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$7,500 to spend on R1S: upgrade to Adventure trim, or 75mi of range?

If you had only $77,500 to spend on the R1S, which of the following configs would you pick?


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sevengroove

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With Rivian having announced a long-range (max(ish?) pack) version of the R1S, and it likely being under 400 miles, there's a good chance that the cost to upgrade might fall within $5k - $7.5k depending on how many more miles above 300 they can manage (given that they're charging $10k for 100 miles on the R1T). It got me thinking about the cost, and wondering about whether I would give up my LE configuration to switch to an Explore + larger pack at the same hypothetical price. Or just go all in and get the Adventure trim with the additional range. What are others thinking about this?
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Lmirafuente

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With Rivian having announced a long-range (max(ish?) pack) version of the R1S, and it likely being under 400 miles, there's a good chance that the cost to upgrade might fall within $5k - $7.5k depending on how many more miles above 300 they can manage (given that they're charging $10k for 100 miles on the R1T). It got me thinking about the cost, and wondering about whether I would give up my LE configuration to switch to an Explore + larger pack at the same hypothetical price. Or just go all in and get the Adventure trim with the additional range. What are others thinking about this?
I have been waiting since 2018. I am going with the LE. With the volume of charging stations growing and the RAN being built, I can live with 300+ and I hope Rivian will add more batteries to the max battery to get it to 350+(that is pure hope/speculation on my part with no data to back it up)....just wishing?
 

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I have owned a Tesla Model S P85 for 7 years. My advice to anyone buying a BEV is to ALWAYS get the largest battery you can. Charging is faster and you can go further while maintaining at least 10% reserve for headwinds, etc. Hence my (and others) annoyance that Rivian will not be offering the largest battery until later.
 
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sevengroove

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I have owned a Tesla Model S P85 for 7 years. My advice to anyone buying a BEV is to ALWAYS get the largest battery you can. Charging is faster and you can go further while maintaining at least 10% reserve for headwinds, etc. Hence my (and others) annoyance that Rivian will not be offering the largest battery until later.
I was fully expecting them to launch with the largest pack, but others on the forum have explained their decision well. With a limited number of cell supply, selling (for example) 4 vehicles with 135kwh packs was always going to be more appealing financially vs. selling 3 vehicles with 180kwh packs.

How often do you do trips in your Model S that require more than the full range? I agree that more range is always a good thing if we can afford it, but I don't road trip more than a handful of times a year.
 

johnking

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Agree. Bigger the battery size the better. I have a Model S 75D. This fits my daily usage of 60+ miles with plenty to spare. Its only when we do road trips that we wished we had a little more juice even though we plot the journey lined up with superchargers. Had to stop 3 times for 20 minutes on a 2-way trip from Seattle to Portland and back. Could've done it with 2 stops but I prefer to have ~20% of charge in reserve so I did a 3rd stop.

Now, if you are an adventurer out there and are going to awesome places to see on a regular basis or if your daily commute is unpredictable due to the nature of business, then my recommendation would be to wait till the bigger battery packs are available. As for me, I think 135 KW launch edition will satisfy my appetite for commute, road trips (once or twice a month) and will be a better balance compared to my current drive. I also hope that Rivian will increase the range through OTAs just like Tesla does as they work on optimization via software for other parts in the vehicle.

A key point to note is the recommended charge % everyday. Tesla recommends that we charge 80% or 90% for daily usage. So that takes my 254 EPA rated 75D down to 228 miles. On top of this, if we put climate control, speed and battery charge reduction over years, we will see the daily output reduce (WH per mile is more in winter). After 3 years, at 90% charge my Model S has gone down to 224 miles (just 4 miles reduction is good). Tesla manages which battery cells should get charged on a daily basis and does a round-robin by software. I am sure Rivian will do the same.

For a 135 KW R1S, we are being told that the EPA estimate is 300+ and there is no accurate # out there put out by Rivian I guess (feel free to update if there is guidance on this). Even if we assume 300 to be the EPA range, a daily charge % of 90% will put the available miles at 270. Evaluating if 270 miles is gonna be good enough for the normal day to day use of the vehicle is something each of us will need to do. This will help us plan if we are comfortable with the 135KW batteries or wanna wait till the 185 KW batteries come out.

