Test Result: Battery Degradation at 42,000 miles Just ~3% Degradation (2022 R1T Quad Motor)

[Budman]

I got my Quad Motor Large Pack R1T in July, 2022. VIN in the 8000 range. Been driving the heck out of it and loving every mile. I have the 21" road tires.

Yesterday I attempted a battery degradation test for the first time. My procedure was as follows;

1. Fill battery to 100% as indicated on main GUI screen in the Rivian cockpit
2. Reset the "Trip A" odometer
3. Drove on a mixture of 70 mph interstate and 60 mph rural highways.
4. Monitored the state of charge on the main screen and at every 5% interval we recorded the miles drive and consumption data in the "Trip A" odometer
5. Pulled into my garage with 9% remaining on the battery. (didn't really want to run it down to zero.....)
6. Charged to 100% again and recorded the energy added to the battery.

This gave me two estimates of the energy in my battery at 100% state of charge.

The first estimate is from the consumption data recorded at every 5% SOC interval from 100% to 10%. I fitted a linear line to the data points and then extrapolated this to 0% state of charge as shown in the graph below. This indicates 125.84 kWh would have been used from 100% to 0%. Rivian says the original usable battery capacity is 131 kWh. 131/125.84 = 0.9606 which says 125.84 is 96.06% of the original capacity of the battery or about a 4% degradation.

The miles covered at each 5% SOC increment in this test is shown below. Again extrapolating to 0% says my full pack range would have been ~314 miles. At the start of the test the vehicle computer said my range would be 315 miles! Almost exactly right!

Method two comes from the reported energy put back into the battery when I charge back up from 9% to 100%. The Rivian user interface says 116.7 kWh were added to the pack. Dividing 116.7 by 0.91 gives the estimated energy that would have been added if starting from 0%. 116.7/0.91 = 128.24 kWh. This is 97.89% of the 131 original usable capacity. Or about 2.1% degradation.

The second method is probably more accurate but if we average the two methods the degradation is around 3% after 1 year and 10 months and 42,000 miles. Pretty good result in my opinion.

My Trip B odometer has almost 37,000 miles on it and my efficiency over that distance has been 2.41 miles/kWh

Very happy with these results. 3% or so degradation and the range estimate being spot on.

Overall I have had a very good experience with my R1T. Got 37,000 miles from my first set of tires. My powered tonneau has always and continues to work fine. The only issue I've had is a sticky charge port door which was fixed under warranty by replacing the actuator motor. I give my sincere compliments and thanks to the entire Rivian team.

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[COdogman]

Thanks for sharing those results. I would be happy with that as well!

 

[defcon888]

That is a lot of data

 

[Glembi2]

What did you routinely charge to?

 

[Budman]

What did you routinely charge to?

Ah, yes. I forgot to include that.

Typically 70% but we make frequent trips to our cabin 165 miles away so then I often do 80% to 90%. I try hard to not leave the truck sit for long periods below 50% or above 75%.

We live in MN so not much time sitting in hot, sunny parking lots. I’ve done around 30 or so fast charging sessions with chargers rated at 120 kW or

 

[Wowme22]

Excellent summary, OP. However, isn't a 3% degradation considered significant, especially when the average degradation rate is typically cited as 1-2% per year in various sources? Would love to get educated a little. My R1T was also delivered around same time as yours.

Meanwhile I was able to get 32k miles on 21”.

 

[Budman]

It is also reported that there is an initially higher rate the first year or so then it slows down to that 1% per year. Also, i have a much higher that average mileage accumulation so I’m happy with the 3% I measured.

Thanks for the question. Open to any others thoughts.

 

[zymolysis]

isn't a 3% degradation considered significant, especially when the average degradation rate is typically cited as 1-2% per year

Since OP has owned his Rivian over 1.5 years (~1.8), 3% would be in line with the "1-2% per year." Even so, I doubt that there is an EV maker on the planet who would call "3% degradation...significant."

