Phantom drain greatly reduced

[AlanP]

Several months ago my R1S was experiencing 2-3 % reduction in charge per day when sitting idle in my garage or at the Service Center . I just returned from a 7 day trip and was pleasantly surprised to find the charge went from 85-78%. Garaged and ambient temperature 50-70 deg f.
Also just FYI Solterra parked outside at the airport 93% had no change and Audi Q8 e-tron had no change at 80%.

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[shap]

It should be a 0% loss in 7 days. Unfortunately, Rivian can not get lower than 1% per day, at least for now.

 

[RexRemus]

It should be a 0% loss in 7 days. Unfortunately, Rivian can not get lower than 1% per day, at least for now.

I would love to experience this mythical 1% per day...

 

[Jared2]

It should be a 0% loss in 7 days. Unfortunately, Rivian can not get lower than 1% per day, at least for now.

I’ve also seen a drastic reduction, and my R1S sits for a couple weeks at a time.

Used to be 1%+ per day with Gear Guard off.

Now it’s about 1% every 3 days.

I keep the charger hooked up to it, but remotely do not having it send power unless I need it to.

 

[Janbrink]

I knew my R1T would use energy while sitting in the garage looking pretty. So does my Tesla MX and I’ve monitored its phantom drain for years. In fact, I started just thinking of it as my cars resting metabolism - the energy draw while sitting in the garage - and that’s how I refer to it.

When I got the R1T in the spring of 2022 (VIN around 3000), I was naturally curious about the metabolism of the truck. After assuring myself that I had the settings where I wanted them (i.e. gear guard and others), I started testing it when I knew I would be idle for several days. I was shocked to find the metabolism was about 153w (yes, that’s over 2.5% in 24 hrs). Way too high - especially when compared to my other car’s 21w metabolism. I continue testing to this day on both cars when I can (and when I remember).

The good news, and to your post, I can confirm (at least in my world) that the recent tests all show the R1T metabolism is about 68w and has fallen dramatically during the last 2 years. I’ll save you all the details of the test methodology and results. I will simply say that the test method is consistent, truck settings haven’t changed, I park it in the same stop in garage daily and I continue to walk by the parked truck with my PAAK in my pocket, etc. So I feel it’s a pretty good comparative test.

Yes, the phantom drain is still around 1% per 24hrs. But I can also say that there has been a huge improvement from when I got the truck 2 years ago. I feel you are correct to say it is much improved. Kudos to Rivian keep up the good work!

 

[GreenJohn42]

@Janbrink it's been another year! My 2023 R1S is losing about 2kWh per day in phantom drain while sitting at home in the garage. I'm trying to figure out if something is wrong as that seems high. Could you elaborate on your way to test the metabolism of the truck? Have you seen things get better or worse since you last measured?

 

[Janbrink]

@Janbrink it's been another year! My 2023 R1S is losing about 2kWh per day in phantom drain while sitting at home in the garage. I'm trying to figure out if something is wrong as that seems high. Could you elaborate on your way to test the metabolism of the truck? Have you seen things get better or worse since you last measured?

Funny you should ask as I just completed another test on my Model X yesterday. Here’s my (simplistic) method.

I knew the car would be sitting for awhile, so I charged it to 60%, made note of the time, and let it sit. The next time I looked at the car it had used 14% in 510.5 hrs while sitting (i.e. the SOC showed 46%). 14% is 14 kWh on my 100 kWh battery (or 14,000 wh) and 14,000 wh over 510.5 hrs means it’s using 27.4 watts per hour (or about 658 wh per day - or about .66% per day based on my battery size). I call this my cars “ resting metabolism”. The settings on your car will make a difference. I have Sentry (like Gear Guard) turned off at home along with locking and any other power hungry stuff.

I use the same method with my 2022 Launch Edition R1T. Lately it’s been coming up with a resting metabolism of about 62 watts which is about 1.1% per day on my 135 kWh battery.

I get different numbers each time I run these tests but they are always reasonably close/consistent. I’ve been doing this in my Tesla for 7 years, and the Rivian for 3 years, albeit at random times and various ambient conditions. So, I’m pretty confident in my cumulative data - for me in my circumstances anyway.

And yes my Rivian has improved. It still eats about 3 times more energy than my Tesla while sleeping. However the Rivian has went from 1.5 to 2% per day, down to about 1% per day. And honestly with my very low grid prices and integrated rooftop solar, the Rivian metabolism just doesn’t bother me. It’s literally pennies per month, and I love my Rivian. This exercise to determine phantom drain is really more a curiosity thing. But I know it’s true and kind of fun to know.

I hope this helps.

 

[GreenJohn42]

That does help! Sounds like I could make some changes (turn off bluetooth, prox unlock for one) that could help.

I tried the battery charger a lot of people use for the 12v and that does seem to bring the phantom drain down to almost nothing, meaning it's likely just the 12v charging costing me power and keeping the truck from sleeping.

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