A new Model X has an EPA estimated range of 371 miles on its 100KW batteries. Now, that is awesome. I am hoping I can get my hands on one until my R1S comes out in late 2021.
 
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Agree. Bigger the battery size the better. I have a Model S 75D. This fits my daily usage of 60+ miles with plenty to spare. Its only when we do road trips that we wished we had a little more juice even though we plot the journey lined up with superchargers. Had to stop 3 times for 20 minutes on a 2-way trip from Seattle to Portland and back. Could've done it with 20 stops but I prefer to have ~20% of charge in reserve so I did a 3rd stop.

Now, if you are an adventurer out there and are going to awesome places to see on a regular basis or if your daily commute is unpredictable due to the nature of business, then my recommendation would be to wait till the bigger battery packs are available. As for me, I think 135 KW launch edition will satisfy my appetite for commute, road trips (once or twice a month) and will be a better balance compared to my current drive. I also hope that Rivian will increase the range through OTAs just like Tesla does as they work on optimization via software for other parts in the vehicle.

A key point to note is the recommended charge % everyday. Tesla recommends that we charge 80% or 90% for daily usage. So that takes my 254 EPA rated 75D down to 228 miles. On top of this, if we put climate control, speed and battery charge reduction over years, we will see the daily output reduce (WH per mile is more in winter). After 3 years, at 90% charge my Model S has gone down to 224 miles (just 4 miles reduction is good). Tesla manages which battery cells should get charged on a daily basis and does a round-robin by software. I am sure Rivian will do the same.

For a 135 KW R1S, we are being told that the EPA estimate is 300+ and there is no accurate # out there put out by Rivian I guess (feel free to update if there is guidance on this). Even if we assume 300 to be the EPA range, a daily charge % of 90% will put the available miles at 270. Evaluating if 270 miles is gonna be good enough for the normal day to day use of the vehicle is something each of us will need to do. This will help us plan if we are comfortable with the 135KW batteries or wanna wait till the 185 KW batteries come out.

A new Model X has an EPA estimated range of 371 miles on its 100KW batteries. Now, that is awesome. I am hoping I can get my hands on one until my R1S comes out in late 2021.
For what its worth, CS has told me that they will add range via OTAs
 
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sevengroove

sevengroove

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Agree. Bigger the battery size the better. I have a Model S 75D. This fits my daily usage of 60+ miles with plenty to spare. Its only when we do road trips that we wished we had a little more juice even though we plot the journey lined up with superchargers. Had to stop 3 times for 20 minutes on a 2-way trip from Seattle to Portland and back. Could've done it with 20 stops but I prefer to have ~20% of charge in reserve so I did a 3rd stop.

Now, if you are an adventurer out there and are going to awesome places to see on a regular basis or if your daily commute is unpredictable due to the nature of business, then my recommendation would be to wait till the bigger battery packs are available. As for me, I think 135 KW launch edition will satisfy my appetite for commute, road trips (once or twice a month) and will be a better balance compared to my current drive. I also hope that Rivian will increase the range through OTAs just like Tesla does as they work on optimization via software for other parts in the vehicle.

A key point to note is the recommended charge % everyday. Tesla recommends that we charge 80% or 90% for daily usage. So that takes my 254 EPA rated 75D down to 228 miles. On top of this, if we put climate control, speed and battery charge reduction over years, we will see the daily output reduce (WH per mile is more in winter). After 3 years, at 90% charge my Model S has gone down to 224 miles (just 4 miles reduction is good). Tesla manages which battery cells should get charged on a daily basis and does a round-robin by software. I am sure Rivian will do the same.