 

[DuoRivian]

Excellent summary, OP. However, isn't a 3% degradation considered significant, especially when the average degradation rate is typically cited as 1-2% per year in various sources? Would love to get educated a little. My R1T was also delivered around same time as yours.

Meanwhile I was able to get 32k miles on 21”.

3% is not significant. The warranty kicks in after 30% degradation in the first 8 years so this is very little given the mileage.

 

[Supratachophobia]

I got my Quad Motor Large Pack R1T in July, 2022. VIN in the 8000 range. Been driving the heck out of it and loving every mile. I have the 21" road tires.

Yesterday I attempted a battery degradation test for the first time. My procedure was as follows;

1. Fill battery to 100% as indicated on main GUI screen in the Rivian cockpit
2. Reset the "Trip A" odometer
3. Drove on a mixture of 70 mph interstate and 60 mph rural highways.
4. Monitored the state of charge on the main screen and at every 5% interval we recorded the miles drive and consumption data in the "Trip A" odometer
5. Pulled into my garage with 9% remaining on the battery. (didn't really want to run it down to zero.....)
6. Charged to 100% again and recorded the energy added to the battery.

This gave me two estimates of the energy in my battery at 100% state of charge.

The first estimate is from the consumption data recorded at every 5% SOC interval from 100% to 10%. I fitted a linear line to the data points and then extrapolated this to 0% state of charge as shown in the graph below. This indicates 125.84 kWh would have been used from 100% to 0%. Rivian says the original usable battery capacity is 131 kWh. 131/125.84 = 0.9606 which says 125.84 is 96.06% of the original capacity of the battery or about a 4% degradation.

The miles covered at each 5% SOC increment in this test is shown below. Again extrapolating to 0% says my full pack range would have been ~314 miles. At the start of the test the vehicle computer said my range would be 315 miles! Almost exactly right!

Method two comes from the reported energy put back into the battery when I charge back up from 9% to 100%. The Rivian user interface says 116.7 kWh were added to the pack. Dividing 116.7 by 0.91 gives the estimated energy that would have been added if starting from 0%. 116.7/0.91 = 128.24 kWh. This is 97.89% of the 131 original usable capacity. Or about 2.1% degradation.

The second method is probably more accurate but if we average the two methods the degradation is around 3% after 1 year and 10 months and 42,000 miles. Pretty good result in my opinion.

My Trip B odometer has almost 37,000 miles on it and my efficiency over that distance has been 2.41 miles/kWh

Very happy with these results. 3% or so degradation and the range estimate being spot on.

Overall I have had a very good experience with my R1T. Got 37,000 miles from my first set of tires. My powered tonneau has always and continues to work fine. The only issue I've had is a sticky charge port door which was fixed under warranty by replacing the actuator motor. I give my sincere compliments and thanks to the entire Rivian team.

Call me scarred by Tesla, but unless we have access to the BMS data, I don't think these tests can be trusted. I appreciate how much science and control you were able to put in though.

Also, I don't see any adjustment for charging efficiency losses.

 

[HaveBlue]

I think service mode reports battery health

 

[Budman]

Call me scarred by Tesla, but unless we have access to the BMS data, I don't think these tests can be trusted. I appreciate how much science and control you were able to put in though.

Also, I don't see any adjustment for charging efficiency losses.

In retrospect, I wish I had done this when the truck was new to establish a baseline with these methods. That would have helped underpin the degradation over time.

 

[AYAYRON]

There’s a service menu that shows your Max battery capacity which would eliminate the potential errors in testing, I think the last time the access sequence was leaked I was at like 92% (it’s been a long time so my memory could be wrong).

 

[HeyEllwood]

I believe also that degradation will slow down from here on out too. If I remember correctly reading about older Model S’s. They typically saw a 3-5% or whatever and than from there they barely saw any or like ~1% over years time. Maybe I’m getting the info wrong. But I’m pretty sure that was the case..

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