Battery Vampire Drain Test for R1T: 10 days parked unplugged = 1.2% per day loss.

[zonehawk]

I've seen a lot of people post about battery loss while parked for extended periods so I wanted to give my recent experience for a benchmark. I've been on travel the last 10 days and decided to use this time to test what I can expect for future trips I may have. So background, my condo building garage does not have any means of charging (not even regular outlets) so all my charging the last 5 months of ownership has had to be at public chargers, luckily there are numerous of them readily available within a few blocks of where I live. The vehicle is in Colorado however it was left in an underground parking garage with relatively stable temperature this time of year.

Vehicle Setting and Stats
R1T - Vin 10XXX
Gear Guard: Off
Camping Mode: No
Vehicle Drive Mode: All Purpose (I don't think this makes a difference)
Ambient Temperature while Parked: 40-50 Degrees
Rivian App Usage: Two Check-ins, Day 3 and Day 7 (I unfortunately did not document range on these check-ins, it was more just to see where things were at to make sure the truck wasn't rapidly draining)

Starting Charge State and Range Day 1: 78% & 216mi
Ending Charge State and Range Day 10: 66% & 183mi

10 Day Charge State Loss: 12%
10 Day Range Loss: 33mi
Average Loss per day: 1.2% & 3.3mi

My Thoughts - I was pleasantly surprised with these figures given the other stories I've seen. While I think these numbers could be better as you compare to other manufactures and their minimal range loss while parked, for Rivian this seems to be closer to ideal today. I feel there is one main factor for why this number may be better than what other Rivian Owner's have shared - stable ambient temperatures - the truck being parked in an underground garage where temperature fluctuations don't really occur I feel could be a big factor in the battery temperature remaining stable.
I do have one other unique thing that may play a role but I have no facts to support it beyond just my own hypothesis. I have never set up gear guard - in the 5 months of ownership I have never gone through the process of setting up and activating/turning on gear guard. While I know you can turn off gear guard and that surely makes a difference while parked long term, I feel never setting it up could also play a role. Again, there is nothing to support this since I don't know the backend of how the Rivian computer software works but having never activated this feature it could be one less process the computer has to go through while it boots, checks status, and reports home.

In the end, I am happy with how well it did over these 10 days and while there is room for improvement hopefully with future software updates it does give me far more confidence for long term trips I may have in the future.

Day 1:

Day 10:

Sponsored

 

[NY_Rob]

Thank you for your research @zonehawk!

1.2% loss/day seems to be the average lately w/o Gear Guard on at reasonable surrounding temps and no or very limited phone wakeups. Hopefully there's still some low-hanging reductions to be made where they can cut the current figure in half. If they did that... no one would ever mention vampire drain again. One member posted a log they kept running for 24hrs+ and it seems the truck wakes up every 3hrs and stays awake for a full hour then goes back to sleep for another three hours then wakes and stays awake for another full hour... that cycle repeats continuously. Seems pretty wasteful to have a sitting truck wake up and stay awake for 6 full hours every day without being used.

 

[MooneyPilot]

Just did a 3 day trip; ~60 ish hours away and 3 total check ins; gear guard on (3 triggers).
Went from 52 down to 47%. This is in ATL which got fairly cold the last 24hrs.
Not horrible.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Good numbers

 

[brancky3]

I have to disagree, while not a huge problem this issue shouldn’t exist at all. We left our model 3 at the airport for 5 days at 65%, came back to it being 65%. I don’t know how much of that is adjusted behind the scenes by Tesla but if the car is asleep it shouldn’t be using any battery.

Sometimes I drive to another airport to fly (~100 miles each way) which would be about 65% off the battery. If I leave it for two weeks I’d be cutting it pretty close to get home without charging.

 

[R1Sky Business]

I have to disagree, while not a huge problem this issue shouldn’t exist at all. We left our model 3 at the airport for 5 days at 65%, came back to it being 65%. I don’t know how much of that is adjusted behind the scenes by Tesla but if the car is asleep it shouldn’t be using any battery.

Sometimes I drive to another airport to fly (~100 miles each way) which would be about 65% off the battery. If I leave it for two weeks I’d be cutting it pretty close to get home without charging.

No behind the scenes monkey business .... im sure

 

[MooneyPilot]

I have to disagree, while not a huge problem this issue shouldn’t exist at all. We left our model 3 at the airport for 5 days at 65%, came back to it being 65%. I don’t know how much of that is adjusted behind the scenes by Tesla but if the car is asleep it shouldn’t be using any battery.

Sometimes I drive to another airport to fly (~100 miles each way) which would be about 65% off the battery. If I leave it for two weeks I’d be cutting it pretty close to get home without charging.

Oh I agree with you on that, but my level of expectation was set based on others seeing 3-5% a day. It still needs improved drastically, but to me this shows significant improvement.

 

[SANZC02]

I have to disagree, while not a huge problem this issue shouldn’t exist at all. We left our model 3 at the airport for 5 days at 65%, came back to it being 65%. I don’t know how much of that is adjusted behind the scenes by Tesla but if the car is asleep it shouldn’t be using any battery.