For a 135 KW R1S, we are being told that the EPA estimate is 300+ and there is no accurate # out there put out by Rivian I guess (feel free to update if there is guidance on this). Even if we assume 300 to be the EPA range, a daily charge % of 90% will put the available miles at 270. Evaluating if 270 miles is gonna be good enough for the normal day to day use of the vehicle is something each of us will need to do. This will help us plan if we are comfortable with the 135KW batteries or wanna wait till the 185 KW batteries come out.

A new Model X has an EPA estimated range of 371 miles on its 100KW batteries. Now, that is awesome. I am hoping I can get my hands on one until my R1S comes out in late 2021.
Thanks for your input, and hello, fellow Seattlite (edit: saw you're in North Bend - still, PNW!)! I’m being even more conservative with the range and assuming that with weather, air conditioning, wet roads etc I’ll manage about 220mi before needing to top up. I’m sure there will be better days, but I’m okay with 220mi being the floor for the range.

The great thing about Seattle is that there are plenty of adventures within a 50-100 mi radius of the city, which can all conceivably be completed round trip on one charge. These are the kinds of trips I do most frequently anyway - day hikes and the like. Will the max pack come handy for the times we decide to do a longer road trip to Montana or NorCal or BC? For sure it will, but I’m realizing more and more that it’s not a dealbreaker anymore and the 135kwh will likely more than suffice for our use case.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend my max pack money on some sweet af dark rims. (Jk, never!)
 
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MReda

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For a 135 KW R1S, we are being told that the EPA estimate is 300+ and there is no accurate # out there put out by Rivian I guess (feel free to update if there is guidance on this).
The EPA has nothing to do with the 300+ estimate. That is entirely Rivian's quoted range.
 

ajdelange

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That could be misinterpreted. It has everything to do with the EPA range in the sense that this is Rivian's estimate of the EPA range that the truck will ultimately be granted. The design of the truck was centered around the ability to satisfy the EPA that this, or something close to it, is the number EPA should ultimately allow Rivin to display thus the EPA test protcol has been, since day 1, in front of the engineers.

But no - at this point the EPA has not been involved in testing or certifying any part of Rivian's trucks.
 
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sevengroove

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That could be misinterpreted. It has everything to do with the EPA range in the sense that this is Rivian's estimate of the EPA range that the truck will ultimately be granted. The design of the truck was centered around the ability to satisfy the EPA that this, or something close to it, is the number EPA should ultimately allow Rivin to display thus the EPA test protcol has been, since day 1, in front of the engineers.

But no - at this point the EPA has not been involved in testing or certifying any part of Rivian's trucks.
Are there examples of companies quoting a range different from EPA's for their vehicles? Like according to EPA's methodology the range for our vehicle is X but we actually believe it's Y?
 

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ajdelange

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The only one I am aware of is Tesla. EPA had actually done some of the testing in this case and left a door open or a light on or something. Tesla successfully argued that this resulted in a number 4 miles less than what it would have been had the protocol been scrupulously followed. EPA granted a retest and the extra miles. This was a big deal as it pushed the car over a 100 mile boundary, Can't remember the details better than that. Someone probably will.
 
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sevengroove

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Oh I remember reading about that on the forums too. But even in that example Tesla was relying on the EPA methodology and found a mistake with how the test was run. It doesn't seem like companies go out and say there's a better methodology which we believe is more accurate and gives our vehicle more range, is there?
 

ajdelange

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No. An EPA rating is granted by the EPA following a procedure promulgated by the EPA and the results are reviewed by the EPA. The heart is a dynamometer test developed by SAE,
 

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I'm going to wait until Rivian has released the largest battery pack available for the R1S.

The wife's Honda Pilot Elite is getting to the 4 year mark and I was hoping to replace it this year with the R1S. However, this may not be a reality until 2022 with Rivian.
 

Lmirafuente

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I'm going to wait until Rivian has released the largest battery pack available for the R1S.

The wife's Honda Pilot Elite is getting to the 4 year mark and I was hoping to replace it this year with the R1S. However, this may not be a reality until 2022 with Rivian.
I have been waiting since Dec 2018. I used to have distance anxiety, but not worried about it anymore with the acceleration of charging station being built. Getting the LE in aug/sept.
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