Currently driving from FL to CA

[Rainman]

Greetings

Over the past three days we have driven just under 2000 miles - from Sarasota FL -> Albuquerque NM, and we are continuing on to Southern California and then north to Vancouver BC, Canada.

2023 R1T that I have had exactly one year (yesterday). The truck is very comfortable for long drives over all road types. You can pack a ton of gear into an R1T, and two dogs. AC has kept us very comfortable and it has been in the 90s all day every day.

We have charged at Electrify America, Tesla and Rivian Adventure Network. EA is the worst of the 3, but the new rating systems is accurate. The A rated stations have worked well. Tesla and RAN just work and they are FAST -over 200 KW before tapering, every charge.

My thoughts ... for me an EV just adds too much time to a road trip of this length. We would have shaved hours off of each day if we were driving an ICE vehicle and I don't see the upside to driving an EV as the cost is about the same as fuel. This is just my opinion.

As my daily driver, the R1T is fantastic ...

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[Killer95Stang]

I can totally agree with this. I'm doing my annual trip to Mammoth in July and if I take the Rivian it is because I can.... but, the smart thing to do is drive my ICE Ecoboost F150. With it's 36 gallon tank, I can make it there and back on a single tank of gas. This is about 625 miles rount trip and my truck will go almost 700 miles if I drive conservatively. The reality is, I'll probably take the Rivian, because I love driving it and I'm a glutton for punishment

 

[Cycliste]

666 miles / 1072 kilometers a day does mean quite a bit of time to charge. I can see your point, if you want to drive that many miles per day. How much time would you spend on rest breaks if you were not resting while charging?

 

[Rainman]

We have done trips like this in the past - mostly in our Ford Raptor with a 36 gal / 144 l tank. Even with the dogs the stops were much shorter - 10 minutes. In addition, I did stop and charge for safety more than I "had to" ... I wasn't comfortable arriving with 10% battery in some remote places with few chargers - I realize that's on me and relative to my risk profile. Off to Flag Staff AZ today.

 

[Cycliste]

Have a nice trip! Happy Birthday to your R1T!

 

[StefanB]

I'm 100% in agreement with OP regarding road trips with EVs. Last summer the family and I drove to Telluride from San Francisco Bay. It was a much longer trip because every 200 miles or so we had to stop for at least 30 minutes.
I also agree that with the state of EV charging networks you have to be conservative. I would plan to find a charge with 20%+ SoC because I didn't want to be stuck in the middle of somewhere with limited charging options and a pissed of family "because Dad had to drive the R1S rather than rent an RV".
In July I'll be driving to Atlanta for a move and I am not looking forward to it, but only way to get our 2 dogs there.

Safe travel OP, and welcome to California!

 

[YouKnowWhatsUp]

Greetings

Over the past three days we have driven just under 2000 miles - from Sarasota FL -> Albuquerque NM, and we are continuing on to Southern California and then north to Vancouver BC, Canada.

2023 R1T that I have had exactly one year (yesterday). The truck is very comfortable for long drives over all road types. You can pack a ton of gear into an R1T, and two dogs. AC has kept us very comfortable and it has been in the 90s all day every day.

We have charged at Electrify America, Tesla and Rivian Adventure Network. EA is the worst of the 3, but the new rating systems is accurate. The A rated stations have worked well. Tesla and RAN just work and they are FAST -over 200 KW before tapering, every charge.

My thoughts ... for me an EV just adds too much time to a road trip of this length. We would have shaved hours off of each day if we were driving an ICE vehicle and I don't see the upside to driving an EV as the cost is about the same as fuel. This is just my opinion.

As my daily driver, the R1T is fantastic ...

I think to make a road trip like this work you have to plan your drives so you are arriving to a hotel with a charger and almost empty battery and topping off over night. The battery is too big to fill twice during the day. I just got done driving 400 miles and I only had to stop twice for 15 minutes but I left my house with a full battery of 352 and arrived to my destination with about 60.

 

[VC_Rivian]

Question about your 2 dogs: Do they sit in the back seat area? What kind of dogs? I have a 70-lb golden retriever and am trying to figure out the best way for her to feel comfortable on a long trip. Thanks.

 

[KRG]

Safe travels!

I’ve done Dallas to Miami to Boston to DC back to Dallas then finally to Southern California in a Tesla and I found the experience pretty easy. The self driving outweighed the need to stop more frequently for me. I tried to plan charging stops around times we wanted to stop to eat etc anyway. I haven’t done any long distance in the Rivian though. I think I’m gonna take it up to Tahoe later this summer. We have lots of RAN chargers here so I’m expecting it’ll be a good experience.