Sometimes I drive to another airport to fly (~100 miles each way) which would be about 65% off the battery. If I leave it for two weeks I’d be cutting it pretty close to get home without charging.

Getting it to zero is not possible, take a lithium battery for any application and sit it on a shelf it will lose power.

My Model S will sleep pretty well after being parked for a day on subsequent inactive days but it will still lose power. In the 70s not much but over 100 or under 40 it can be at least 2% or 3% a day, maybe more.

If the expectation is you will lose as little as you do in an ICE vehicle, you will be disappointed.

 

[mini2nut]

I had a 2022 Ford Lightning that I sold after 3-months. During my 12-weeks of ownership it would lose 1-2 miles PER WEEK.

I am looking forward to improved vampire loss numbers from Rivian engineers in future updates.

 

[Madsen203]

So…about 600kwh per year of usage. That’s insane. What a waste of energy. In California, that’s $250-300/yr just in idle state. Where we live, equivalent to 1 solar panel needed just for idle state of truck.

 

[JamesPolk24]

Getting it to zero is not possible, take a lithium battery for any application and sit it on a shelf it will lose power.

My Model S will sleep pretty well after being parked for a day on subsequent inactive days but it will still lose power. In the 70s not much but over 100 or under 40 it can be at least 2% or 3% a day, maybe more.

If the expectation is you will lose as little as you do in an ICE vehicle, you will be disappointed.

Storage loss on lithium batteries is extremely minimal. Talking less than 1/80th of 1 percent a day at 20°C and 1/60th of 1 percent at more extreme temps 45°C. It's a tiny tiny fraction of what our vehicles are consuming due to vampire power. Not even worth mentioning.

 

[SANZC02]

Storage loss on lithium batteries is extremely minimal. Talking less than 1/80th of 1 percent a day at 20°C and 1/60th of 1 percent at more extreme temps 45°C. It's a tiny tiny fraction of what our vehicles are consuming due to vampire power. Not even worth mentioning.

Your numbers are a bit low although my point was you cannot get to zero. The self discharge numbers are a completely idle battery with zero load. In an EV this will never be the case as they are always doing some things and running the BMS is one of them.

Most lithium-ion batteries have a self-discharge rate of between 0.5-3% per month. At lower temperatures, this discharging rate can increase drastically.

That being said, Rivian numbers being reported from owners has been high, they are working on it and will be interested to see how it behaves with this latest OTA they are starting to roll out.

 

[JamesPolk24]

Your numbers are a bit low although my point was you cannot get to zero. The self discharge numbers are a completely idle battery with zero load. In an EV this will never be the case as they are always doing some things and running the BMS is one of them.

Most lithium-ion batteries have a self-discharge rate of between 0.5-3% per month. At lower temperatures, this discharging rate can increase drastically.

That being said, Rivian numbers being reported from owners has been high, they are working on it and will be interested to see how it behaves with this latest OTA they are starting to roll out.

I'll trust the scientific studies done to determine this. It's less than 0.5% per month for storage losses. This thread is about the extreme vampire losses experienced with Rivians. Leave a F150 Lightning or Ioniq 5 for a month. Losses will be about what we lose in a day. This is not acceptable. We want to move to 100% EV vehicles, we can't be building nuclear plants dedicated to the vampire losses in the fleet.

One of many...

Jessie E. Harlow et al 2019 J. Electrochem. Soc
Journal of The Electrochemical Society
" A Wide Range of Testing Results on an Excellent Lithium-Ion Cell Chemistry to be used as Benchmarks for New Battery Technologies "

 

[bael]

Thank you for your research @zonehawk!

1.2% loss/day seems to be the average lately w/o Gear Guard on at reasonable surrounding temps and no or very limited phone wakeups. Hopefully there's still some low-hanging reductions to be made where they can cut the current figure in half. If they did that... no one would ever mention vampire drain again. One member posted a log they kept running for 24hrs+ and it seems the truck wakes up every 3hrs and stays awake for a full hour then goes back to sleep for another three hours then wakes and stays awake for another full hour... that cycle repeats continuously. Seems pretty wasteful to have a sitting truck wake up and stay awake for 6 full hours every day without being used.

my truck wakes up and connects to WiFi on this schedule over last 24 hours (large block was while charging). It is currently plugged up which may impact some, but when I check,i Feel like I usually see this pattern

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I have to disagree, while not a huge problem this issue shouldn’t exist at all. We left our model 3 at the airport for 5 days at 65%, came back to it being 65%. I don’t know how much of that is adjusted behind the scenes by Tesla but if the car is asleep it shouldn’t be using any battery.

Sometimes I drive to another airport to fly (~100 miles each way) which would be about 65% off the battery. If I leave it for two weeks I’d be cutting it pretty close to get home without charging.

I wish I could say that about my Tesla. If I leave my Tesla for a week at the airport, I better have a supercharger nearby for when I get back.

Sponsored