Cascade passes day trip, range, charging, and driver+ reports in R1T

[Derek]

Wow!! What an amazingly detailed write-up. Thank you

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[Derek]

This picture of your truck with all the mud on the door... I understand Rivian has added some paint protective film (PPF) on the bottom of the doors and the gear tunnel. Have you noticed any paint damage above the factory PPF?

 

[timesinks]

This picture of your truck with all the mud on the door... I understand Rivian has added some paint protective film (PPF) on the bottom of the doors and the gear tunnel. Have you noticed any paint damage above the factory PPF?

Other than a rinse in the rain, we haven't washed it yet. Can report back after we do.

 

[Gator42]

Other than a rinse in the rain, we haven't washed it yet.

We approve!

 

[Bigeasy70075]

One of the points I was really surprised by from your write-up was that it cost you $28 to get ~120 miles of range added back (and realistically 110 miles since the range is generally overestimated).

Most trucks get about ~20mpg on highways these days so call it 6 gallons of gas equivalent for $28 and that's $4.66/gal. I'll personally be moving from a 30mpg SUV so even worse there (for me personally).

Is this really what to expect the cost for charging to be? I have never owned an electric vehicle and I thought charging was supposed to be significantly less expensive than gas. I realize charging at home for me will be great and to expect 250 miles of range to cost just $8 in Idaho. But man, charging outside of home will be just as or more expensive than gas. And who knows if it'll get more or less expensive as time goes on.

I'm still ignorant on electric so any thoughts (or corrections) to what I said would be appreciated! I also understand this is a small gripe considering the truck is roughly 80k, it's just surprising to me is all.

Side question, how often do people on this forum with electric cars find themselves using charging stations compared to just charging from home?

I have a Tesla and the cost of charging on the EA network always shocks me. Talk about price gouging. That is more expensive than gas. Companies like this are going to ruin the switch to electric. This is the one thing that worries me about leaving Tesla. The supercharging network is light years ahead of all the others. Price, locations, ease of use, reliability, all are better with the Tesla network. Wish Rivian would just partner with Tesla to use the supercharger network then add their own chargers at adventure destinations. Think that would be great for us and Rivian.

 

[SeaGeo]

I have a Tesla and the cost of charging on the EA network always shocks me. Talk about price gouging. That is more expensive than gas. Companies like this are going to ruin the switch to electric. This is the one thing that worries me about leaving Tesla. The supercharging network is light years ahead of all the others. Price, locations, ease of use, reliability, all are better with the Tesla network. Wish Rivian would just partner with Tesla to use the supercharger network then add their own chargers at adventure destinations. Think that would be great for us and Rivian.

What makes you think EA is price gouging?

 

[Joel]

I have a Tesla and the cost of charging on the EA network always shocks me. Talk about price gouging. That is more expensive than gas. Companies like this are going to ruin the switch to electric. This is the one thing that worries me about leaving Tesla. The supercharging network is light years ahead of all the others. Price, locations, ease of use, reliability, all are better with the Tesla network. Wish Rivian would just partner with Tesla to use the supercharger network then add their own chargers at adventure destinations. Think that would be great for us and Rivian.

If you use EA a lot, the upgraded plus membership might be worth it.

 

[lawmangm]

Question on the membership. Did you have to pay for charging or was that included when you purchased via the membership?

 

[timesinks]

Question on the membership. Did you have to pay for charging or was that included when you purchased via the membership?

EA has a monthly subscription that gets you a discounted rate for charging. They are a third party charge network and have no affiliation with Rivian.

But I think you might have been asking about the Rivian membership thing. The Rivian membership is, at best, in a soft launch phase right now. I think until they get their offering together and turned on (no live RAN stations yet), they're just giving it all away for free. Once they have it figured out a little better, I'd expect them to actually launch the membership, doing a better job explaining what it includes, and probably still with a reasonable free trial period.

 

[Lsthrz]

The issue of the cruise control slowing and speeding up in curves (sharp curves) and some of the phantom actions sure reminds me of early days in my Tesla Model S. It has gotten so much better over time through OTA updates. I’m sure we will see this with Rivian as well.

