Drive modes and estimated range

[DrMario]

I was hoping someone could explain this for me. I almost got myself in a bind today.

I went on a one way 4 hour trip over the weekend and returned home today. I set my battery to charge to 100% and based on Conserve mode my estimated my range was 330 miles and in All Purpose it was 300 miles.

I started in Conserve mode and according to the Rivian estimate on the maps I would get home with about 60 miles of range left. About 1 hour into my trip I went ahead and switched to All Purpose. Per Rivian, I now would get home with just under 30 miles of range left.

As I was getting home Rivian estimated that I would get there with 8 miles of range left. I was still on All Purpose mode. When I had about 20 miles or so of range left I switched from All Purpose to Conserve mode.

Making the switch to Conserve mode, I expected to see the estimated range go up but it did not. Needless to say, I got home with 0 miles of range left. A little scary. I don't know if anyone experienced this on any of their trips.

I expected to have a bit of a buffer when making the switch from All Purpose to Conserve but this was not the case. Does anyone know why?

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[MountainBikeDude]

Driving habits and environmental conditions will affect your range. The estimates can only account for so much. If you're driving into a headwind at 90mph your range vs what's guessed will drop dramatically.

Conserve just increases your overall efficiency by a percentage. So full charge its 30ish miles more, as you deplete the battery, your margin will narrow. So with 30 miles remaining in AP mode, expect maybe 33 in conserve, at best.

 

[zefram47]

Did you bother to slow down when you saw that your distance remaining and range remaining were converging faster than expected? Drag, mainly from wind, increases with the square of velocity, so even slowing down by 5 mph will make a sizable difference in range/efficiency. People keep asking why some of us are annoyed they moved the trip meters to the settings page...this is why. If you're watching your current charge/drive efficiency and see %SoC remaining it's pretty easy to calculate what your approximate remaining range will be. Slow down and you increase efficiency and range. For some reason Rivian only seems to show as estimated range remaining that doesn't have anything to do with your current (say past hour or three) driving style. But if you were to plot a route in the nav then it would likely be a little more accurate miles remaining estimate since it should account for elevation change at least, but won't account for wind. As with ICE, if charging stations were ubiquitous, you wouldn't even bother thinking about this. But I'm sure you could've stopped for all of 10-15 min somewhere and made the trip less uncomfortable too.

 

[DrMario]

Driving habits and environmental conditions will affect your range. The estimates can only account for so much. If you're driving into a headwind at 90mph your range vs what's guessed will drop dramatically.

Conserve just increases your overall efficiency by a percentage. So full charge its 30ish miles more, as you deplete the battery, your margin will narrow. So with 30 miles remaining in AP mode, expect maybe 33 in conserve, at best.

Thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense. Will take this into account from now on my trips.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Rivian doesn't allowed the displayed ranges go below "rated" for the mode. You will get a reasonable estimate from the mapping system but the number remaining is still based off the false rating number.

 

[DrMario]

Did you bother to slow down when you saw that your distance remaining and range remaining were converging faster than expected? Drag, mainly from wind, increases with the square of velocity, so even slowing down by 5 mph will make a sizable difference in range/efficiency. People keep asking why some of us are annoyed they moved the trip meters to the settings page...this is why. If you're watching your current charge/drive efficiency and see %SoC remaining it's pretty easy to calculate what your approximate remaining range will be. Slow down and you increase efficiency and range. For some reason Rivian only seems to show as estimated range remaining that doesn't have anything to do with your current (say past hour or three) driving style. But if you were to plot a route in the nav then it would likely be a little more accurate miles remaining estimate since it should account for elevation change at least, but won't account for wind. As with ICE, if charging stations were ubiquitous, you wouldn't even bother thinking about this. But I'm sure you could've stopped for all of 10-15 min somewhere and made the trip less uncomfortable too.

No, I did not slow down. I should have known better. Thanks for the additional input. Some big lessons learned. Hopefully someone else can learn from this.

 

[RoadTripFan]

The estimates remain very bad. I would be conservative with my expectations.

 

[AYAYRON]

I was hoping someone could explain this for me. I almost got myself in a bind today.

I went on a one way 4 hour trip over the weekend and returned home today. I set my battery to charge to 100% and based on Conserve mode my estimated my range was 330 miles and in All Purpose it was 300 miles.

I started in Conserve mode and according to the Rivian estimate on the maps I would get home with about 60 miles of range left. About 1 hour into my trip I went ahead and switched to All Purpose. Per Rivian, I now would get home with just under 30 miles of range left.

