Sponsored

RivAW

Well-Known Member
First Name
Alex
Joined
Mar 9, 2023
Threads
1
Messages
278
Reaction score
274
Location
MA
Vehicles
R1T, Glacier White, Black Mountain, Black AT 20s,
Is there an EV on the market that wouldn’t drain from 40% to 0 after sitting stationary for 4 weeks straight? Serious question.
Well, it wasn't quite as long, but I left a 2022 Tesla MYP at Boston Logan airport (outside) in Dec/Jan for 24 days (sentry off and only checked app 1x per week) and lost a total of 1% battery in that time period. While I sympathize with OP's predicament, this seems more like a owner negligence issue than an issue with the vehicle. Vehicle owners need to educated themselves about their vehicle and have reasonable expectations. If OP parked near a charger and knew he would be away for an extended period, then why would he not have left the truck plugged in, or had someone available to plug it in when he checked status at some point? Did he leave gear guard on? If he just rode up, and left the vehicle for a month, then a reasonable owner would have to expect the same thing....
Sponsored

 

Zoidz

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gil
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Threads
105
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
6,864
Location
PA
Vehicles
23 R1S Adv, Avalanche, BMWs-X3,330cic,K1200RS bike
Occupation
Engineer
Long thread, I assume someone posted how to revive a dead R1, it's in the manual: jump the 12V from the hitch receiver, open the hood, charge the 12V, then charge the traction battery.
The 12V batteries might need to be charged in parallel with a healthy 12V battery. "Smart" battery chargers can refuse to try to charge a fully depleted car battery, adding a healthy 12V in parallel can rescue the dead battery.
The problem is that does not always work. I have read multiple accounts on here and Reddit that even after connecting a battery or a charger the vehicle does not wake, or it come up "half baked" and is still essentially bricked.
 

RivAW

Well-Known Member
First Name
Alex
Joined
Mar 9, 2023
Threads
1
Messages
278
Reaction score
274
Location
MA
Vehicles
R1T, Glacier White, Black Mountain, Black AT 20s,
I just wrapped up my week long test of vampire drain on my R1T vs the F-150L to see if the latest software updates really had a significant improvement. Overall I found the vampire drain was roughly half of what it was in early January on the R1T. The F-150L has stayed consistent.

Northeast region, 14-38F. Some light snow over two of the days. Both vehicles checked via app once a day. Parked side by side.

Both trucks started at 100%. After 1 week I came back to the R1T at 86% SOC, the F-150L was at 99%.
*Different class but in case anyone is wondering the Model S saw similar drain to the R1T.

Overall to me it's a minor drain when we're looking at one vehicle. We're talking roughly 2-3kWh/day. The problem is with multiple cars - as a 3 car household will consume 6-9kWh/day - almost 30% of what a typical household consumes on a daily basis.
In your testing, was gear guard (and whatever similar system Ford has, if any) on or off?
 

EVTrukHog

Well-Known Member
First Name
Matt
Joined
Aug 31, 2021
Threads
31
Messages
507
Reaction score
765
Location
USA
Vehicles
F150, Explorer, Corvette C6
I'm only seeing about 1-2% of drain per 24 hour period... wonder why this varies so much from vehicle to vehicle? In any case, I'd have serious reservations about buying an EV in today's world if I didn't have access to home charging and could leave it plugged in every night.
 

EVnewb

Well-Known Member
First Name
Dustin
Joined
Jul 7, 2021
Threads
13
Messages
202
Reaction score
352
Location
Clarksville, MD
Vehicles
Sienna, Tesla MYP, R1T
Rivian just needs to fine tune their software. There are probably too many things running behind the scenes that most likely don’t need to be. The amount of time your battery will hold its charge in a vehicle is based off of the battery type, the quality, size, and age of course. But it’s also going to be affected by what’s going on while the vehicle sits. Alarms (especially aftermarket) can drain a 12v battery in less than a month. The ‘05 4Runner we used to have had a nice Viper alarm and drained a 6 month old Optima Yellow top battery in less than 3 weeks. Our Sienna randomly runs the fuel pump to keep the system primed while it sits for weeks at a time. Older and simpler vehicles usually don’t have as bad of a drain problem, unless there is a short/grounding issue somewhere.

