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PlugShare, A Better Route Planner, Rivian or what

C.R. Rivian

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I've been using PlugShare to look at charging options. The Rivian app/map seems to get mixed reviews. I've noticed a lot of buzz in the forum about 'A Better Route Planner' (ABRP). I note that ABRP has a premium tier. Any feedback on these and other route planning options is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
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staples

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It all depends what you need and when. For planning long trips with good infrastructure I'll look at ABRP to give me a rough estimate of the charging plan for my route. If I'm going off route, into areas with little charging infrastructure, I'll dig into options in plugshare. Even on the long routes I'll take a look at plugshare to look at recent experiences people have had at specific charger. In-vehicle nav is fine for most driving, but in my limited experience is way too conservative. As for the Rivian app's map, I haven't really bothered with it.
 

kylealden

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In daily driving, I just use the car nav. It's fine 90% of the time including chargering stops, but if the routing seems weird or suboptimal (e.g. has me stopping at a slow charger, or taking a highway that seems out of the way), I spot check with PlugShare to find better charger options. Plugshare is an absolutely essential research tool for finding chargers and especially for getting a sense of their reliability.

Even though I pay for the premium tier, I find the ABRP UI absolutely bonkers unintuitive, and rarely use it. It's good to have in a pinch for planning a trip that really pushes a charger gap - since you can manually tailor things like Wh/mi to match your historical consumption. But in practice I only use it to plan out the best route for an extended road trip (e.g. I've used it to map a Seattle -> Steamboat ski road trip).
 

CommodoreAmiga

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I find ABRP and PlugShare serve different purposes, and use both. PlugShare is good for seeing chargers in an area, and reading reviews. ABRP is good when researching potential road trips. During actual driving I use the Rivian nav. The map in the Rivian smartphone app isn’t particularly useful.
 

kurtlikevonnegut

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Speaking of Charging apps...is Chargepoint's app/online interface just generally terrible or is it just me?

I am staying at a hotel with chargepoint chargers so I downloaded the app and linked it to my Rivian account and added my credit card for payment. I used the tap to charge function on my phone to unlock the charger and plugged it in, it charged my vehicle to full and provided the cost of the charging session, however the Chargepoint App and online interface never showed as having an active charging session, that charging session doesn't show up in my history, and I never saw a charge on my credit card (other than the $1 to link the credit card to chargepoint). Now the app doesn't even load on my phone (just stays on the launch screen) and the online interface gives me weird "you are not authorized to view this page, contact your organization administrator" when I click on my account information.

Is this sort of the norm for Chargepoint, and am I accidentally getting free charging at a paid charger?
 

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jjswan33

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Speaking of Charging apps...is Chargepoint's app/online interface just generally terrible or is it just me?

I am staying at a hotel with chargepoint chargers so I downloaded the app and linked it to my Rivian account and added my credit card for payment. I used the tap to charge function on my phone to unlock the charger and plugged it in, it charged my vehicle to full and provided the cost of the charging session, however the Chargepoint App and online interface never showed as having an active charging session, that charging session doesn't show up in my history, and I never saw a charge on my credit card (other than the $1 to link the credit card to chargepoint). Now the app doesn't even load on my phone (just stays on the launch screen) and the online interface gives me weird "you are not authorized to view this page, contact your organization administrator" when I click on my account information.

Is this sort of the norm for Chargepoint, and am I accidentally getting free charging at a paid charger?
I have the Chargepoint home flex and also have fast charged multiple times at Chargepoint units. I haven’t ever had any of these issues with the app. In fact I like how the app allows me to summarize my charging history, home vs public etc.
 

seatosummit

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Does anyone know where the Rivian nav sources it charing information?

I've now experienced a number of situations in which EA and Shell Recharge locations are simply non existent in the Rivian database.

Presumably it is referencing a dynamic database, but it seems pretty stale.

I use PlugShare extensively and find it has the best intel by far on charger performance and availability.

I use the EA app to check on charger availability and reference the "last charged" time before I stop. Good mechanism to ensure you aren't going to show up to a dispenser showing a command prompt.

Rivian R1T R1S PlugShare, A Better Route Planner, Rivian or what 1659727556894
 

DJG

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Does anyone know where the Rivian nav sources it charing information?

I've now experienced a number of situations in which EA and Shell Recharge locations are simply non existent in the Rivian database.

Presumably it is referencing a dynamic database, but it seems pretty stale.

I use PlugShare extensively and find it has the best intel by far on charger performance and availability.

I use the EA app to check on charger availability and reference the "last charged" time before I stop. Good mechanism to ensure you aren't going to show up to a dispenser showing a command prompt.

1659727556894.png
That basically describes every CCS vehicle. Use other apps to plan. Best option is to use combination of the station's own app (best chance of real time integration/being in sync) and Plugshare (crowdsourced recent activity/feedback). It's not really feasible yet for any vehicle to be able to provide the same level of information with a fragmented system. There's no incentive for the station operators to provide any information, because in most cases TINA (there is no alternative).
 

manitou202

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I have yet to experience the Rivian Nav system, but assuming it isn't great for route planning like my E-tron, here is my method.

Use the basic ABetterRoutePlanner to map out your route and charging locations. Then check all of the charging locations in PlugShare and read some of the recent check-ins regardless of the site rating. Make sure it seems like all of the sites are reliable. If necessary search for alternative sites and use AbetterRoutePlanner to re-adjust if needed.

Then on the actual trip I simply plug in the first site. Make sure I have enough charge to get to the site plus some buffer (10-20% remaining, whatever you feel comfortable with). Once at the charging site, plug in the next charging location and continue charging until I have reach that minimum buffer for the next location. Repeat.
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