Conserve Mode: $125 a month tire cost!

[SANZC02]

I was warned about excessive tire wear from conserve mode when mine was delivered last May. It should be put in writing somewhere IMO.

Hopefully people do not get scared away from using conserve. I used conserve a lot on the longer highway stretches in low, not lowest. Most other driving is in all purpose standard height.

Since I did a long trip when I picked it up probably at least 4k of the 6k I currently have was in conserve. I just rotated the tires checked tread ware for depth and evenness and it all looks good. I switch to conserve once I am on the freeway and back to all purpose just before exiting the freeway. I do not drive around in conserve when not on the freeway.

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[Indy avocado]

The tire wear makes sense if you think of the stress you're putting on them...
Most FWD vehicles are under 4000lbs. Usually ~3500lbs.
So in conserve, the Rivian is going to apply twice as much torque (wear) to accelerate at the same rate.
Then, there's the factor of deceleration (braking) - In a FWD car, all 4 tires do the braking. In the Rivian in Conserve, the front wheels do all of your deceleration unless you're using the brake pedal. So this is twice the weight and half the tires involved in slowing down... approximately 4x the wear.

So I would expect that a Rivian in Conserve will chew through front tires at approximately 2-3x the rate of a normal FWD car, depending on how gently people drive.

I think the anecdotes are between 10k and 30k before they wear out for people driving mostly in conserve, which would correspond to ~30k to 60k mile life on a typical FWD car with the same driving technique and tire.

I was told (verbally) at delivery that it's recommended to only use conserve on the highway.

Bottom line:
I agree that Rivian should make it very very clear on the dash that you should not use conserve around town - in my experience the efficiency gain is negligible except at ~60-80mph.

 

[Brewbud]

Hopefully people do not get scared away from using conserve. I used conserve a lot on the longer highway stretches in low, not lowest. Most other driving is in all purpose standard height.

Since I did a long trip when I picked it up probably at least 4k of the 6k I currently have was in conserve. I just rotated the tires checked tread ware for depth and evenness and it all looks good. I switch to conserve once I am on the freeway and back to all purpose just before exiting the freeway. I do not drive around in conserve when not on the freeway.

I seldom use conserve. I don't care for the feel of it in conserve.

 

[SANZC02]

I seldom use conserve. I don't care for the feel of it in conserve.

I agree, definite different feel.

I do not use it in SoCal but driving cross country on wide open freeways, it worked well. Put it in conserve, set driver plus 2 miles over posted speed and was pretty consistent getting 2.2-2.4 miles per kw.

 

[87Ducks]

Glad i found this thread. I was about to post asking if there was a downside of conserve mode. Sounds like the consensus is it should be only be used in steady state situations in conjunction with cruise control on open highways or if trying to squeeze a few extra miles to reach a charging point.

As far as tires, I don't beleive original tires normally come with a tread wear warranty. I remember learning this when having to replace my Ridgeline 's "40,000 mile" warranty Michelins after 20k on the vehicle. I am optimistic market forces will create more and better tire options for the soon to be ubiquitous heavy EV's.

 

[EricSD858]

I have not seen much on how much driving in conserve mode costs or otherwise the cost of tire usage with R1T.

Back in December 2022 after driving my truck for just under 10,000 miles over 8 months, normal roads, normal driving habits (i.e. no crazy accelerations or stops) including 2 road trips of about 1500 miles each, I had to changed my front tires as they were totally worn out! It was so bad that I could not risk a short trip. So I took it to our local service center thinking it would be covered under warrantee. It was not. I paid just over $1000. I was told there is nothing wrong with the tires or the car. It was my fault for driving in 'conserve mode'. Consequently I have contacted Rivian on a number of occasions and got nowhere.

I wish I was told this when I had about an hour, test driving and talking to a rep prior to purchasing, as well as another hour when the car was delivered. I guess after driving multiple cars over 30 years, I some how missed the opportunity to learn this, what appears to be a simple fact that driving a heavy truck in 'conserve mode' which means front wheel drive, means frequent change of tires.

But perhaps, Rivian should explain to buyers either in person by reps, or by means of the display info for each driving mode that driving in conserve mode will lead to faster tire wear, much faster tire wear. Perhaps Rivian should choose more appropriate tires to manage the weight and acceleration of the car. One rep over the phone told informed me that I should not expect more performance from the tires since I chose to purchase a heavy truck with sport like acceleration.
I love my R1T. I have invested in Rivian stocks too. I think this is the best car I have ever owned. But I am disappointed as an early adopter, I had to pay the price for what I see as a design fault and lack of appropriate communication. I am totally aware of the savings I made on purchasing the car prior to the price hike.

I see a lot of posts about range and costs these days but there is not much about this rather hidden issue affecting range and running cost of the truck.

I only used conserve on the freeway and had more than normal wear on the front also. When getting tires rotated I was told to only use conserve if really needed. I only drive in all purpose and sport mode and still get close to 300miles on the AT 20's.

 

[ironpig]

Sometimes I can't believe some of these posts are real.

