New Guy Range Issues - need some help

[mdesilver]

Hi All, I'm new here and new to the EV world, but loving it. I also need some help and somebody to tell me if this is normal. I have a 2025 Rivian R1S Dual Large with 22" rims and road tires. I've put probably 1500-2000 miles on it, mostly short trips, around town, and some highway driving. I live in NJ so the temp is about 27. Here is the issue: my range is abysmal. I only charge to 80% which is says gives me about 264 miles. But, for example, today I drove a total of 52 miles and I'm currently at 158 miles or 49%. Is this normal? I mean, this isn't like a 20-30% difference. It's literally a little more than half. So what this says is on a full 100% charge, I'll get like 150 miles. That can't be right... can it? Should I be bringing this into the shop or something? Is it a little windy, sure, it's winter, but enough that taking range down to half?

This isn't just today, it's always about half and it's actually scary. My worry is that when I have to take my oldest to college in the fall, I'll have to stop every 2 hours to charge. Also, does the navigation know the range is that off and can adjust? What if there's not a charging station closer?

Just a newb here with a bunch of worries because this range is not ok. Thanks for any help this community can give. I hope to be an active participant.

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[Donald Stanfield]

Your car sits outside at 27 degrees? The vehicle will grab power from the battery to warm up as you use it. You can precondition the battery or fast charge on a longer trip and it will negate this issue. If you set a climate schedule in the app and select the option to pull power from the charger the battery management system will warm the battery and solve this issue.

During a trip your vehicle will precondition by itself on the way to the fast charger. This will reduce the range to your first charge stop. Once the battery is warm, your range will be mostly restored to the truck's rating. Cold is still a little less efficient but no where near what you're seeing driving with a cold pack. This is the case for any EV and preconditioning will solve the problem. If the range is enough for your daily driving I wouldn't worry about it until you need that longer range for a trip.

 

[mdesilver]

It’s in an unheated garage, so yeah, maybe a couple degrees warmer, but same thing.

Ok, I never noticed the option to pull from the charger. I’ll conduct another test when I get back from a short trip.

Can’t thank you enough.

 

[COdogman]

Welcome!

If you mostly do short trips around town and temps are that cold, it’s likely your battery never gets warm enough for the range to adjust. It will be less in the cold, maybe even 10-20% less but not 50%. It could appear as 50% when you start driving in the cold because it’s at its worst efficiency.

If you keep it plugged in at night, even in an unheated garage it will help keep that battery a little warmer. And on a trip you would set the next charger as your destination so it will precondition for you. Ideal battery temp is about 50 degrees. You can learn a lot about how it behaves in certain conditions by paying attention to the display with the battery and motor temperatures.

You’ll get it down!

 

[Donald Stanfield]

In your phone app use the following screens. Keep in mind this is iOS so if you have android it might look different.

\

This is the main screen, from here you click the climate section which opens the following screen.

Click the tab that says schedule to set your schedule. That opens the following screen.

Scroll all the way to the bottom after setting your schedule, this would be your departure time, and check the slider that says pull from charger to maintain range. This will tell the software to have the car warm for you at a set time, including the battery and to use the charger power instead of the battery to do so. Using this you will have a warm car, warm battery and at your desired state of charge when you're ready to leave.

 

[Joseph D]

Hi All, I'm new here and new to the EV world, but loving it. I also need some help and somebody to tell me if this is normal. I have a 2025 Rivian R1S Dual Large with 22" rims and road tires. I've put probably 1500-2000 miles on it, mostly short trips, around town, and some highway driving. I live in NJ so the temp is about 27. Here is the issue: my range is abysmal. I only charge to 80% which is says gives me about 264 miles. But, for example, today I drove a total of 52 miles and I'm currently at 158 miles or 49%. Is this normal? I mean, this isn't like a 20-30% difference. It's literally a little more than half. So what this says is on a full 100% charge, I'll get like 150 miles. That can't be right... can it? Should I be bringing this into the shop or something? Is it a little windy, sure, it's winter, but enough that taking range down to half?

This isn't just today, it's always about half and it's actually scary. My worry is that when I have to take my oldest to college in the fall, I'll have to stop every 2 hours to charge. Also, does the navigation know the range is that off and can adjust? What if there's not a charging station closer?

Just a newb here with a bunch of worries because this range is not ok. Thanks for any help this community can give. I hope to be an active participant.

Adding on to what Donald said.
Cold weather and smaller trips will make your efficiency seem really bad. Every time you hop in and start driving the vehicle has to go through all of the battery management procedures to warm the thing up. If you do this multiple times a day this can add up as the battery will cool down again once it goes to sleep.

You can keep this idea as your efficiency is negatively front loaded. The longer the trip, the better the efficiency in the cold, as maintaining temperature is much easier than warming up.
A real world example is my efficiency around town going to work and back is really bad, like 1.4 M/KW in the winter, but when i go visit family the next state over, also in the winter, the efficiency loss on the long drive is only around ~10% from summer numbers of around ~2.1 M/KW for me with the 20" AT tires.

 

[mdesilver]

You guys have to be right. I drive probably 20 of those 52 miles and then looked afterwards and my battery was at 42 degrees. So what you’re saying that my battery actually never has the ability to get to optimal temperature makes total sense

 

[Golfer04]

Like DS says always precondition before you leave. You can set a daily departure time in the app. The battery should be at the optimal temperature when you leave. If that isn't an option you will see a pretty dramatic drop in range/efficiency in cold weather. This is especially true on short trips because the vehicle works furiously to warm the cabin AND the battery pack just in time for you to shut the vehicle off. If you can get this done while plugged in you will get most of the efficiency back, but not all. I get 30 percent better efficiency going to the office than I do coming home because I precondition in the morning, but vehicle sits outside all day before I go home.

