Extreme cold weather driving report - 2022 R1T Quad

[DayTripping]

My truck had its first snow day today. I drove around for about 20 minutes in drift mode enjoy the wintry mix, snow, slush and ice. I had the heat cranked up to 75F. I was at 1.13 for my quad. I have to tell you those were some of the most fun kilowatts I've spent since the first drag strip run with my Plaid. It was in the mid 30's.

By comparison I was at just over 2 driving mostly in conserve mode on the highway last night with the heat on as well as steering wheel and seat toasty. Well, as toasty as the cursed heated steering wheel will get. I average about 55 mph but was cruising mostly at 71 on the highway. That was the 20" Goodyear AT's. I can't really complain about that. Temps were in the low 30's to high 20's.

Honestly I am not really feeling the need for a heat pump on this thing.

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[Lawrence-of-Blaine]

About half of my 93 miles today was on I95 and I476. I was going 55 to 70 mph there. The other half was on smaller back roads. I was going 35-50 on those.

Bingo. 50 mph with occasional slowing for turns gives me close to 3 mi/kwh but 70-anything on the interstate takes it under 2.

 

[good2go]

I drive every day in the cold, wind and mountains. Going up the mountain I’m below one. Up hill and the coldest time of the day. Coming down above four.

I have learned to not care around home, it just doesn’t matter way more battery than I need for the day.

on road trips, I’m happy to charge a a supercharger and get back on the road.

 

[ThirteenElectrics]

on road trips, I’m happy to charge a a supercharger and get back on the road.

This doesn't work for me, because I like to go into rugged mountains on day trips, where there are no superchargers. My range dictates which mountains I can reach (and still round trip safely), and which I absolutely cannot. It's a surprisingly small number. But for most people, sure, get in line at a supercharger and wait.

 

[good2go]

This doesn't work for me, because I like to go into rugged mountains on day trips, where there are no superchargers. My range dictates which mountains I can reach (and still round trip safely), and which I absolutely cannot. It's a surprisingly small number. But for most people, sure, get in line at a supercharger and wait.

I have never waited in line on a road trip. Guess I’m just lucky. And I charge at home rest of the time.

if I was using an EV to go off grid and if I was taking it close to its max range, I would carry a large generator and gas.

 

[CrazyOne]

I have never waited in line on a road trip. Guess I’m just lucky. And I charge at home rest of the time.

if I was using an EV to go off grid and if I was taking it close to its max range, I would carry a large generator and gas.

I don't need it, but it's not hard to carry one of those harbour freight generators or the somewhat expensive 7700 Honda. It's a pretty straightforward solution of you are going into the wild.

My worst case range with mountains, freeway speeds of 75 mph etc in freezing weather dropped range to about 260 miles. Pretty good IMO.

 

[ATLRivvy]

0% chance these high numbers are accurate at actual highway speeds. My Gen 2 R1S on 22s doesn’t even get 2.4 in 45 degree weather, let alone actual freezing temps.

This is my 3rd winter with an EV now, they consistently lose 25-30% efficiency when temps get below freezing. That’s been true with or without a heat pump in my experience

 

[David Yunker]

I had pretty much the same experience but my efficiency never got over 2. Love this truck more now than when I bought it 2 years ago.

 

[elatrickWheels]

In such mild winter conditions, I don’t really notice a drop in efficiency for my R1 T either. When it is -20°F I lose about 25- 30% range. I think that’s what most people are referring to when they complain about range loss in cold conditions.

Dude from Manitoba steps in to comment on what‘s mild and what’s cold. Everybody else shuts up.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Today I drove my ‘22 R1T Quad on a 93 mile trip; about 50/50 Interstate and back roads. The truck had been sitting outside for the last 5 days undriven (it vampire drained 11 kwhr in that time. That’s typical for mine). My truck has 35k miles on it.

It’s been very cold here the last 5 days with salt and snow (that’s why I haven’t been driving mine I try to keep it out of the salt and instead drive my 2008 beater Trailblazer with 230k miles on it !). When I left this morning it was 19F outside and the wind had been blowing 30-40 mph with wind chills in single digits. The battery pack temp was 21 F. The motors were ice cold. I drove the entire trip with cabin heat at 70 and heated seats and wheel on. Truck was in All Purpose mode in standard height on 21” tires.

My average for the entire trip was 2.26 mile per kwhr and I was driving at or slightly above the speed limits. When I finished driving the pack temp was 38F and the highest motor temps I saw were 139F.

I’m super happy with that performance and I’d say my range was only affected slightly from normal (the Regen was nearly non existent for the first 2/3 of the trip since the pack temp was so cold).

