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bhopkins

bhopkins

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The final run down from Cottonwood Pass was fun. We managed to make a perfect green efficiency graph and actually gained roughly 5 miles while driving something like 12 miles.

Was nice seeing this green graph for most of the run down to our destination.
Rivian R1T R1S Road Trip Underway:  MI to CO F6E52010-1BC5-4FDE-BF8A-D33C960D5784
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And hereā€™s the final data update. This is the data for the run from FairPlay up over Cottonwood Pass and down to our destination.
Rivian R1T R1S Road Trip Underway:  MI to CO 319479AC-355F-4F9A-855B-D347673F2BC8


And hereā€™s the overall trip data (Saginaw, MI to Almont, CO).

Rivian R1T R1S Road Trip Underway:  MI to CO 5AF65ABE-AD10-4FCA-BA55-21D6B9E102A6
 
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Here are my thoughts on this trip (will do the reverse back to MI in a few days). Iā€™m glad we drove out and did the road trip. Yes, there were some issues, but we made it. Iā€™m guessing we probably added about 3-4 hours overall to the actual trip. We did a 1000 mile trip in July from mid-MI to Cape Code and did not run into this level of charger issues. Iā€™m guessing (and only a guess) that chargers are being better maintained by EA in more populous areas and theyā€™re letting chargers in less populous areas slide. To be fair, it may be more difficult to get repair crews to these area. Regardless, repairs need to happen.

Had the existing chargers been working and the majority of the dispensers working at stations, the trip would have been less stressful. As it is, you definitely have to check 2-3 chargers down the road each time to make sure there are working chargers. Thank goodness for Plugshare and crowdsourced information. That definitely saved us more than once on this trip.

As youā€˜re traveling, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE notify the charger network if you find a non-working charger. I find the level of responsiveness varies across networks. Electrify America is very slow to respond (if at all) when notified of issues. Shell/Greenlots is extremely responsive and definitely working to find out the issues with their chargers. So far, no issues with ChargePoint so I canā€™t comment on their responsiveness but their chargers consistently work. Iā€™ve only used EVgo once but so far so good with them.

As far as returning to MI, will decide in a few days if we make the run back via I-80 or if we go using I-70 and then cut north up to Des Moines.

Thanks for listening and following along on this journey. I hope this helps in some small way.
 

Denver_Paulie

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I have made the Denver to KCMO run multiple times this year and have not had any issues with the EA network through Kansas. It is a detour back to Michigan, but reliable chargers are worth it.
 

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Driving from CO to Michigan during December! Really interested your thoughts if you go a different route.
 

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Could you make the return trip in conserve with a lower suspension?
Curious how that would compare on the exact same route vs your current settings.
regardless awesome job documenting and sharing everything, much appreciated!
 

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Thanks for listening and following along on this journey. I hope this helps in some small way.
I appreciate your posting about your trip. I hope you have a smooth trip back home. Thank you for sharing your adventure!
 

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I went through Cottonwood pass yesterday traveling from Crested Butte back to Colorado Springs. We saw a moose in that very glade you posted from the top. Went fly fishing for the very first time in Almont on Thursday. Great fun. Now back home in North Carolina just waiting for Rivian guide contact. Have a great trip and thanks for posting!
 

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My wife and I have been following this thread with interest and decided to post. We were on the fence going BEV with a Rivian. However , I think we're going to stay put for a while and not buy for now.

It appears the public DC CCS fast charging model just doesn't work. Car manufactures need to go with the Tesla fast charging model, make it a proprietary, branded and a closed network. This way the chargers are maintained and are integrated with ownership experience.

Driving around on a road trip with the hopes of the next charging stations works, just doesn't cut it.
I hope Rivian continues to build out their own charging network, that will be a huge selling point and would get us off the fence.

The EA model doesn't work...An installation of four chargers where half don't work and the other half might work, might charge but slow or be taken, doesn't instill confidence.
 

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Will do. Thatā€™s my purpose in doing this. I came to the R1T from a Tesla Model S so was spoiled by the Tesla Supercharger network (especially since I had lifetime free charging). Youā€™ll get the good, bad, and ugly from this trip.
Same boat, the biggest thing I notice is that I now have to pay for charging versus the The Tesla always having free charging for the past 9+ years.

I do wish these companies could get with the manufacturers to have them communicate directly with the car like Tesla's do. Simply plug in and it identifies your vehicle, starts charging and bills the credit card on file. Then we'd be near parity with the Supercharging network
 

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bhopkins

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Same boat, the biggest thing I notice is that I now have to pay for charging versus the The Tesla always having free charging for the past 9+ years.

I do wish these companies could get with the manufacturers to have them communicate directly with the car like Tesla's do. Simply plug in and it identifies your vehicle, starts charging and bills the credit card on file. Then we'd be near parity with the Supercharging network
Thats the ultimate solution. But, Iā€™d settle for working chargers. šŸ˜Ž
 

EVerywhere

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Thank you for posting this thread. Iā€™m planning the same trip from MI to Crested Butte, CO, and possibly down to Santa Fe, MN. Your report confirms my fears about the poor state of rural chargers. This is my first EV and Iā€™m jumping in with both feet. Like you will be notifying every charging service provider of defective equipment. All I need is my R1T which was due to be delivered last Saturday, but they sent it to the MN SC and not MI SC for some reason.
 

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I'm curious about the range in general. I've been seeing some pretty good range figures, though a lot of those were in conserve mode, which most have said is not what you want to be driving around in for long periods but rather as a way to eek out an extra 40-50 miles when needed.
Your experiences seems like you'd get about 225 miles out of 317 anticipated range, not towing, yes, going over some mountains, highway driving etc. Likely air conditioner on. That's prob a little worse than I would have hoped for given you aren't towing, it's hot and AC needed but that likely wouldn't be as big an impact as cold/heater on.
I'm waiting for the max pack, and hopefully by the time I get it, the charging situation will be a lot better overall. I do worry that rate of increase of chargers won't be much faster than rate of increase of non-Tesla EV's, which could be an issue. But sounds like no one would be having charging issues if these chargers actually, ya know, worked.
 
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Your experiences seems like you'd get about 225 miles out of 317 anticipated range, not towing, yes, going over some mountains, highway driving etc. Likely air conditioner on. That's prob a little worse than I would have hoped for given you aren't towing, it's hot and AC needed but that likely wouldn't be as big an impact as cold/heater on.
For the most part, we had no issues easily driving 200+ miles. However, biologically, we would tend to need/want to stop every 2-2.5 hours. As the trip progressed, we were intentionally stopping more frequently to make sure we maintained an appropriate level of charge to protect ourselves if a charger was down.

Given our efficiency was 1.94 mi/kWh over the full trip, I would say our range was really 262 miles. Now, to be clear, this included crossing the Continental Divide and a lot of higher speed driving. NE and CO have 75 mph speed limits and I may or may not have exceeded those limits which of course would have dropped efficiency.
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