Cold Weather Testing | Progress Report | Rivian - Official Video

[Rivian-WI]

Anyone else wonder why they need to display the "Drivetrain" as "4x4"? Should we take from that the R1T is capable of a different drivetrain "setting," such as "4x2"?

I've long wondered if all 4 electric motors will run at all times.

Maybe there is an 'eco' mode that drops to 2 motors for highway driving to extend range.?.?

Left field question... (Not an engineer or able to run numbers.) But could you 'drive' with two and 'regen' with the other two to extend range? My guess is no because the return on investment would not be there.

Sponsored

 

[Gshenderson]

Maybe there is an 'eco' mode that drops to 2 motors for highway driving to extend range.?.?

Tesla’s have an “echo” mode (as in echo chamber). If you say anything negative about Tesla, it automatically pulls to the side of the road and refuses to move until a true fanboy gets behind the wheel. ?

 

[Boomer]

Maybe there is an 'eco' mode that drops to 2 motors for highway driving to extend range.?.?

This is what I have long wondered. My understanding is that some of the newer dual motor Teslas use a permanent magnet motor in the front and an AC induction motor in the rear. If Rivian did something similar that would create a very elegant way to switch from 4x4 to 4x2 without a mechanical transfer case. That might allow for some range gain by "turning off" the rear motors.

I'm making a lot out of that one shot of the R1T interface, but I found it strange they had to display the vehicle was in 4x4.

These electric trucks are really a brain virus because 4 motors allows for the possibility of replacing the transmission, differential, and transfer case with an electronic solution.

 

[SeaGeo]

This is what I have long wondered. My understanding is that some of the newer dual motor Teslas use a permanent magnet motor in the front and an AC induction motor in the rear. If Rivian did something similar that would create a very elegant way to switch from 4x4 to 4x2 without a mechanical transfer case. That might allow for some range gain by "turning off" the rear motors.

I'm making a lot out of that one shot of the R1T interface, but I found it strange they had to display the vehicle was in 4x4.

These electric trucks are really a brain virus because 4 motors allows for the possibility of replacing the transmission, differential, and transfer case with an electronic solution.

Taycan has a range mode that drops down to rear wheel only. I believe egmp platform has a similar capabilities to disconnect two motors as well.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Anyone else wonder why they need to display the "Drivetrain" as "4x4"? Should we take from that the R1T is capable of a different drivetrain "setting," such as "4x2"?

I've long wondered if all 4 electric motors will run at all times.

Rivian has said smaller crossovers and other vehicles are in their future. Quad motors is expensive. It makes sense to build a scalable software platform that can support different configurations with minimal changes.

 

[azbill]

There is no charger capable of that on the market - that would be 460 kW. They can do 500A or 920V, but not both at the same time.

Where did you get that I stated that? I stated it is a 62.5KW charger, maximum, but that it does support up to 1000V on the output. At 1000V, that only supports 62.5A, thus it is still limited to 62.5KW, regardless of 400V or 800V charging. Here is the spec, it does exist.

 

[DB-EV]

a little over a week ago I got a call from someone who appears to be in some sort of management role in the company, they called me in regards to an email i had sent, He informed me that the EPA results had already been given to them and because of some testing they were still doing and also because of some changes that were still being discussed they hadnt released them. so take with a grain of salt what CS tells you as they are way down the line of information that is released by management at rivian. One of the things i complained in the email was how CS info is so inconsistent all the time, they say one thing then another agent says something different. He informed me that my email had actually been sent to R.J. himself as well as the head of the CS dept. because they had been getting the same complaints on the CS dept.

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Fruitless but entertaining speculation - was the testing they were waiting for winter testing? : )

 

[Gearhead500]

I do appreciate that Rivian has been putting out almost daily videos, but I wish they contained more.....ya know, information. Of any kind.

Watching the R1T slide around on ice is neat and all, but I think we’d all appreciate some actual details about the truck

I understand your point but think about it. The communications have picked up significantly. We learned a lot about the tracking and cold weather charging and how their testing. I guess I’m glad for more info and it does give me confidence.

 

[Gearhead500]

Based on this shot I am very worried about glare on the instrument panel screen... Hopefully it won't be a problem.

