Pleased with Conserve mode's efficiency over 900 mile trip

[JoelD]

We took our granddaughter on a 2 night Cub Scout camporee this weekend (her parents have a 4 month old at home!). She lives in northern Virginia and we live in coastal NC. It was a 900 mile round trip from Friday to Sunday, from Emerald Isle NC TO Gore VA via Centreville VA. On secondary roads, I95, I66, and more. We averaged 2.7 miles/kWh. I don’t do jackrabbit starts, but I did run 70-75 on the Interstate and will punch it to get around traffic. Bottom line is that an R1T that’s fully loaded (frunk, gear tunnel, and bed) is still pretty efficient. Interestingly, it seems to like hilly northern VA better than the flatlands, it’s sensitive to pavement types, and is not as efficient in traffic jams (I95!) as my Bolt. But I’m very pleased with the efficiency, and confident in the range of 330+ in conserve mode, even when fully loaded. Got the R1T nice and dirty on the dirt roads to get to camp .

And charging from Electrify America was free this weekend in VA and NC. Score!

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[SeaGeo]

21s?

 

[MoreTrout]

Very nice. I have now done several trips between my home and my camp. There are 2 routes I take. One about 205 miles and the other 190. The 190 takes a little or a lot longer depending on traffic in one section through the city, but is the one I prefer. Driving it up last night I got 2.34 on my 20" ATs driving All purpose Auto all the way. And that is with a net increase in elevation. On the first 75 miles driving back last week I got 2.54. I think I have around 3700 miles total so far and my long term efficiency was around 2.3 last time I checked. I only did Conserve on one trip. Everything else has been All Purpose Auto.

I'm curious if your range estimator has changed from the default yet. Mine briefly increased my full charge estimate from 270 to 271 in All Purpose mode, but then went back to 270. I'm obviously exceeding that by a significant margin. Maybe it just takes more time and mileage to adjust. When I use the navigation and it gives me the initial estimate of range left at destination I get there with significantly more range every time. Either way, I much prefer that conservative approach over what I always hear that "other" EV manufacturer programmed into their inferior software.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Very nice. I have now done several trips between my home and my camp. There are 2 routes I take. One about 205 miles and the other 190. The 190 takes a little or a lot longer depending on traffic in one section through the city, but is the one I prefer. Driving it up last night I got 2.34 on my 20" ATs driving All purpose Auto all the way. And that is with a net increase in elevation. On the first 75 miles driving back last week I got 2.54. I think I have around 3700 miles total so far and my long term efficiency was around 2.3 last time I checked. I only did Conserve on one trip. Everything else has been All Purpose Auto.

I'm curious if your range estimator has changed from the default yet. Mine briefly increased my full charge estimate from 270 to 271 in All Purpose mode, but then went back to 270. I'm obviously exceeding that by a significant margin. Maybe it just takes more time and mileage to adjust. When I use the navigation and it gives me the initial estimate of range left at destination I get there with significantly more range every time. Either way, I much prefer that conservative approach over what I always hear that "other" EV manufacturer programmed into their inferior software.

Mine has changed once since delivery. About a week in I hit the reset button. 5 months later the numbers are still the same.

 

[moosehead]

Nicely done to the grandparents. I have yet to power anything from the Rivian, is that really an air fryer in camp? That would be a gamechanger for car camping.

 

[JoelD]

21s?

Yes, 21s…

 

[jerseyff]

Mine also update only once (probably after a month of driving) since delivery (4mo ago), I have not manually reset. I think I will soon as I am 6k miles in and would be curious if my driving style has leveled out going from ICE to BEV.

 

[JoelD]

Very nice. I have now done several trips between my home and my camp. There are 2 routes I take. One about 205 miles and the other 190. The 190 takes a little or a lot longer depending on traffic in one section through the city, but is the one I prefer. Driving it up last night I got 2.34 on my 20" ATs driving All purpose Auto all the way. And that is with a net increase in elevation. On the first 75 miles driving back last week I got 2.54. I think I have around 3700 miles total so far and my long term efficiency was around 2.3 last time I checked. I only did Conserve on one trip. Everything else has been All Purpose Auto.

I'm curious if your range estimator has changed from the default yet. Mine briefly increased my full charge estimate from 270 to 271 in All Purpose mode, but then went back to 270. I'm obviously exceeding that by a significant margin. Maybe it just takes more time and mileage to adjust. When I use the navigation and it gives me the initial estimate of range left at destination I get there with significantly more range every time. Either way, I much prefer that conservative approach over what I always hear that "other" EV manufacturer programmed into their inferior software.

