Right now would be a great time for Rivian to announce a 2-3 year free charging partnership with Electrify America

[E.S.]

If people want to throw stones, it should be at chargepoint.

Interesting. How so? I've had way better experiences with ChargePoint than I've had with EA.

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[SeaGeo]

Interesting. How so? I've had way better experiences with ChargePoint than I've had with EA.

Their model doesn't seem to emphasize maintenance. it's basically a payment network that sells hardware to mom and pop gas stations. For example, the video where Kyle ended up towing his friend's model 3 was partially due to a chargepoint L2 charger where the property owners couldn't get chargepoint to help them get it working for like... years IIRC.

They do offer up to a 5 year maintenance program for a fee, but per their website they only offer a 98% uptime guarantee with loss of revenue coverage for the owner. So about a week a year. After five years? Good luck? Hopefully you recouped that level 3 charging investment in that time...

They don't force a network design that includes redundancy either. So if an owner installed a single chargepoint 250, that may be down for a week a year even with the maintenance plan, and the drivers would be SOL. At least EA has charger redundancy at their sites, and takes ownership of their network.

In my experience they seem to have low ratings locally on plugshare and are generally unreliable. At least their level 2 equipment.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to try their L3 chargers personally, but I find the way that they advertise the power of their models to be pretty misleading as well. They do a lot ofnpower sharing between pedestals, and when they arentnpower sharing they still don't provide full power without a high voltage EV.

At the end of the day, EAs redundancy wins out for me. Especially considering the power output of their chargers, and that their customer service is great.

EA definitely has some weird QA and network monitoring growing pains. But they're trying to improve them.

 

[crashmtb]

Not sure how you feel about Tesla, but I try to avoid Tesla because of QC issues on its vehicles. But I am not aware of any reason to avoid Tesla's charging network (if given the option as a non-Tesla EV owner). What am I missing?

GR

I do not want to spend so much as a dime with Tesla. Wether it’s a car, or charging

 

[OldGoat]

There is obviously a location bias. Go to the EA website and type in Charlotte, NC. No EA stations are shown, click the zoom out button twice and a whopping one station appears. Key in SFO zoom out twice and 30 are shown. By contrast, keying in Charlotte on the Chargepoint site will show about 20 sites...zoom out twice and there are over 30 sites. So, as of now, EA free charging is of no value.

 

[ERguy]

Some amount of free charging seems to be industry standard.

Since Rivian clearly missed the mark on getting the RAN network up and running in time, I think it would be reasonable to give people who take delivery in 2022 some amount of free EA charging.

Hopefully the RAN network will be better by next year.

The Rivian membership, which is free for 1 year, includes charging at Rivian chargers. The downside is that I don't think there will ever be enough Rivian chargers to come close to being as convenient as all the auto manufacturers that give you free EA charging with you purchase.

 

[Joel]

There is obviously a location bias. Go to the EA website and type in Charlotte, NC. No EA stations are shown, click the zoom out button twice and a whopping one station appears. Key in SFO zoom out twice and 30 are shown. By contrast, keying in Charlotte on the Chargepoint site will show about 20 sites...zoom out twice and there are over 30 sites. So, as of now, EA free charging is of no value.

There is an EA site near University Volvo at Walmart 7735 North Tryon. They have 10 stations and a couple are 350 and 7 are 150. Google Map has charge locations in it. Also look at it on EA site. All charging companies need to grow faster.

 

[bd5400]

Some amount of free charging seems to be industry standard.

Since Rivian clearly missed the mark on getting the RAN network up and running in time, I think it would be reasonable to give people who take delivery in 2022 some amount of free EA charging.

Hopefully the RAN network will be better by next year.

The Rivian membership, which is free for 1 year, includes charging at Rivian chargers. The downside is that I don't think there will ever be enough Rivian chargers to come close to being as convenient as all the auto manufacturers that give you free EA charging with you purchase.

I wouldn't say that Rivian missed the mark, at least not yet. Rivian's initial build-out is supposed to be completed by the end of 2023. While it may be inconvenient for early owners to not have access to the RAN, it's not like Rivian advertised that the RAN would be up and running for the earliest owners.

 

[mkg3]

In the early days for Tesla, free supercharging was offered to assure buyers that there will be places to charge and incentivize people to go EV.