 

[NorthernOak]

I have a Tesla and the cost of charging on the EA network always shocks me

Agreed. As a Tesla owner and frequent road tripper on the Supercharger Network, seeing those prices with EA always surprise me. That pricing change coming from a Tesla will be hard to swallow. Last summer I drove from SE MN to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and back, some 3k+ miles and it cost me $170 in charging. And all my charging was done at Tesla Superchargers. The other concern or area to get use to will be the down stations and charging speeds. At a supercharger you're almost always getting great speeds and when a station is down you can report it and Tesla is quick to repair it. Usually when I've reported a station/pedestal issue with Tesla they say they're are already aware and a tech is scheduled to come out.

I understand many say EA is way better than they used to be, but that just feels like an excuse I hear all to often for them to continue to not be as good as they should be. I want them to succeed, I want them and other charging networks to be everywhere as we truly need them to be. But we also need the experience at the stations to be better to not sour newcomers to the electric revolution.

 

[whyasky]

Agreed. As a Tesla owner and frequent road tripper on the Supercharger Network, seeing those prices with EA always surprise me. That pricing change coming from a Tesla will be hard to swallow. Last summer I drove from SE MN to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and back, some 3k+ miles and it cost me $170 in charging. And all my charging was done at Tesla Superchargers. The other concern or area to get use to will be the down stations and charging speeds. At a supercharger you're almost always getting great speeds and when a station is down you can report it and Tesla is quick to repair it. Usually when I've reported a station/pedestal issue with Tesla they say they're are already aware and a tech is scheduled to come out.

I understand many say EA is way better than they used to be, but that just feels like an excuse I hear all to often for them to continue to not be as good as they should be. I want them to succeed, I want them and other charging networks to be everywhere as we truly need them to be. But we also need the experience at the stations to be better to not sour newcomers to the electric revolution.

Couple of things to mention. As relates to cost, yes EA is more expensive than Tesla superchargers. However, it's not that much more. To do your 3000mi trip in your tesla, assuming 3mi/kwh, you'd charge about 1000kwh for that trip. With the EA subscription (which you should have if you travel like this), that would cost $310. Yes it's almost 2x the supercharger rate, but that SC is subsidized by tesla and you pay for that experience in the price of the car, at least in part. With an R1T getting 2mi/kwh, this trip would be about $475. Most of that increase is just physics though.

As for EA quality, I've been using it for about a year on my ID4. I've had to switch stalls a couple times, but it's never failed to get the job done. I've also never had any throttling issues some have experienced. On this point, YMMV. This winter in temps near 40, my ID4 would pull about 90kW, which is fine for this car. During warmer temperatures, it achieves the full 125kW it's rated for below ~30% soc and EA follows the car's requested curve just fine (as best as I can tell). Overall, the EA experience has been good, not great. I think the horror stories are overblown.

 

[Lsthrz]

Unless you have unlimited supercharging as I do with my Tesla -- now THAT is going to be hard to give up!

 

[SeaGeo]

Yes it's almost 2x the supercharger rate, but that SC is subsidized by tesla and you pay for that experience in the price of the car, at least in part. With an R1T getting 2mi/kwh, this trip would be about $475. Most of that increase is just physics though.

This is key. Tesla has signaled that they will charge non-tesla's more if they allow them to use the supercharger network at some point.

Tesla has historically seemed to view the network as an overhead cost to drive sales (which is true), hence it was initially free.

EA, and other networks have to cover the full cost through the networks themselves. Most manufacturers are managing some of that by providing a period of time of free charging (e.g. 3 years of 30 minute sessions for free).

If you look into the costs the EA incurs, particularly on the electricity side in some areas with demand fees, it's pretty easy to see why they are charging what they are. If anything, I think they are under-priced in areas of the Country where they are subject to large demand fees. A single spike in usage at a station (like having a couple of ID.4s on the 150kw chargers and then a Taycan showing up) that's rarely used can cost the 10s of thousands of dollars in demand fees. They have some tricks to try and work around them, but it requires a lot of creativity.

 

[Xswimmer]

Thank you for the thorough report!

We've only charged our 2018 Bolt once at the Leavenworth EA station...but it was stupidly slow and very frustrating. We travel several times a year from western Oregon to Leavenworth...our typical pattern is to add some miles at the Evgo Chargers at the North Bend Outlet Mall (also charge at other stops before then) before heading up and over the passes. That gets us to Leavenworth just fine. We usually stay at Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort, where there is a free charger, so we can leave for home with a full battery.

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