I’m not sure why so many EV folks complain of horrible drop offs in range and performance - this was brutal conditions and the Riv performed great and I was super comfortable the entire time! Loving this truck more and more as I put tens of thousands of miles on her.

Here in Minnesota I rarely hit 2, what tires are you on?

 

[Thedude]

Where’s the extreme cold part of the story? You’re describing a hot winter day.

 

[ThirteenElectrics]

if I was using an EV to go off grid and if I was taking it close to its max range, I would carry a large generator and gas.

This is a good safety measure (assuming the car doesn't brick itself and lock me out of access to the generator), but the point is to make sustainable trips, using green electricity, not run the generator. So, having a generator doesn't increase the utility of the car. If I wanted to burn any gas, I would have a different car entirely. The car still limits where I can go.

I wish my Rivians had heat pumps and didn't have glass roofs. Combined, those really tank the range in winter. Snow tires and cargo carriers also play a big role, but there's not much that can be done about that besides selling a truck with a larger bed or more cargo space (like a Scout EV). Which I do plan to switch to.

 

[good2go]

This is a good safety measure (assuming the car doesn't brick itself and lock me out of access to the generator), but the point is to make sustainable trips, using green electricity, not run the generator. So, having a generator doesn't increase the utility of the car. If I wanted to burn any gas, I would have a different car entirely. The car still limits where I can go.

I wish my Rivians had heat pumps and didn't have glass roofs. Combined, those really tank the range in winter. Snow tires and cargo carriers also play a big role, but there's not much that can be done about that besides selling a truck with a larger bed or more cargo space (like a Scout EV). Which I do plan to switch to.

If the vehicle could go 500 miles you can find a place that needs 600. Basically you can always find something the vehicle can’t do. Good luck with your new scout.

 

[BearMan123]

I drove 192 miles, leaving the house fully charged at 369 miles. It was in the 20’s by the time I got to our mountain house. I had 77 left. Buy my math, that’s easily a 30% drain. I kept the speed limit around 68 to 70.

When I stopped once to juice up that evening at a Tesla charger at 10:30 at night, it costs $22 for 110 miles. That’s around .20/mile. My prior gas BMW ran around 21 to 24 MPG. Using premium fuel at $3.50/galloon, it would have only costs by my estimates $18 for the same 110 miles.

The R1S (Gen 2) was an absolute machine in the snow. I passed cars struggling in but 2” of snow with utter ease. But, it was abhorrent in the cold weather. And, over 5,200 miles, I am averaging 2.21 in all weather conditions and very reasonable temperatures. With a 140 (Max) batter pack, that will never get me over 300–whereas rated for 370.

My BMW Xdrive 50 (which I sold for the Rivian R1S) routinely ran 3.1 to 3.3. I hit nearly 370 miles one trip back home from the mountains at a vastly (vastly) higher rate of speed. At one point coming down the mountains, the BMW showed 411 miles with regen at low. My impression—BMW is a whacky look—but, they undersell mKW. Rivian is a somewhat cooler vehicle with what you can do with the vehicle (assuming you actually do use the vehicle in that fashion), but it vastly underperforms specifications.

I get EV drain in the cold. But, from my experience, the Rivian sucks in cold weather and accuracy of even reported # of miles as ‘sold.’. And, while the new Tesla charging experience is solid near my house in the mountains with an 10-bay system and the chargers fast, they aint’ cheap. Doing my best to help the planet, but, with a premium over any similar sized gas car, the horrible KWh when cold and then the stress of finding a charger late at night, I reach the conclusion that they do not really save much money with the exception of additional maintenance costs for a gas vehicle. Perhaps it’s the same with Tesla—never owned one.

For me, I don’t get the fact that even in ordinary weather, I can’t even get 300 and the MAs pack was like an $11K add-on. I’ve been trying to drive as close to the speed limit as possible to get the best KWh, but, that’s getting really boring and I never had anywhere near the same drain on the BMW ix.

 

[ThirteenElectrics]

If the vehicle could go 500 miles you can find a place that needs 600. Basically you can always find something the vehicle can’t do. Good luck with your new scout.

So, by that logic, I should have not upgraded from my first Nissan LEAF, which was roughly 70 miles? Anything can be improved and the human race moves forwardly making those improvements. The Scout will probably have better winter range, but of course, it's years away. One near term improvement is to switch to 21" winter tires on 20" wheels, which do exist. That helps. Another would be to buy a product which insulates the glass roof, but I haven't found that yet...

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