Payload Hauling Range - not towing, just cargo

[RBR1S]

Has anyone got info on how much of an impact cargo (pure weight) impacts the range of the R1T. I've see a lot of threads and videos on the impact of towing - basically half the range, but I've not seen anyone post what having the fully allotted payload weight in the bed does to range.

R1T specs say up to 1700 lbs payload. What does that do to range?

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[Craigins]

Most of the energy, at highway speeds, is used to counter wind resistance. That is independent of weight.

If you go back to out of specs towing videos, when they towed an empty trailer with horrible aero design, it was worse than a loaded trailer.

At lower speeds or stop and go, you may see differences due to having to accelerate the load, and regen braking not being 100% effective.

So to answer your question, it depends.

 

[Aroohoo]

Good question... first place I would have looked is at the EPA test data (
https://dis.epa.gov/otaqpub/display_file.jsp?docid=53765&flag=1) to see what those numbers were based off of.

Unfortunately, I don't see the test weight other than it implies it is 7,000lbs (only 51lbs more than curb weight...).

 

[crashmtb]

If the weight is contained within the envelope of the truck, it won’t affect aero.

it will hurt efficiency when accelerating, especially uphill(weight is weight) but not when slowing.

Unless there’s lots of stop and start, a full load shouldn’t affect mileage much.

 

[ajdelange]

R1T specs say up to 1700 lbs payload. What does that do to range?

If the load can be kept out of the airstream (that is in the cabin or the bed with the toneau closed) it does not increase drag but it definitely increases rolling resistance and may increase inertial and gravitational potential consumption. Assuming the destination and departure point are at the same elevation and that you drive with max regen those two should be relatively small.

The rolling resistance force is F = c*m*g in which c is a coefficient, m the mass of the vehicle and g the gravitational coefficient. If the vehicle weighs 7000 lbs and you add 1700 lbs you have increased the rolling resistance force by 24%. If rolling resistance is responsible for 1/3 of total consumption (500/3) = 167 Wh/mi when c = 0.01 (concrete, bitumen) it will go up to 167*1.24 = 207 i.e. by 40 Wh/mi so that total consumption is now 540 Wh/mi meaning it has increased by 540/500 = 1.08 that is, 8%. Your range will decrease by 8%. That's really not too bad: your 314 mile EPA range gets knocked back to 291 for a loss of 23 miles.

Now if you are going to off road on a substrate where the coefficient isn't .01 but say 10 times that the story is different. I leave the calculation as an exercise for the reader. So the bottom line is when driving on a good surface even quite a bit of load won't kill to much range but when driving on a bad surface it will eat your lunch (or what's left of your lunch as the 7000 lbs with a rolling resistance coefficient of 0.1 will eat most of it without any help from the extra 1700).

 

[ajdelange]

It's probably worth mentioning that anything that effects c will have an effect on range with or without extra weight. One of these is the tires. It should be obvious that a tire especially designed for low c for use on BEV and inflated properly is going to do better in this regard that an off roading tire that has been deflated to 25 psig.

 

[C.R. Rivian]

Has anyone got info on how much of an impact cargo (pure weight) impacts the range of the R1T. I've see a lot of threads and videos on the impact of towing - basically half the range, but I've not seen anyone post what having the fully allotted payload weight in the bed does to range.

R1T specs say up to 1700 lbs payload. What does that do to range?

Just so you know, the 1700 lbs is discounted by the weight of options. I have Launch Edition with underbody shield and a spare (22"). Here's my sticker:

 

[Ripped]

Curious, as it sounds like the Rivian requires a little longer hitch extension, if anyone has run into issues with connector cable length, or safety chain length(s)
This summer I rewired the trailer lights and added a bit more length to the connector cable, just in case.

 

[RivianXpress]

Just finished a round trip from SF bay area to Boise Idaho and back. About 900lbs of total payload heading to Boise and about 1300lbs heading back (above).

Summary of return trip is below.

I'll start a new thread with more details but a trip like this with this payload on this route really needs the Max battery. I don't think I could have done this in the winter - correction, I could not have done this trip in the winter.

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