Avg Speed | Price/kWh | Total Cost | Total kWh |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Electrify America | June 9, 2022 | Portage, MI | 96% | 51 | 62.35 | $0.31 | $16.43 | 53 |
Electrify America | June 9, 2022 | Joilet, IL | 87% | 37 | 108.65 | $0.39 | $20.77 | 67 |
Shell Recharge | June 9, 2022 | Iowa City, IA | 54 | 163.33 | $0.70 | $37.11 | 147 | |
Private | June 9, 2022 | Des Moine, IA | 90 | 6.67 | $0.00 | $0.00 | 10 | |
Electrify America | June 9, 2022 | Waukee, IA | 73% | 30 | 138.00 | $0.40 | $21.39 | 69 |
Tru by Hilton | June 10, 2022 | Omaha, NE | 420 | 6.57 | $0.00 | $0.00 | 46 | |
Electrify America | June 10, 2022 | Lincoln, NE | 81% | 33 | 121.82 | $0.15 | $7.83 | 67 |
Electrify America | June 10, 2022 | Lexington, NE | 90% | 62 | 101.61 | $0.28 | $14.80 | 105 |
Electrify America | June 10, 2022 | Ogallala, NE | 64% | 10 | 174.00 | $0.05 | $2.49 | 29 |
Electrify America | June 10, 2022 | Ogallala, NE | 86% | 22 | 73.64 | $0.10 | $5.17 | 27 |
Electrify America | June 10, 2022 | Fort Morgan, CO | 81% | 31 | 127.74 | $0.39 | $20.46 | 66 |
Electrify America | June 11, 2022 | Lakewood, CO | 74% | 26 | 147.69 | $0.37 | $19.84 | 64 |
Electrify America | June 12, 2022 | Frisco, CO | 15% | 4 | 105.00 | $0.04 | $2.17 | 7 |
Electrify America | June 12, 2022 | Frisco, CO | 72% | 33 | 141.82 | $0.46 | $24.18 | 78 |
ChargePoint | June 12, 2022 | Estes Park, CO | 15 | 84.00 | $0.17 | $9.24 | 21 | |
RV Park | June 12, 2022 | Estes Park, CO | 660 | 8.36 | $1.61 | $85.24 | 92 | |
ChargePoint | June 12, 2022 | Bennett, CO | 39 | 83.08 | $0.00 | $0.00 | 54 | |
EV GO | June 13, 2022 | Goodland, KS | 42 | 82.86 | $0.53 | $28.32 | 58 | |
Electrify America | June 13, 2022 | Hays, KS | 4% | 3 | 160.00 | $0.01 | $0.72 | 8 |
Electrify America | June 13, 2022 | Hays, KS | 68% | 40 | 135.00 | $0.18 | $9.52 | 90 |
EV GO | June 14, 2022 | McPherson, KS | 29 | 80.69 | $0.25 | $13.47 | 39 | |
Electrify America | June 14, 2022 | Wichita, KS | 86% | 57 | 117.89 | $0.26 | $13.74 | 112 |
Electrify America | June 14, 2022 | Vinita, OK | 76% | 41 | 137.56 | $0.55 | $29.14 | 94 |
Electrify America | June 15, 2022 | Rodgers, AR | 82% | 36 | 128.33 | $0.45 | $23.87 | 77 |
Electrify America | June 15, 2022 | Lebanon, MO | 71% | 30 | 152.00 | $0.44 | $23.56 | 76 |
Electrify America | June 15, 2022 | Collinsville, IL | 75% | 41 | 131.71 | $0.53 | $27.90 | 90 |
Electrify America | June 16, 2022 | Bloomington, IL | 82% | 38 | 129.47 | $0.48 | $25.42 | 82 |
Electrify America | June 16, 2022 | Joilet, IL | 81% | 25 | 115.20 | $0.28 | $14.88 | 48 |
Electrify America | June 16, 2022 | Portage, MI | 75% | 27 | 146.67 | $0.39 | $20.46 | 66 |
Totals from Dispensers | 33.8 | 109.37 | $0.34 | $518.12 | 1841.96 | |||
Rivian Trip Distance | 3,428 | |||||||
Rivian Trip Total kWh | 1,617 | |||||||
Charging Loss (kWh) | 225 | |||||||
Cost Per Mile | $0.15 | |||||||
Average Miles per kWh | 1.86 |
Finally, a few minor gripes about the vehicle now that I've got over 5k miles in it:
- Only the key fob works reliably for me. We spent 15 minutes with a valet driver trying to get the key card to turn on the vehicle. It was really embarrassing that we couldn't get our truck to drive. It wasn't just that one instance. I have never been able to get it to work reliably.
- The A/C vent blows directly on my knee even when pointed as far away as possible. When you have the A/C cranking, that can get uncomfortable.
- The A/C can't keep up with the heat unless you recirculate the cabin air.
- The truck makes lots of annoying loud sounds when cooling itself off. Sometimes it is extremely loud.
- The the adaptive cruise slows down way too aggressively. Unlike other vehicles, you have to be centered in an unobstructed lane before it speeds back up. I'm used to it returning to the set speed when you put the blinker on to indicate a lane change. The truck would slow down a ton and then have to speed back up if you didn't push the accelerator when changing lanes
- No Android Auto or CarPlay. Just dumb.
- No apps; I want to watch videos while charging.
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