 

[Joseph D]

You guys have to be right. I drive probably 20 of those 52 miles and then looked afterwards and my battery was at 42 degrees. So what you’re saying that my battery actually never has the ability to get to optimal temperature makes total sense

Pretty much, the one tweak I would say is:

Rivian likes to keep the battery at a comfortable temp to give you full performance. Depending on how cold things are it could take much longer. It will try and get to that temp every time you get in the vehicle and start driving.
But the main thing is, when the car is asleep, it won't run any battery conditioning unless it gets stupid cold out. Here in the CA valley I've never seen it get that cold, so others will have to let you know what that line is.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Pretty much, the one tweak I would say is:

Rivian likes to keep the battery at a comfortable temp to give you full performance. depending on how cold things are it could take much longer. It will try and get to that temp every time you get in the vehicle and start driving.
But the main thing is, when the car is asleep, it won't run any battery conditioning unless it gets stupid cold out. Here in the CA valley I've never seen it get that cold, so others will have to let you know what that line is.

There's a thread going on right now where @Dark-Fx has found that threshold to be about 15 degrees.

 

[mkhuffman]

BEVs lose a lot of range when it is cold.

The energy to heat the cabin directly drains the battery. In a gas-powered vehicle, the heat naturally generated by the engine can be used to heat the cabin and very little extra energy is used. A BEV does not naturally generate heat, and has to use energy to do that.

Also, the battery loses capacity when it gets cold. It can lose 10% or more depending on how cold it is. Rivian does try to keep the battery warm, but doing so requires energy and drains the battery.

The EPA range is generally very hard to achieve in normal driving. It can be done if you combine the right mix of city and highway driving.

Highway driving is not very efficient at all, and few vehicles can meet the EPA range when driven at typical highway speeds. Due to aerodynamics, Rivian vehicles cannot meet EPA range when driven at highway speeds. Maybe the R3 will? LOL.

 

[Cascadian]

I agree with everything said above.

In winter I have noticed that it can take 20-30 minutes for the vehicle and battery to reach a steady temp and then the heating load reaches a minimum. When this happens you will see efficiency much closer to rated.

Remember that the number in the driver display is rated and applies only when your driving closely matches the EPA testing; warm and a mix of city and medium highway speeds. At around 70F non-scientific user testing indicates that rated range can be matched on the freeway if you average less than 70 mph.

When road tripping the best estimate of range is given by using the center display navigation. That software accounts for outside temperature, elevation changes and real time vehicle performance to give pretty accurate estimates giving you confidence as you drive.

 

[JCWCVG]

In your phone app use the following screens. Keep in mind this is iOS so if you have android it might look different.

\

This is the main screen, from here you click the climate section which opens the following screen.

Click the tab that says schedule to set your schedule. That opens the following screen.

Scroll all the way to the bottom after setting your schedule, this would be your departure time, and check the slider that says pull from charger to maintain range. This will tell the software to have the car warm for you at a set time, including the battery and to use the charger power instead of the battery to do so. Using this you will have a warm car, warm battery and at your desired state of charge when you're ready to leave.

My wife drives 2023 R1S. She does not leave at the same time every day. One day might be 8:30, next day 11:30. If we keep the R1S plugged in, will the setting above keep the battery closer to 50 degrees at all times?

 

[Donald Stanfield]

My wife drives 2023 R1S. She does not leave at the same time every day. One day might be 8:30, next day 11:30. If we keep the R1S plugged in, will the setting above keep the battery closer to 50 degrees at all times?

No. Unfortunately, it only works on a schedule. You can set the schedule an hour before you leave, which would still work. This only matters if you need the range, which isn't the case for most people driving daily. It has been a requested feature for a more direct preconditioning button for a while. I'm sure we will get one eventually.

 

[AZMurph]

Hi All, I'm new here and new to the EV world, but loving it. I also need some help and somebody to tell me if this is normal. I have a 2025 Rivian R1S Dual Large with 22" rims and road tires. I've put probably 1500-2000 miles on it, mostly short trips, around town, and some highway driving. I live in NJ so the temp is about 27. Here is the issue: my range is abysmal. I only charge to 80% which is says gives me about 264 miles. But, for example, today I drove a total of 52 miles and I'm currently at 158 miles or 49%. Is this normal? I mean, this isn't like a 20-30% difference. It's literally a little more than half. So what this says is on a full 100% charge, I'll get like 150 miles. That can't be right... can it? Should I be bringing this into the shop or something? Is it a little windy, sure, it's winter, but enough that taking range down to half?

This isn't just today, it's always about half and it's actually scary. My worry is that when I have to take my oldest to college in the fall, I'll have to stop every 2 hours to charge. Also, does the navigation know the range is that off and can adjust? What if there's not a charging station closer?

Just a newb here with a bunch of worries because this range is not ok. Thanks for any help this community can give. I hope to be an active participant.

Your efficiency will be different depending how, when and where you drive like others have said. Just as example of an expectation though, I get anywhere from 1.7 mi/kwh to 4.5 mi/kwh depending on elevation and speed, but average 2.3 mi/kwh over time. But I live in an area where it’s 60 degrees in the winter. So with your large battery if you did the same as me your real world range would be 2.3 x 92.5 (large battery size) = 213 miles. ……. but less in a cold winter.

if you want to know what you do over time to smooth out different types of trips just leave one of the trip meters on for a month without resetting it. Or, you can connect to Electrifi to track stats.

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