As mentioned above, some manufacturers are better at putting their vehicles to sleep than others and I think Rivian will get there over time. But until they do, we have to adjust and plan accordingly unfortunately. Hopefully they get it sorted sooner rather than later though because it’s definitely wasteful!
 

Sponsored

Yellow Buddy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2022
Threads
22
Messages
843
Reaction score
1,271
Location
Behind You
Vehicles
Rivian R1T, F-150 Lightning Pro, Model S, Model X
Occupation
Smart Ass
In your testing, was gear guard (and whatever similar system Ford has, if any) on or off?
I left settings to how I would normally use it on all the cars. Gear Guard was on when away from home. But the vehicles were parked at home. Sentry on the Tesla. The Ford doesn’t have such a system but Alarm was left on.
 

GHuff

Well-Known Member
First Name
John
Joined
Feb 25, 2021
Threads
3
Messages
180
Reaction score
246
Location
Tyler
Vehicles
Tesla
Clubs
 
Best to set charging to 70 and not 100 unless you plan to use it soon after
I understand this in theory, but in practice for the average consumer, can you please explain how charging to 100% is really that detrimental? I get that it reduces the lifespan of the batteries and is not good practice to do every day. But also, the battery pack has a 10 year warranty. I'm going to guess that 80% of us R1 owners will not own their vehicle much beyond that. And from what I have seen, battery condition is not a factor in re-sell pricing.
 

Zoidz

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gil
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Threads
105
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
6,864
Location
PA
Vehicles
23 R1S Adv, Avalanche, BMWs-X3,330cic,K1200RS bike
Occupation
Engineer
...

Some reasons for drain, the Infotainment never sleeps (it doesn’t turn off), same with TCM and telemetry push/pull.
If that's the case, IMO that's a design flaw. There should be some sort of Rivan system mode that shuts everything fully down to deep sleep with some devices fully powered off, and only the access system remains in "light slumber" mode.

Because this is such a problem with Rivian, and I'm the technically curious type, I looked up design guidelines and the spec sheets of a variety of vehicle microcontrollers a while ago. There is tons of info out there. I don't know what specific chips Rivian uses, but they all have Deep Sleep capabilities that draw current in the microamps range while in standby/sleep mode, as show below. Even with 30 - 40 controllers in standby/sleep, total current draw should be under 10 or 20 milliamps. Also, from what I have read, design recommendations include putting non-critical devices (window controllers, climate controllers, etc.) on a software controlled power bus. In a mode such as shipping, the power can be completely shut off so there is no standby current at all.

It just feels like Rivian might have made some non-optimal hardware architecture decisions (favoring functionality over power conservation) that cannot be fixed by software. I suspect the R2 platform will not have this issue as they will have learned from the R1 issues.

Rivian R1T R1S My Rivian completely dead from ~40% vampire drain after a month long vacation 1678459503496
 
Last edited:

jbssfelix

Well-Known Member
First Name
J
Joined
Apr 3, 2022
Threads
1
Messages
112
Reaction score
200
Location
Denver, CO
Vehicles
Tesla Model 3; Rivian R1S
Clubs
 
All of the other EVs I've owned will only lose maybe 1-2% over that period.
It really varies based on things like turning on Sentry Mode/Gear Guard, overhead protection, etc. When I have it on on my Tesla, it can easily kill off 1kW/day (again varies based on a number of factors). With everything turned off, and garage parked, it can last nearly indefinitely.

Also, if you're leaving your vehicle (ICE or EV) for a full month, you really need to be tending to it differently than if leaving it for a day or two. My Land Cruiser (see profile pic) would generally sit on a battery tender as it was the weekend adventure vehicle, so it could easily go a 2-3 weeks without movement. Even ICE vehicles can lose 12V power (either degraded or full loss) if unused for long periods.
 

tosehee

Well-Known Member
First Name
Se Hee
Joined
Nov 1, 2021
Threads
9
Messages
169
Reaction score
102
Location
Atlanta, GA
Vehicles
R1T
Clubs
 
Half a time, phone as a key doesn't work. Half a time, auto seat adjustment doesn't work....

