Rivian Peak Charge Rate

[MountainBikeDude]

So, I know Rivian's own page as it relates to charging talks about how the R1 platform can charge at a speed of "up to 140 miles in 20 minutes" and then goes on to talk about their own chargers and how they will initially charge at "speeds of 200kw and up to 300kw in the future". Every time I would read that made me think the chargers would be updated over software to 300kw for use with future vehicle iterations, but the current lineup were hardware limited to 200kw.

I spoke with CS yesterday as I have a Max Pack on order and wanted to know if I was going to spend an eternity at a destination charger trying to top up. I asked if the vehicles were hardware or software limited to a 200kw peak rate and she confirmed they are currently software limited to 200, but they would be updated to 300 via software update. I followed up to double check that it pertained to the vehicle and not the chargers, and she confirmed vehicles they are currently delivering to customers are capable of a 300kw peak charge rate. For how long that can be maintained is anyone's guess, but its good to know!

A recent Car and Driver article also touched on this as well. Rivian claims that its R1T electric pickup can withstand peak charging rates of up to 220 kilowatts on a DC fast charger. In the future, it says, its vehicles will be able to accept energy at a rate of 300-plus kilowatts after an over-the-air update.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38944499/2022-rivian-r1t-charging-test/

Sponsored

 

[jtshaw]

Given the current R1 product pages call out future 300kW support (and pretty much always have) I’d sure hope that didn’t actually mean “with a different hardware configuration.”

 

[electruck]

I'll be very curious to see if this is possible with standard EA 350 kW chargers or only on the RAN.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

This was where my skepticism about the vehicles ability to do it crept in

 

[manitou202]

I'll be very curious to see if this is possible with standard EA 350 kW chargers or only on the RAN.

Supposedly the EA 350kW chargers are limited to 500amps. So 400V @ 500amps is only 200kW. This is part of the problem with Rivian using a 400V battery architecture.

 

[E.S.]

 

[electruck]

Supposedly the EA 350kW chargers are limited to 500amps. So 400V @ 500amps is only 200kW. This is part of the problem with Rivian using a 400V battery architecture.

Precisely why I am curious about the claim. Perhaps the RAN charger will not have the same current limit (call me skeptical of that possibility). Or perhaps Rivian leverages their patent and enables the vehicle to take an 800V input. Or perhaps CS has once again mis-informed.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Supposedly the EA 350kW chargers are limited to 500amps. So 400V @ 500amps is only 200kW. This is part of the problem with Rivian using a 400V battery architecture.

Interesting. I knew the 800V architecture was a (hate myself for using this term) "Game Changer" but I see why now. you would need to output 750amps at 400V to achieve 300kw. vs 375amps at 800V to achieve the same output.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Precisely why I am curious about the claim. Perhaps the RAN charger will not have the same current limit (call me skeptical of that possibility). Or perhaps Rivian leverages their patent and enables the vehicle to take an 800V input. Or perhaps CS has once again mis-informed.

On the misinformed front, I completely agree, which is why I doubled down after reading the article from Car and Driver by asking CS directly. She did take time to get the answer but assured me it applied to the vehicle and not just the chargers future output.

 

[SANZC02]

Supposedly the EA 350kW chargers are limited to 500amps. So 400V @ 500amps is only 200kW. This is part of the problem with Rivian using a 400V battery architecture.

I do not know the specs for the RAN DC charger but you can get to 300 KW at 400 volts with 750 amps.

 

[pc500]

Precisely why I am curious about the claim. Perhaps the RAN charger will not have the same current limit (call me skeptical of that possibility). Or perhaps Rivian leverages their patent and enables the vehicle to take an 800V input. Or perhaps CS has once again mis-informed.

Rivian chargers will do the max spec @ 400v and bump it to up to 250kwh.

They may also go a bit over out of spec to get to 300kwh.

 

[pc500]

So, I know Rivian's own page as it relates to charging talks about how the R1 platform can charge at a speed of "up to 140 miles in 20 minutes" and then goes on to talk about their own chargers and how they will initially charge at "speeds of 200kw and up to 300kw in the future". Every time I would read that made me think the chargers would be updated over software to 300kw for use with future vehicle iterations, but the current lineup were hardware limited to 200kw.

I spoke with CS yesterday as I have a Max Pack on order and wanted to know if I was going to spend an eternity at a destination charger trying to top up. I asked if the vehicles were hardware or software limited to a 200kw peak rate and she confirmed they are currently software limited to 200, but they would be updated to 300 via software update. I followed up to double check that it pertained to the vehicle and not the chargers, and she confirmed vehicles they are currently delivering to customers are capable of a 300kw peak charge rate. For how long that can be maintained is anyone's guess, but its good to know!

A recent Car and Driver article also touched on this as well. Rivian claims that its R1T electric pickup can withstand peak charging rates of up to 220 kilowatts on a DC fast charger. In the future, it says, its vehicles will be able to accept energy at a rate of 300-plus kilowatts after an over-the-air update.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38944499/2022-rivian-r1t-charging-test/

It's quite possible the max pack can hold the charge rate longer (lower C)

 

[kanundrum]

Tons of discussion on this between @SeaGeo and my self and the only conclusion is based on what it's now is 200kw give or take. Buy it for that, don't assume anything.

 

[SeaGeo]

Supposedly the EA 350kW chargers are limited to 500amps. So 400V @ 500amps is only 200kW. This is part of the problem with Rivian using a 400V battery architecture.

CCS as a standard is limited to 500amps.

An interesting tidbit that has shown up recently is some of the EA chargers seem to be limited to ~350-380 amps. They can still achieve 350kw 380amps with 920v. Why is this interesting? Because that will limit a 400v class vehicle to ~140 to 160kw.Yet many of the 150kw EA Stations can actually hit closer to 175kw. Sooooo it's possible that we'll get faster charging speeds on most 150kw EA stations than some of their 350kW stations (specifically it seems like the ABB stations).

Precisely why I am curious about the claim. Perhaps the RAN charger will not have the same current limit (call me skeptical of that possibility). Or perhaps Rivian leverages their patent and enables the vehicle to take an 800V input. Or perhaps CS has once again mis-informed.

Unless RAN is going outside of the CCS standard (I'm extremely skeptical of that), they'd have to have a way to have an 800v type charging (ie the patent we've all discussed).

Months ago someone found and shared the specs of the chargers, and they were 920v chargers.


I agree with @kanundrum. Buy it with the current performance in mind (~180kw+ through 50% or 60%), and hopefully they surprise us and actually do have hardware capability for the 800v charging via the split pack. I would absolutely not trust CS on this until it's clear on their website or you hear it from RJ's mouth. I have reason to believe it's there, but I'm not putting money down on it.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Tons of discussion on this between @SeaGeo and my self and the only conclusion is based on what it's now is 200kw give or take. Buy it for that, don't assume anything.

I agree, I'm also basing my expectations on what is actually known vs the information CS has or doesn't have access to, but.... I am hopeful!

I need to go back through the barrage of Rivian videos on youtube and find the video where RJ and the blogger talk to the vehicles charge rate and I'm fairly certain he touches on its ability to hit rates of 360kw, but I need to find it. Also could just be based on previous aspirational hardware vs what is currently on offer.

Sponsored