As I was getting home Rivian estimated that I would get there with 8 miles of range left. I was still on All Purpose mode. When I had about 20 miles or so of range left I switched from All Purpose to Conserve mode.

Making the switch to Conserve mode, I expected to see the estimated range go up but it did not. Needless to say, I got home with 0 miles of range left. A little scary. I don't know if anyone experienced this on any of their trips.

I expected to have a bit of a buffer when making the switch from All Purpose to Conserve but this was not the case. Does anyone know why?

I drive from Dallas tx to Bentonville Arkansas frequently, the R1T gets 200-260 miles of range in conserve mode For that drive which is a range and the variable is wind speed and direction and speed of travel. Worst case scenario when the 15min range indicator showed 1.5mil/kWh as pretty much constant I got about 200 miles range.

Cliffs. Use the 15 min range on the driver display to get a much better idea of how much the wine / elevation change/ speed of truck are impacting the range. 2 or better is on the higher end of the spectrum, 1.8 is ok and average 1.5 is bad, fill up more often

 

[AYAYRON]

Did you bother to slow down when you saw that your distance remaining and range remaining were converging faster than expected? Drag, mainly from wind, increases with the square of velocity, so even slowing down by 5 mph will make a sizable difference in range/efficiency. People keep asking why some of us are annoyed they moved the trip meters to the settings page...this is why. If you're watching your current charge/drive efficiency and see %SoC remaining it's pretty easy to calculate what your approximate remaining range will be. Slow down and you increase efficiency and range. For some reason Rivian only seems to show as estimated range remaining that doesn't have anything to do with your current (say past hour or three) driving style. But if you were to plot a route in the nav then it would likely be a little more accurate miles remaining estimate since it should account for elevation change at least, but won't account for wind. As with ICE, if charging stations were ubiquitous, you wouldn't even bother thinking about this. But I'm sure you could've stopped for all of 10-15 min somewhere and made the trip less uncomfortable too.

Are you watching the 15 min interval efficiency display on the driver's monitor while on road trips? I do, I feel like that's necessary on any trip over 200 miles unless chargers are abundantly available (which for me they never are)

 

[R1Tom]

Rivian doesn't allowed the displayed ranges go below "rated" for the mode. You will get a reasonable estimate from the mapping system but the number remaining is still based off the false rating number.

It would be nice if it would base the range on current kw/mile. It would up and down alot, bit would also tell you.....if I keep driving just like this, I will go xx miles before empty.

 

[zefram47]

Are you watching the 15 min interval efficiency display on the driver's monitor while on road trips? I do, I feel like that's necessary on any trip over 200 miles unless chargers are abundantly available (which for me they never are)

I have that up 99% of the time, but wish it showed more than 15 min. I use Trip A as a since last charge meter, but we really should have a dedicated one for that, maybe even on the same driver display page as the current 15 min graph.

I drove a MINI Cooper SE (110 mi range) EV and a Spark EV (80 mi range) before the Rivian, so playing the mental math games is nearly second nature to me.

 

[AYAYRON]

I have that up 99% of the time, but wish it showed more than 15 min. I use Trip A as a since last charge meter, but we really should have a dedicated one for that, maybe even on the same driver display page as the current 15 min graph.

I drove a MINI Cooper SE (110 mi range) EV and a Spark EV (80 mi range) before the Rivian, so playing the mental math games is nearly second nature to me.

I agree, it would be much more helpful if it was the entire trip not just the last 15 min!

It really sucks on my drives dallas to bentonville b/c there's one charging company in Oklahoma "Francis" and they do not maintain their chargers it's extremely frustrating so you really have to be strategic on the drive using plug share and pick and chose your battles.

 

[DrMario]

I drive from Dallas tx to Bentonville Arkansas frequently, the R1T gets 200-260 miles of range in conserve mode For that drive which is a range and the variable is wind speed and direction and speed of travel. Worst case scenario when the 15min range indicator showed 1.5mil/kWh as pretty much constant I got about 200 miles range.

Cliffs. Use the 15 min range on the driver display to get a much better idea of how much the wine / elevation change/ speed of truck are impacting the range. 2 or better is on the higher end of the spectrum, 1.8 is ok and average 1.5 is bad, fill up more often

I rarely use the 15 min range display. I forget it is there. Thanks for the reminder. I will use it on my next long trip. I also need to start using the trip meter as well.

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