Today, legacy mfg are offering some free charging to incentivize buyers to pick their vehicle over another EV. In other words its no different than offering cash rebate for the purchase.

Rivian, I believe based on the backlog (though we'll have to see after the new price structure), does not have a demand problem. The issue is, unlike Tesla, they don't have the RAN built out or rapidly growing. They appear to have put the cart before the horse by committing to GA plant instead building out RAN first. They seem to place higher value on getting the new models out than completing the RAN experience for the existing customers.

Probably need to make some type of an arrangement with EA, EVgo or whomever as a part of RAN, and not a rebate structure like the thread title suggests.

To me, its not about getting something for free; rather, its about making the RAN as intended....

 

[ERguy]

I wouldn't say that Rivian missed the mark, at least not yet. Rivian's initial build-out is supposed to be completed by the end of 2023. While it may be inconvenient for early owners to not have access to the RAN, it's not like Rivian advertised that the RAN would be up and running for the earliest owners.

Are any RAN locations open yet? Rivian said they would start opening in 2021.

https://stories.rivian.com/charging...d=R00435FB54F54264FAD80742C27F02BCD69D3143AC0

I would certainly say they missed the mark by not having any charging infrastructure at the time of delivery for early buyers.

I don't expect the whole network to be built overnight, but the RAN is non-existent at this time. That's not fair to early adopters. Is it the end of the world? Of course not. But delivering trucks without the charging network means the early buyers won't get the same benefit of free charging for a year that later buyers will get.

 

[ads75]

I would guess (and hope) the RAN network is at the bottom of their priority list right now. No sense in having a network without vehicles. Second factory is a huge project. Current models are a huge project. Building out service centers is a big project. The next car is another big project. I imagine the RAN network, while important to owners, is important to a slim number of people right now. Unfortunately, I also wouldn't be surprised if it never really materializes. RAN may be on hold until the current political climate shakes out (infrastructure bill/federal subsidies). Why sink a bunch of money into RAN if they can possibly get federal/state subsidies, with unknown requirements?

 

[SANZC02]

Are any RAN locations open yet? Rivian said they would start opening in 2021.

https://stories.rivian.com/charging...d=R00435FB54F54264FAD80742C27F02BCD69D3143AC0

I would certainly say they missed the mark by not having any charging infrastructure at the time of delivery for early buyers.

I don't expect the whole network to be built overnight, but the RAN is non-existent at this time. That's not fair to early adopters. Is it the end of the world? Of course not. But delivering trucks without the charging network means the early buyers won't get the same benefit of free charging for a year that later buyers will get.

Aren’t the chargers we have seen at some of the parks part of the RAN? We have seen some in Utah, Tennessee(?), California and I think a couple more. Not sure there have been reports of any L3s currently active but have seen L2.

 

[ERguy]

Aren’t the chargers we have seen at some of the parks part of the RAN? We have seen some in Utah, Tennessee(?), California and I think a couple more. Not sure there have been reports of any L3s currently active but have seen L2.

I'm not sure which ones are up and running, but I'm assuming they are the Rivian Waypoint chargers (LE), not the RAN network chargers (LE), just as you said.

Are ny of those L2 chargers functional yet? I hadn't heard that.

Last I checked there are still no DC fast chargers... Just some internet sleuths finding permits and signs of construction. Hopefully that changes soon.

 

[E.S.]

Are any of those L2 chargers functional yet? I hadn't heard that.

I've heard of lv 2 chargers up and functioning, but they are obscure in numbers. I swore there was a YT vid of one at one of the desert off-road locations, but one has to stay at the lodgings there to be granted access to it. Also heard reports of 1 or 2 more elsewhere, but no vids on those.

 

[godfodder0901]

I've heard of lv 2 RAN chargers up and functioning, but they are obscure in numbers. I swore there was a YT vid of one at one of the desert off-road locations, but one has to stay at the lodgings there to be granted access to it. Also heard reports of 1 or 2 more elsewhere, but no vids on those.

Level 2 are the Waypoint, not RAN. They have them in Moab at Under Canvas.

 

[Bobthebuilder352]

Sure, while we’re at it let’s look for Rivian to give a price drop for reservation holders.

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