End of my dream

[R1Sky Business]

I have a son in CA who would be glad to take it off your hands...DM me on what you want for it...

Boom, problem solved

Sponsored

 

[bhopkins]

Just did a little over 1000 miles from mid-MI to Provincetown, MA. While there were individual charging stations down at each stop, I was never unable to charge. I did check both the EA app before heading to each charger as well as Plugshare for the latest update to see how each charger was doing.

We’re all early adapters and need to be flexible. If this is not for you, then sell your R1T and bank the profits.

 

[Pbmsmith]

Apparently OP has not owned a boat.

I have owned four boats from a small runabout to my current fishing boat 28ft. It’s true there are frustrations with boats but I can fix most of those either underway or in the berth.

 

[ajdelange]

i am completely disillusioned and plan to get rid of the truck.

Sorry about your bad experience but you really shouldn't be disillusioned. You have a truck you bought sight unseen with a serial number less than 7000. The state of the CCS network is well known to all. You must go forth with the expectation that one or both these factors is eventually going to bite you. If the pleasure of driving a vehicle like the R1T doesn't completely outweigh the expectation of the trouble you are likely to experience then you shouldn't be buying Rivians.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Just did a little over 1000 miles from mid-MI to Provincetown, MA. While there were individual charging stations down at each stop, I was never unable to charge. I did check both the EA app before heading to each charger as well as Plugshare for the latest update to see how each charger was doing.

We’re all early adapters and need to be flexible. If this is not for you, then sell your R1T and bank the profits.

He may be new to the EV game

 

[R1Tom]

Bummer as truck is truly amazing. Like nothing else on market or anything I have ever driven. I'd argue stick with it, or maybe sell and get back in line. But these things are revolutionary.

 

[Denver_Paulie]

Mike, sorry to hear about the misadventure with the Rivian. Can you tell us more about your planned trip - where did you start, and were were you trying to get? Were you driving from the coast to the Sierras? Also, how long have you had your Rivian? Have you taken any other drives where you needed to charge?

Seems like you are an experienced boatsman, so you need to apply those same planning skills to road tripping in the Rivian, at least for now. Not much you could have done about the latch issues, but lots of tools and information readily available that could have made the charging process much, much easier.

If you did not do some checking on Plugshare before leaving on your trip, then you need to adopt that habit moving forward. It is not as bad out there as what you experienced.

 

[ajdelange]

It is not as bad out there as what you experienced.

That's great! But the question then becomes how do we get to experience the reality rather than what we are experiencing.

 

[bhopkins]

That's great! But the question then becomes how do we get to experience the reality rather than what we are experiencing.

Make sure you call the charger provider every time there's a broken/malfunctioning charger. They are providing a service to us as a customer and so we should be letting them know when something is not right.

 

[ERguy]

If they won’t take it back I am selling and taking whatever I can get.

You made it sound like you are going to sell it for some measly chump change if Rivian won't take it back. You can't be serious. You realize that if you sell it you will make tens of thousands of dollars profit... Don't you? If you walk away from this truck and give it back to Rivian, you are forfeiting a ton of potential profit.

 

[Denver_Paulie]

That's great! But the question then becomes how do we get to experience the reality rather than what we are experiencing.

Let's figure out what level experience Mike has with EV's first, and then understand how much pre-planning he did for his trip in identifying charging options along his route.

I drove from Denver to Las Vegas last week in my Taycan and had zero issues. I used the EA chargers in Glenwood Springs, CO, Green River, CO, Beaver, UT, and Mesquite, NV. Plug and Charge capability on my Taycan and knowing which cabinets had recently had good charging sessions made it a breeze. I don't think I spent more than 20 minutes at each charger since I was getting great charging speeds, even in the higher temps.

The first week of June I drove my Taycan from Denver to Kansas City using the same road tripping methodology as I mentioned above with zero issues. Other than the Salina, KS EA charger being 3 or 4 miles off I-70, the drive is super easy. I even met the mayor of Flagler, CO, who happens to own the land where the current EA chargers sit. It is also where the future Rivian chargers will be built, so The guy has cornered the CCS charging market in eastern Colorado!

Sure, Mike's experience sucked, but we need to understand all the facts surrounding his trip first. Is the CCS fact charging infrastructure perfect? No. But, a little advanced planning and understanding the capabilities the the vehicle go a long way in to avoiding situations Mike found himself in.

PS: If relying strictly on the vehicle NAV and expecting Tesla like capability, then you should probably delay your Rivian order for a couple of years and let us people who don't mind using Plugshare or A Better Route Planner skip to the front. From what I understand the Rivian does not currently have capability to segment chargers by charging speed.

 

[Mike Hunt]

So here we go on our first trip on our new R1T. Loading went well with lots of space and room for three adults, a big dog, bikes, and lots of luggage to support the rest of the family. OK first planned charging station after 150 miles using electrify america went great.

Then we tried to drive off only to be told the front hatch was open. Multiple, multiple attempts to open and close the hatch did not solve the problem. Called support and while on the phone the problem seemed to resolve itself.

We have 250 miles until our destination so we figured that our 95% charge, in trip mode, would get us there. We drove carefully in conserve selection, but ended up needing to recharge at 200 miles with only 30 miles left. Several of the charging stations we tried were broken or at least non-functional.

The fun really started on our return a week later. On reaching our planned recharge stop we filled up to 70% or nearly 200 miles as we only had a 100 to go. Again we get the hood open alert. We call support and do everything they say …..push down hard on hood…..no response…..open hood…won’t open…soft reset…..hard reset…All no change. So here we are in a small crossroad 50 miles from any town.

