Battery Pack Sizes: How did the efficiency between the Gen 1 and Gen 2 change so much?

[mkhuffman]

I'm going to go with 2-3% improvemet, which generously comes out to 10 miles or so. That's based on personal knowledge from the original aero wheels that Tesla had really early on.

Can't disagree with your personal experience. But just to clarify, I mean 5% better at 80 mph. With the EPA cycle 2-3% seems reasonable.

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[Supratachophobia]

Can't disagree with your personal experience. But just to clarify, I mean 5% better at 80 mph. With the EPA cycle 2-3% seems reasonable.

80 seems a bit fast....

 

[mkhuffman]

80 seems a bit fast....

I frequently get passed when going 80, so I guess it is relative!

 

[FordRanger89]

So we took delivery of our 2025 dual motor max pack R1s last week! We love it! With that being said, the efficiency looks unchanged from the previous generation. We picked it up and jumped on the road to get home. The best efficiency we saw was about 2.5mile/kwh. We were driving about 71mph and there was not a lot of elevation change. We drove about 280miles. The outside temp was mid 70s. Like I said in earlier posts, we did end up going with the max pack. I am sure glad we did.....

When they are giving EPA estimates, why don't they give city vs. hwy? Why don't they actually do a real world test? I feel like there is a lot of frustration around rang estimates in other forums or just on social media in general.

Having the range we do allows us to drive anywhere in Oregon on a single charge. I am not sure I see the benefit in ordering a large pack.... I know they haven't officially release the large pack information, but its only 109kwh right? Not a huge difference from the small pack. At that point I would just save the money get a small pack and that way you get LFP. The LFP probably has better thermals and charging behavior anyways.

Just my 2 cents. Hopefully this will help others in making battery pack decisions.

 

[dsmking]

I'm curious what the real Large pack capacity will actually be as my 2025 Large+ is actually 120kw and has similar efficiency as yours (not surprising since it is a software locked Max).

 

[TyeeMike]

check the specs on the battery chemistry one may be LI-iON vs NiMH
gen 1 are i think almost exclusively NiMH vs gen 2 which could be either depending on date of production. I think RJ has moved to Li-ion for all the newer Rivs - lighter cheaper, faster charging, less costly etc.

but hey i may be off base here

 

[FordRanger89]

I'm curious what the real Large pack capacity will actually be as my 2025 Large+ is actually 120kw and has similar efficiency as yours (not surprising since it is a software locked Max).

That's interesting because originally, I thought, the new large pack was going to be 109. That would be cool if they kept it at 120.

 

[racekarl]

check the specs on the battery chemistry one may be LI-iON vs NiMH
gen 1 are i think almost exclusively NiMH vs gen 2 which could be either depending on date of production. I think RJ has moved to Li-ion for all the newer Rivs - lighter cheaper, faster charging, less costly etc.

but hey i may be off base here

Way off base, sorry.

All EV batteries are Lithium ion. There are a few different common chemistries used in EVs: Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO)

NMC batteries have denser energy storage but tend to degrade a bit more/faster than LiFEPO.

All Gen1 batteries are NMC, in Gen 2 I believe the large and max are NMC and the standard is LiFePO

Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) is a much older rechargeable battery chemistry not used in modern EVs.

 

[TyeeMike]

Thanks, for the info, maybe i misread searched info below and need to change to an AI search instead of regular google



So it is interesting that Rivian is considering switching, even among its R1 models. UPDATE: Some commenters have suggested that Rivian will probably not be changing the battery type of its high-performance and high-range models--i.e., they would still have nickel-cobalt ingredients. That makes the most sense to me, since I read that nickel-cobalt batteries provide more energy per volume and are more suited for high-performance, high-range vehicles. Furthermore, this post--[Battery 101] NMC vs LFP--indicates that "Max" and "Large" battery versions of Gen 2 Rivian R1 trucks still have nickel-manganese-cobalt battery components. (Hopefully, they will continue to.)

But to be fair to those of us who worried that all Rivian trucks were going to switch to lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, that is what the OP article appeared to be implying, correct? The quote:

• "Rivian, the electric vehicle (EV) startup, has announced its plan to switch its entire lineup to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries." [emphasis added]

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