12V Battery Life

[R1Tom]

Now that my R1T is nearing a year and a half of age and 25k miles, I am starting to think of 12v battery longevity.

As these age, what are thoughts on when would it be proactively good to replace the 12v batteries?

I know that they upgraded to the one battery/one capacitor arrangement, but still not clear if that is backwards compatible to the earlier two battery vehicles like mine.

Just thinking at some point proactive replacement will make sense, versus the other less desirable choice of a locked shut vehicle that is not particularly simple to bring back on line with a trip to a battery store to grab a new battery and install, like all my previous vehicles.

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[madgrey]

Do we know exactly what is causing the failures? I's probably not a question of battery quality or the battery being under-spec'd. My impression is that the battery is being mis-managed by software. In either case, I'd probably be thinking the same thing but we don't have any sort of battery health display to help make the decision.

A low-spec battery should last 36 months so maybe 24 months to be safe? Maybe by then we'll have a software update to help out.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I guess whether or not proactive replacement makes sense is if you are Rivian or an end user. It probably doesn't make much sense for Rivian until they can get ahead of some of their service issues. With the backlog I'm sure Rivian would rather people waited until they had a problem as their service team has their hands full putting out fires.

You have a long warranty, so there is little risk to waiting. I can understand why you'd want them replaced though so you don't risk being stranded if and when your 12v system died. Personally I'll take the risk simply so the people whose trucks are bricked can get faster service and hopefully if my truck ever did experience a vehicle breaking issue others who have done the same allow me to get my truck fixed asap.

Rivian is ramping up service center capacity and that will help to address issues.

 

[R1Tom]

I guess whether or not proactive replacement makes sense is if you are Rivian or an end user. It probably doesn't make much sense for Rivian until they can get ahead of some of their service issues. With the backlog I'm sure Rivian would rather people waited until they had a problem as their service team has their hands full putting out fires.

You have a long warranty, so there is little risk to waiting. I can understand why you'd want them replaced though so you don't risk being stranded if and when your 12v system died. Personally I'll take the risk simply so the people whose trucks are bricked can get faster service and hopefully if my truck ever did experience a vehicle breaking issue others who have done the same allow me to get my truck fixed asap.

Rivian is ramping up service center capacity and that will help to address issues.

I was thinking I would swap them myself at some safe point in the life curve. But I get it is a very tough thing to predict till people start seeing when that might be.

Are the 12v batteries covered by the comprehensive 5 year / 60k? Sometimes manufacturers exclude them I belive, but maybe not in Rivian case.

Probably just wait it out.....

 

[R1Tom]

Do we know exactly what is causing the failures? I's probably not a question of battery quality or the battery being under-spec'd. My impression is that the battery is being mis-managed by software. In either case, I'd probably be thinking the same thing but we don't have any sort of battery health display to help make the decision.

A low-spec battery should last 36 months so maybe 24 months to be safe? Maybe by then we'll have a software update to help out.

I agree that some software help would be nice.

I suspect currently the failures are not typical. So hard to say. I am thinking more from the standpoint for all the "good ones' with no unusual situations....when will the failure curve start showing a substantial increase, such that proactive replacement is appropriate.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I was thinking I would swap them myself at some safe point in the life curve. But I get it is a very tough thing to predict till people start seeing when that might be.

Are the 12v batteries covered by the comprehensive 5 year / 60k? Sometimes manufacturers exclude them I belive, but maybe not in Rivian case.

Probably just wait it out.....

Mine went out and they were covered. I believe the official stance that's been told to people is they are not covered if the reason they went out is because you drained the main battery and that caused the 12V failure but any reason not as a result of your actions is covered.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

It's good you bring this up. IMO the answer is...it depends.

Some might consider proactive replacement too costly and on the other hand some will say it's insurance against a break down.

I say we need to be able to monitor battery health. There are ways to accomplish this but they will take time. For example, there are both load testers and conductance testers but I wouldn't use either with the battery connected to the truck...so it will be a hassle to test frequently unless you leave it connected.

Rivian should be able to do something with software to warn the owner when the battery needs replaced.

How long a battery lasts depends a lot on the environment and how well it's maintained. Build quality also plays a role of course.

Absent some software health check from Rivian I would likely inspect it and test it annually or maybe even every six months. In an EV these batteries should last a long time...they aren't subjected to the loading they are with an ICE. Then again I could always tell when a battery was getting week in an ICE by listening to the starter.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Good thread. Would be great if Rivian made 12V battery health more transparent. Easy to diagnose on an ICE engine, not so much on an EV, from what we've seen so far here. I don't want to proactively replace mine at 24 months (or whenever), but that sounds like the best option if we don't get some better information. Used to do my WT ever three years or so.

Fun story: 25-something years ago when I was a manager at an auto parts store, we'd sell batteries with warranties such as 36 months, 48 months, and 60 months, and pro-rate them if they failed prior to that. Now unless google is failing me, hardly anybody pro-rates batteries anymore. You get a three year free replacement and if it fails after that it's full price to buy a new one. The last few batteries I've had to buy failed at exactly three years and one month, LOL. These manufacturers know what they're doing, and they know how to get you! ?

 

[iansriv]

I respect what the OP is thinking but if we start going down this road there may be so many things we could proactively replace. The glass roof might crack, air suspension might go out (a la Land Rover). I'm just going to drive it till something goes wrong and then let Rivian fix it.

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