Support says try rental car…none open. Try ride share…none around. Then all of a sudden, while parked in the shade the alert goes away and we start for home. We see we are going to need a further charge and begin planning for that. The first two chargers we stop at are non-functional. Now we are panicking as we are down to less than 5 miles. We find a 6 kw charger and charge to 10 miles so we can make it to the next charger.When we get there and plug in ….no connection. Call Electrify America and they reprogram the charger to no avail. Call Rivian support and told to try hard reset as when the battery is critically low it needs to be reset in order to charge. Finally we head home.

i am completely disillusioned and plan to get rid of the truck. Rivian is coming tomorrow to take it to service center. If they won’t take it back I am selling and taking whatever I can get.

Mike,

Sorry to hear about the charging and strange front hatch warning. Weird how that warning hasn’t popped up before during your daily use around town. Was the front trunk packed with stuff?

BTW, Is this your first ev? There is a bit of a learning curve getting the hang of the range estimation and charging limits etc.

I can certainly understand having several people, especially family, all at once questioning your purchase once there is a little hiccup during a trip!

Charging from home is the best charging solution so far, public charging is sketchy in my experience and calling the charging service providers when there is a problem will hopefully motivate them to step up their game.

I also own a Tesla and using the free supercharging network is the a hard act to follow though I guess I expect more. lol

Anyway, hope you keep the truck and figure out how to get the most out of it.

I’m in Carmel and so far so good even after a camping trip up to Kaiser Pass with my family where there are no charging stations!

 

[ccmun]

I am sorry for your experience. The CCS charging experience can be a downer, on top of the issues with a new car company. But, give it some thought, have Rivian take a look at the truck, and if you still don’t trust the RIT, then sell it and make some money. We are all trusting that in a year or two, many of these nagging early issues will have been solved and the charging infrastructure will be much more reliable and ubiquitous.

 

[yizzung]

So here we go on our first trip on our new R1T. Loading went well with lots of space and room for three adults, a big dog, bikes, and lots of luggage to support the rest of the family. OK first planned charging station after 150 miles using electrify america went great.

Then we tried to drive off only to be told the front hatch was open. Multiple, multiple attempts to open and close the hatch did not solve the problem. Called support and while on the phone the problem seemed to resolve itself.

We have 250 miles until our destination so we figured that our 95% charge, in trip mode, would get us there. We drove carefully in conserve selection, but ended up needing to recharge at 200 miles with only 30 miles left. Several of the charging stations we tried were broken or at least non-functional.

The fun really started on our return a week later. On reaching our planned recharge stop we filled up to 70% or nearly 200 miles as we only had a 100 to go. Again we get the hood open alert. We call support and do everything they say …..push down hard on hood…..no response…..open hood…won’t open…soft reset…..hard reset…All no change. So here we are in a small crossroad 50 miles from any town.

Support says try rental car…none open. Try ride share…none around. Then all of a sudden, while parked in the shade the alert goes away and we start for home. We see we are going to need a further charge and begin planning for that. The first two chargers we stop at are non-functional. Now we are panicking as we are down to less than 5 miles. We find a 6 kw charger and charge to 10 miles so we can make it to the next charger.When we get there and plug in ….no connection. Call Electrify America and they reprogram the charger to no avail. Call Rivian support and told to try hard reset as when the battery is critically low it needs to be reset in order to charge. Finally we head home.

i am completely disillusioned and plan to get rid of the truck. Rivian is coming tomorrow to take it to service center. If they won’t take it back I am selling and taking whatever I can get.

It’s weird that you charged to 200 miles just 100 miles from home, then ran out of juice 50 miles from home… if accurate, that’s a lot more concerning than a latch hiccup.

But yes, if buying an $80k truck, using it for a few weeks, and selling it for $30k in profit is the end of your dream then sorry for loss.

 

[Attesan997]

So here we go on our first trip on our new R1T. Loading went well with lots of space and room for three adults, a big dog, bikes, and lots of luggage to support the rest of the family. OK first planned charging station after 150 miles using electrify america went great.

Then we tried to drive off only to be told the front hatch was open. Multiple, multiple attempts to open and close the hatch did not solve the problem. Called support and while on the phone the problem seemed to resolve itself.

We have 250 miles until our destination so we figured that our 95% charge, in trip mode, would get us there. We drove carefully in conserve selection, but ended up needing to recharge at 200 miles with only 30 miles left. Several of the charging stations we tried were broken or at least non-functional.

The fun really started on our return a week later. On reaching our planned recharge stop we filled up to 70% or nearly 200 miles as we only had a 100 to go. Again we get the hood open alert. We call support and do everything they say …..push down hard on hood…..no response…..open hood…won’t open…soft reset…..hard reset…All no change. So here we are in a small crossroad 50 miles from any town.

Support says try rental car…none open. Try ride share…none around. Then all of a sudden, while parked in the shade the alert goes away and we start for home. We see we are going to need a further charge and begin planning for that. The first two chargers we stop at are non-functional. Now we are panicking as we are down to less than 5 miles. We find a 6 kw charger and charge to 10 miles so we can make it to the next charger.When we get there and plug in ….no connection. Call Electrify America and they reprogram the charger to no avail. Call Rivian support and told to try hard reset as when the battery is critically low it needs to be reset in order to charge. Finally we head home.

i am completely disillusioned and plan to get rid of the truck. Rivian is coming tomorrow to take it to service center. If they won’t take it back I am selling and taking whatever I can get.

While this is a bit unfortunate, folks should really be considering themselves beta testers when they sign up for brand new EV from a company that's never built anything. Even more so when less than 10k units have rolled off the line.

Sponsored