Extreme cold weather driving report - 2022 R1T Quad

[GarthMBR1T]

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

I should be able to tell you how it responds to -40° in about a month. The coldest I’ve driven it in so far is -27°C. Nice and comfortable in the cabin on a 3 hr drive. No problems other than range loss which was expected. This truck is awesome.

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[Doug]

I should be able to tell you how it responds to -40° in about a month. The coldest I’ve driven it in so far is -27°C. Nice and comfortable in the cabin on a 3 hr drive. No problems other than range loss which was expected. This truck is awesome.

I live just south of you in MN. Last winter I had to work out of town and had similar temps and a really strong wind so wind chill was -30 or more. The truck drove well and heated the cabin fine, but had terrible efficiency as could be expected in those brutal conditions. I did have a small snow drift in the frunk when I got to my destination. My battery got down to 6 degrees Fahrenheit. I had to pull it in where I was working and let it warm up some before it would take a charge. I have had no problems with driving in snow with the 21's so far but we live in the plains, so not much for hills.

 

[cevans]

I am not getting near that, I think cold headwinds and resistance are the biggest barriers to higher miles/kwh. I get max 1.7 when there’s no one infront of me and I am alone on the road, but can get 2.25+ with all heating blasting when I am driving behind someone.

Same.

I think the OP's aspirational figures are due to the speed. Remember wind resistance is nearly double at 75mph (my cruising speed) vs 55 mph. Efficiency loss for EVs is greatest due to speed, way more than temperature.

 

[DayTripping]

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.

In extreme cold, heat pumps barely outperform the other options. Once below about -5C not a lot of improvement and actually worse when over 25C. Heatpumps are not all sunshine and lollipops. A good reference is here.

https://www.itbgroup.com/blog/2023/02-battery-electric-vehicle-heat-pump-system-value

 

[Taz355]

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.

Mine follows closely to -C
-10 loses 10%
-20 loses 20%
-30 loses about 30
-40 loses about 40%
especially on short drives when motors are not heating up batteries
when pack is -40 I get less than 1mi/kwh on short trips with battery at -20C. And motors at -28c

 

[Golfer04]

Same.

I think the OP's aspirational figures are due to the speed. Remember wind resistance is nearly double at 75mph (my cruising speed) vs 55 mph. Efficiency loss for EVs is greatest due to speed, way more than temperature.

In my now 95,000 (3 vehicles) miles of R1T driving temperature has the most dramatic effect on my efficiency. I say this without arguing with your physics. Discounting driving into a strong wind because it doesn't happen often. Because I live in a non Tesla charging desert I spent WAY too much time testing this stuff and how far to charge my battery overnight. In city driving the difference between driving in 60 degrees F and 30 degrees is approximately 30 percent. Highway driving the loss I have documented is a little less; around 25 percent. If you go colder the loss is more. The difference between city driving and highway driving (73 mph waze) is about 15 percent in 60 degree temps. I use trip A reset as the efficiency gage. I don't fool with it much any more because I have Tesla adapters and charging isn't near the issue it was. I agree with earlier post about the heat pump. I had high hopes it would help this, but I honestly think it makes it worse because it runs all the time and, I think, causes the cabin temp to go well above the thermostat setting. One strange thing I've noticed on my Tri Motor is the battery temp is only 54 degrees after at home/garage pre-conditioning. Both my QM battery temps would be 65 degrees after pre-conditioning.

 

[DKM_R1S]

Our R1S has an efficiency of 1.6-1.8 mi/kWh in nice summer weather. This is with our roof boxes. In this cold 20F weather, the efficiency is 1.0. This is because I had the heat going for an hour total while the R1S is plugged to melt the ice and snow. This counts against the efficiency, I guess.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

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.

It's not really a fair comparison, as the R1S is quite a bit bigger, heavier, and more powerful than an iX is.

 

[cwang089]

My R1S Gen 2 is at 2.1 over 3,800 miles in 65 degree average temps. Sorry, I don't believe this post

 

[mkluttzy17]

I have a 22 R1 T quad as well.
56,000 miles on it currently. I live in very cold weather, Mt. Shasta, California.
I can get the same performance with mine as well. If you pay attention to your speed, it’s not that difficult.
I love my truck

 

[Ilovejunebugs]

One strange thing I've noticed on my Tri Motor is the battery temp is only 54 degrees after at home/garage pre-conditioning. Both my QM battery temps would be 65 degrees after pre-conditioning.
[/QUOTE]

Maybe this was updated by Rivian recently? As my QM Gen 1 battery is typically 54 degrees F when I leave in the morning; after it's been in my garage and pre-conditioning.

 

[ads75]

Best range I was ever able to get with my 2022 R1T Quad was about 250 miles, a couple times, in the spring and summer. I took the same route in the winter, low teens, and used 50% of my battery to go 100 miles, and most of that wasn't highway, or large elevation changes.

 

[DAJA]

0 - 20F highway travel with Gen2 RT1 max w/ 22" aero's results in 1.3 - 1. 7 mi / kWh going 75 mph and typically 5 - 10 mph headwinds.

 

[Moodist]

Since this post, I’ve been paying a lot closer attention to this, there are a lot of factors, but I get close to 2.0-2.2 if I watch my speed and don’t accelerate like a bat out of hell, which is very hard to do.

 

[cevans]

0 - 20F highway travel with Gen2 RT1 max w/ 22" aero's results in 1.3 - 1. 7 mi / kWh going 75 mph and typically 5 - 10 mph headwinds.

Exactly the same here for below 20F

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