 

[FLTANK]

I only used conserve on the freeway and had more than normal wear on the front also. When getting tires rotated I was told to only use conserve if really needed. I only drive in all purpose and sport mode and still get close to 300miles on the AT 20's.

I had my first mile demo drive this morning in NY and my guide made a point to discuss how conserve mode eats up the front tires if used often for normal daily driving and emphasized only using it in cruising situations. He also mentioned the importance of consistent tire rotations more than once to make these tires last, so Rivian is obviously trying to spread the work to their customer base about tire wear. He also mentioned they are seeing a lot of issues with the 22" wheels/tires here in NY given how bad the roads are. The low profile tires combined with the weight and power of the truck is not a great combo when traversing potholes. Seems obvious but definitely something else to consider given what these wheels and tires cost.
For what it's worth, I did ask and unfortunately he wasn't able to tell me if the dual-motor setup (I'm waiting on a dual motor/max pack R1T) shares the same characteristics as the Quad motor setup in decoupling the rear motor(s) on both acceleration and regen but we should know for sure fairly soon.

 

[RivianXpress]

I’m at 9000 miles with trips from Bay Area to Idaho and back with two motorcycles in bed and also trips to vegas, etc.

20” tires - pic from two days ago and yes I use conserve a lot.

 

[DTown3011]

Never used Conserve mode and don't plan to unless I do a road trip where I need the range.

 

[bbonkk]

I wish my 20 inch ATs lasted over 10K. They’re gone and I was just trying to figure out how much to cost me per mile to drive the vehicle. So the cost of over $2000 in tires for 10,000 miles that’s $.20 a mile just for tires. That’s about 2x of what I pay for the electricity to drive the vehicle charging at my home. I pay about $.20 a kilowatt and that $.20 gets me 2 miles so in reality I used 500 kW so I spent $1000 for electricity and $2000 for tires. I rarely use conserve mode. Alignment sucks big time. Been aligned 6 months ago. In again tomorrow.

 

[Golfer04]

I wish my 20 inch ATs lasted over 10K. They’re gone and I was just trying to figure out how much to cost me per mile to drive the vehicle. So the cost of over $2000 in tires for 10,000 miles that’s $.20 a mile just for tires. That’s about 2x of what I pay for the electricity to drive the vehicle charging at my home. I pay about $.20 a kilowatt and that $.20 gets me 2 miles so in reality I used 500 kW so I spent $1000 for electricity and $2000 for tires. I rarely use conserve mode. Alignment sucks big time. Been aligned 6 months ago. In again tomorrow.

Do you have the suspension on "auto"? IMO the Pirelli's suck, but driving around in anything but "normal" suspension height will wreck your tires. I learned that the hard way too. I went to normal suspension and mostly AP mode on my second set of tires (Michelin). As of today have 35,000 miles on them and at 8/32. Excellent tire life.

 

[Supratachophobia]

This is why McDonalds has to tell people their coffee is hot. So you drove your R1T in front wheel drive for 10,000 miles and never rotated your tires? Yes, I would expect exactly what you have discovered, front wore out and your rear tires most likely still have a lot of life. I have 22’s, I’ll be rotating every 5k and I’m not expecting more than 20k from these Pirelli’s.

No OEM tires have a warranty that I know of unless they do a good Will replacement.

False, don't use the McDonald's example here. Their coffee was repeatedly too hot and they were warned on multiple occasions.

And while I sympathize with OP, he only has himself to blame. The info is out there and maybe even he was told in passing but didn't remember. Not Rivian's fault.

OP, use this as a learning experience for the vehicle. It was a relatively cheap lesson, no one got hurt.

The most egregious thing here is that OP was driving around nerfing that 835HP on purpose.

 

[jeeden]

I used Conserve a few weeks ago on the highway while returning from a ski trip when I was trying to make it to a RAN charger instead of stopping at an EA. It was the first time I used it since I originally tried it last spring (not understanding it was for just highway use at the time... I guess we were all trying to figure it out then?) on a day trip with mixed roadways and got complaints from the kids about the ride being bumpy in the back and me spinning the front wheels a bit on the stop signs. I was very happy this time though with the ride (probably because of all the suspension updates) and the saved mileage was exactly what I needed to keep the anxiety down for my wife and I.

That said...

I think that Rivian should rebrand the entire conserve mode option. They should call it something different like reserve mode, stretch mode, Range assist, highway extend, etc so that it is clear to owners that it is not the "economy" button found on late 80's Japanese cars and shouldn't be used all the time, but just when needed under certain conditions. I agree with the above that they should put on the screen notes that say it can impact handling, response, tire wear, etc and should be used intermittently

 

[ksurfier]

100% agree, it definitely doesn't conserve tires!

I would almost say that it should only be available above 60 MPH and if range is less than ~40%. It's bad for tires and imagine not great on the front motors as well...

Is there any benefit to conserve under 50 MPH? Although, now that I think about it, a bid snowy parking lot would be a lot of fun in conserve....

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