 

[moosetags]

We have limited experience with EV road trips. Our one long distance trip with Opal (our R1T) was from the Rivian Factory in Normal, Illinois to our home in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida which was about 900 miles.

On this trip, Opal was accompanied by our Silverado Duramax towing our Airstream Travel Trailer. As we were overnighter at RV campgrounds, we had access to 14-50 240v RV outlets each evening. Opal charged to 80% overnight at between 15 and 18 mph. Each afternoon we would give her a booster charge at an Electrify America outlet. We easily made the trip home without any problems.

We are not sure that Opal ready for extension travel towing the Airstream as her range would be somewhere around 150 miles. We are going to try some shorter trip but will be keeping the Duramax for the long hauls.

Brian

 

[defcon888]

When we made our trip from NorCal to SoCal (Disneyland), we calculated the time of charging and made sure we charged at places that had food or a store. We charged at an In N Out by Magic Mountain and they have an EVGo there, so we charged and grabbed a burger. After we finished eat (45 minutes later), we were back up to 80% which gave us more than enough miles. On the way back, we retraced our route with no issues.

Again, super long trips, yeah I could see the downside of the time it takes, but to be honest,I think most of us knew what we were getting into.

My prediction is that within 5 to 10 years, we will be able to charge at a faster speed that will rival filling a gas tank. (+/- 5 mins.)

The ROI with charging at times is more expensive for sure...unless you live in California (like we do) where it will always be cheaper to charge rather than gas. For example, I charge at home 99% of the time and the other 1% is when I am at work and that is free to me as an employee.

 

[Treebeard]

Greetings

Over the past three days we have driven just under 2000 miles - from Sarasota FL -> Albuquerque NM, and we are continuing on to Southern California and then north to Vancouver BC, Canada.

2023 R1T that I have had exactly one year (yesterday). The truck is very comfortable for long drives over all road types. You can pack a ton of gear into an R1T, and two dogs. AC has kept us very comfortable and it has been in the 90s all day every day.

We have charged at Electrify America, Tesla and Rivian Adventure Network. EA is the worst of the 3, but the new rating systems is accurate. The A rated stations have worked well. Tesla and RAN just work and they are FAST -over 200 KW before tapering, every charge.

My thoughts ... for me an EV just adds too much time to a road trip of this length. We would have shaved hours off of each day if we were driving an ICE vehicle and I don't see the upside to driving an EV as the cost is about the same as fuel. This is just my opinion.

As my daily driver, the R1T is fantastic ...

Agree, I charge an hour for 525 miles which takes me about 9.5 to 10 hours. I will continue to drive my R1, I don’t have an ICE. I love my R and unless money changes, will continue on with it. I do one or two long trips a year, so no really an issue for me. I am hoping for better battery tech. In the near future with faster charge times. It would be nice for charging cost to come down.

 

[mini2nut]

BEV’s still need a battery cell breakthrough in order to go mainstream. Stopping to charge during road trips is too time consuming when traversing across this large country.

I feel we are still 5-10 years away from an honest 450 mile range battery pack that can be recharged in 5-10 minutes.

 

[DiveSherpa]

We have done trips like this in the past - mostly in our Ford Raptor with a 36 gal / 144 l tank. Even with the dogs the stops were much shorter - 10 minutes. In addition, I did stop and charge for safety more than I "had to" ... I wasn't comfortable arriving with 10% battery in some remote places with few chargers - I realize that's on me and relative to my risk profile. Off to Flag Staff AZ today.

Thanks for posting about your experience.
I will be heading to Flagstaff tomorrow from Phoenix, and then on to Albuquerque on our way to Dallas in our R1T. While route planning all of the RAV chargers dropped off my planner. I was wondering if it was a glitch where ABRP just could not see charger status. If you happen to charge in Flagstaff at a RAV charger, I would appreciate knowing if (or that one specifically) is online.
Safe travels.

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

I can totally agree with this. I'm doing my annual trip to Mammoth in July and if I take the Rivian it is because I can.... but, the smart thing to do is drive my ICE Ecoboost F150. With it's 36 gallon tank, I can make it there and back on a single tank of gas. This is about 625 miles rount trip and my truck will go almost 700 miles if I drive conservatively. The reality is, I'll probably take the Rivian, because I love driving it and I'm a glutton for punishment

Another glutton here (for punishment).....it makes zero sense to do a long road trip in these things.....I convince myself every charge, that the added rest makes it worthwhile, until you figure out you're 1hr to 10hr behind the ICE team......

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