I don’t know that my range estimate has changed much. I only charge to 100% when going on a trip that will require the range, so I haven’t paid much attention to the full charge range estimate. I’m curious, though, an why you are using all purpose most of the time. I run all purpose around town, but not on road trips…I find performance in Conserve to be more than adequate….

 

[JoelD]

Nicely done to the grandparents. I have yet to power anything from the Rivian, is that really an air fryer in camp? That would be a gamechanger for car camping.

No air fryer, but I have run a small instapot . I think it’s a 1500 watt limit (check the manual to confirm), so if your air fryer works on that, there you go!

 

[Gsxr150]

Thank you for sharing!

 

[W1SE]

Nicely done to the grandparents. I have yet to power anything from the Rivian, is that really an air fryer in camp? That would be a gamechanger for car camping.

we were cooking some hotdogs wrapped with dough over the campfire when camping and the dough wasn’t behaving. So I brought out my toaster oven I just “happened” to have in my rivian. Yup, best camp cooking ever. Haha

 

[MoreTrout]

I don’t know that my range estimate has changed much. I only charge to 100% when going on a trip that will require the range, so I haven’t paid much attention to the full charge range estimate. I’m curious, though, an why you are using all purpose most of the time. I run all purpose around town, but not on road trips…I find performance in Conserve to be more than adequate….

Main reason is to avoid uneven tire wear. I admittedly didn't pay close attention, but saw multiple posts in other threads about guides and other employees telling customers that conserve was only something to be used when running low on a long trip if you were worried about making it to the charger, and wasn't good to use regularly. Could all just be another example of which Rivian employee you talk to though. For me, I don't want to go through the hassle of doing tire rotations. As long as I don't get an unexpected flat, I plan to only need to buy 3 new tires when the time comes and swap out the new spare with one of the worn tires.
I'm happy enough with the range I get in All purpose. I'll probably eventually try another trip in conserve just to see what I can get, but not something I obsess over.
I was just excited to finally have a reason to use Off Road this week.

 

[iKnowKenMeadows]

See my guide told me to use conserve basically anytime I’m doing extended highway rides, I don’t see how tires would wear unevenly, they’re all still moving at the same rate/speed regardless, it’s not like your doing full throttle punches at 60 plus to blow the front tires up to wear them differently.

 

[Arky]

See my guide told me to use conserve basically anytime I’m doing extended highway rides, I don’t see how tires would wear unevenly, they’re all still moving at the same rate/speed regardless, it’s not like your doing full throttle punches at 60 plus to blow the front tires up to wear them differently.

They're moving at the same rate and speed but the car will change camber based on your ride height. You gain almost a full degree negative camber going from mid to lowest. This can add some wear to the inner edges (although on my truck which I checked this on all those values are within a reasonable range even on the lowest.)

For reference I measured mine with a level placed at fixed points on the wheels, these numbers may vary based on where you're parked (my garage floor is pretty flat) and the alignment of your particular vehicle but the differences should be the same.

Camber at:
Lowest: F -1.7 R -1.95
Low F -1.4 R -1.7
Mid F -0.8 R -1.2
High F -0.4 R -0.8

 

[kizamybute']

Main reason is to avoid uneven tire wear. I admittedly didn't pay close attention, but saw multiple posts in other threads about guides and other employees telling customers that conserve was only something to be used when running low on a long trip if you were worried about making it to the charger, and wasn't good to use regularly. Could all just be another example of which Rivian employee you talk to though. For me, I don't want to go through the hassle of doing tire rotations. As long as I don't get an unexpected flat, I plan to only need to buy 3 new tires when the time comes and swap out the new spare with one of the worn tires.
I'm happy enough with the range I get in All purpose. I'll probably eventually try another trip in conserve just to see what I can get, but not something I obsess over.
I was just excited to finally have a reason to use Off Road this week.

You can change the ride height settings in each mode. So if you're worried about added camber when the truck lowers, just set the suspension at "Standard" in Conserve mode and it will be no different than All-Purpose. All-Purpose will also lower the vehicle if you have it set to Auto.

On the highway, there will be no difference in tire wear using conserve mode. The biggest difference is it doesn't use the rear motors. Not necessary simply to maintain highway speeds. There's really no disadvantage to using Conserve Mode if you manually set the suspension height settings to be equal for Conserve or All-Purpose modes. The only difference is that the Rivian runs more efficiently in conserve mode, so the only impact is that you'll get more range.

If that helps clarify?

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