However, I wonder if the reason it is so close to the driver is because it's a touch screen that you can interact with. I doubt it but it'd be interesting to see how that would be implemented.

Think the glare in this shot is the angle of the camera not the drivers POV

 

[Shzeph]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for anything Rivian releases these days. And the blog post accompanying the video was vastly more informative than the video itself.

I suppose I’m just a bit sick of being told “we’ll release those details closer to production” over and over again haha

 

[Pixelshot]

What can we deduce from this indicator that clearly says "54 mi." ??

- Probably 96 Miles per hour, rather than KM, though it's hard to believe you'd ever want to drive a truck on ice/snow at over 100mph. However, it's still possible for these tests that they are measuring distance (range) in miles and speed in KM/h. 100 KM/h is about 62 mph which sounds much more reasonable. But who knows, maybe they like it fast!

- 54 remaining miles of range, at these cold temperatures, with about 2/3 of the bar remaining (definitely less than half full), means this would support maybe 150 miles of range if full in these conditions. This would map to what many EV drivers have experienced, including my own experience with a VW eGolf in Colorado, that range can get cut down by as much as half when the outside temperature drops.

(and yes, looks to me that the glare is from the screen protector film. You can see the bubbles.)

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Maybe there is an 'eco' mode that drops to 2 motors for highway driving to extend range.?.?

Left field question... (Not an engineer or able to run numbers.) But could you 'drive' with two and 'regen' with the other two to extend range? My guess is no because the return on investment would not be there.

Energy can neither be created, nor destroyed — only converted. And no conversion process is perfectly efficient. So running regen while using powered propulsion would ultimately use more battery than not using regen.

 

[kanundrum]

What can we deduce from this indicator that clearly says "54 mi." ??

- Probably 96 Miles per hour, rather than KM, though it's hard to believe you'd ever want to drive a truck on ice/snow at over 100mph. However, it's still possible for these tests that they are measuring distance (range) in miles and speed in KM/h. 100 KM/h is about 62 mph which sounds much more reasonable. But who knows, maybe they like it fast!

- 54 remaining miles of range, at these cold temperatures, with about 2/3 of the bar remaining (definitely less than half full), means this would support maybe 150 miles of range if full in these conditions. This would map to what many EV drivers have experienced, including my own experience with a VW eGolf in Colorado, that range can get cut down by as much as half when the outside temperature drops.

(and yes, looks to me that the glare is from the screen protector film. You can see the bubbles.)

I saw that earlier and was going to post but to be honest range is based on driving styles, if its -40, your tearing it around a ice track all day long, have HVAC on and you are at 40% (I think 2/3rd is not correct) then that makes sense. I am actually going to the track tomorrow and my MPG reads 6.9mpg when I clear it before my laps.

Remember the car is self learning based on driving characteristics so.

 

[Pixelshot]

I saw that earlier and was going to post but to be honest range is based on driving styles, if its -40, your tearing it around a ice track all day long, have HVAC on and you are at 40% (I think 2/3rd is not correct) then that makes sense. I am actually going to the track tomorrow and my MPG reads 6.9mpg when I clear it before my laps.

Remember the car is self learning based on driving characteristics so.

Yeah, I meant 2/3 used 1/3 remaining.

 

[Ssaygmo]

Wonder what Comfort Valve Closed means?

Also second icon on the top left potentially indicates that it supports multiple users? That would be kind of cool but just my guess.

I'd imagine comfort valve refers to something affecting the hydraulic damping system we have heard about, but have non concrete information on yet. Besides the air bags in the suspension, they are using some sort of hydraulic system as well. I'm hoping they have a mode for rock crawling that allows maximum articulation, rather than just jacking up the height as much as possible (which stiffens the suspension and reduces articulation), it can somehow increase the height a bit but also soften the dampers and whatever hydraulic system, if its similar to what mclaren uses, could allow independent softening for a wheel under the most load to droop the vehicle onto the other wheels that are in the air. Prevent the teeter totter effect caused by the lack of a rear axle.

I'm guessing that some of these visualizations we are getting here could be engineering only use, just so they can see what's going on while testing, and while the vehicles may be production intent, the UI and info we see may be more than we as end users will see.

Sponsored