A heat pump might not be that big of deal. Gen 1 R1T did not have it, Gen 2 does. I’ve had both and have kept VERY careful track of my efficiency while driving around MN and WI. I have found little evidence of a benefit.
A heat pump should be more efficient but myself and others have not found any meaningful improvement with the Rivian implementation of it.
I appreciate your effort to make the graphs, but they are highly subjective and not actual scientific tests. The variables are infinite. Driving speed, outside temperature, climate control usage, number of passengers, acceleration speed, cargo weight, tires, wheel size, braking speed, wind speed, wind direction, road type, etc. - not to mention those vehicles aren’t even the same drivetrain nor battery pack. Again I appreciate your effort, but it really means nothing in determining heat pump vs PTC efficiency of an R1 vehicle.
It's known that Rivian uses heat from the motors to heat other parts of the vehicle, similar to Tesla. I'm not aware of published details, but I would not assume that the PTC heater is the correct point of comparison to a heat pump. I vaguely recall Munroe doing a deep dive on this some time in the past.
Rivian used a PTC heater in Gen1 vehicles before moving onto a heat pump in Gen2 vehicles. That’s why I listed it.
The charts empirically measure the efficiency of two different vehicles under highly similar conditions. It doesn't isolate the impact of the heat pump, but you'd think if the heat pump made much difference to cold-weather efficiency then you'd see a bigger difference on the left side of the chart. Maybe the temperatures don't go low enough.