If the quality of the software is any indication, I see why we have this 1-2% drain every day..

It's sad..... but those at Software Engineering, they need to shift focus on QoS instead of adding more features...

QoS such as these should be their first and forecast priority. I was planning to get R1S, but shit like this makes me wonder if I should.
 

Sponsored

SDH

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2022
Threads
8
Messages
514
Reaction score
915
Location
CA
Vehicles
R1T LE; Jeep Rubicon
As folks have already suggested, there must be a way to put your R1 into a 'deep sleep' mode so just locks and alarm work. Surely that's something the software team can code and send in an OTA update? (says the guy who has no idea about this kind of thing!)

Also... if you have the means, I'm assuming you can just plug it into the 120v mains in your house or garage and then use your app to start/stop charging from afar??
 

brancky3

Well-Known Member
First Name
Brandon
Joined
Feb 11, 2022
Threads
5
Messages
636
Reaction score
717
Location
Greenville, SC
Vehicles
22 CY R1T, 21 MachE GT
Occupation
IT
As folks have already suggested, there must be a way to put your R1 into a 'deep sleep' mode so just locks and alarm work. Surely that's something the software team can code and send in an OTA update? (says the guy who has no idea about this kind of thing!)

Also... if you have the means, I'm assuming you can just plug it into the 120v mains in your house or garage and then use your app to start/stop charging from afar??
I think it's definitely fixable via an OTA update; they would be able to reprogram which modules are active during 'sleep', etc. And yea, you can plug in at home but probably not at an airport.
 

the long way downunder

Well-Known Member
First Name
Adam
Joined
Jan 15, 2021
Threads
3
Messages
934
Reaction score
985
Location
charging
Vehicles
Tesla
Occupation
WFH
One more thing. I have never been in this situation but if you left an ICE vehicle for a month with no interaction would the battery die? Isn't that why collectors use those chargers that connect to the wall to keep the battery in good health.
Some ICE cars are notorious for electrical drain. Others seem to be fine. My F-150 PowerBoost hasn't been driven in over 2 months. I checked it using the Ford app and it said the vehicle was in "deep" sleep but otherwise fine.
Other cars like Range Rover, I disconnect the battery and leave it on a battery tender to keep the battery healthy. The Rangie doesn't mind being unplugged because it has almost zero electronics and the engine management is resilient. All it needs is the windows and sunroof open/close positions reset.
A newer Porsche gets really cranky when left during winter months and will drain the battery in a matter of a couple of weeks then "everything" goes crazy till there's a solid 13 volts. It's better to annoy it than fry it with a jump start gone wrong.
 

White Shadow

Well-Known Member
First Name
Thomas
Joined
Nov 11, 2021
Threads
6
Messages
689
Reaction score
511
Location
NJ
Vehicles
Jeep & Audi
Occupation
SP
Rivian should build a solar panel into the roof to keep at least a trickle charge on the batteries for situations like this....that's assuming the vehicle is parked outdoors for the extended period of time.

Or they could just manage their vampire drain better, so there's that option too...
 

Zoidz

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gil
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Threads
105
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
6,864
Location
PA
Vehicles
23 R1S Adv, Avalanche, BMWs-X3,330cic,K1200RS bike
Occupation
Engineer
Rivian should build a solar panel into the roof to keep at least a trickle charge on the batteries for situations like this....that's assuming the vehicle is parked outdoors for the extended period of time.

Or they could just manage their vampire drain better, so there's that option too...
I don't have my R1S yet, but an interesting experiment would be to put small solar chargers (or Battery Tenders for that matter) on the two 12 volt batteries and see if that reduces the HV battery losses. I don't think it's documented, but the assumption is that the main battery is used to keep a charge on the 12 volt batteries. If you maintain the 12 volt batteries externally, will that reduce HV battery losses? 🤔
Sponsored

 
 




Top