Road Trip Planning

[stynes]

A couple of weeks ago I got back from my 3rd multi-day road trip in my R1S. I'm not going to call my planning methods perfect but I've yet to run into any serious charging issues so I thought I'd share the process and planning that's worked well for me. I've done multiple stretches of 250+ miles between charges. I usually drive in All Purpose around town and Conserve on the highway. I set the cruise 6-8 mph above the speed limit, 78 in a 70. I typically see 2.2mi/kwh on longer trips (see image below for my most recent trip). Also, I have 22" sport bright wheels.

Here's the process I normally follow. I go to ABRP and plot my route. I set it for quickest arrival. I have my reference consumption at 2.25 (and could probably go higher). I have it set to prefer EA chargers (I've yet to road trip through an area where RAN chargers are available) and have charging overhead set to 2 minutes. Arrival SoC is defaulted to 10% and I normally plan to leave for a long road trip at 100% so I set that, too. Then I click route and let ABRP do its thing.

Routing from Atlanta to Orlando, just as a recent example, ABRP recommends that I stop at EA in Cordele 42%->89% (32 mins) and then in Gainesville and go from 10%->57% (34 mins). I use that info and jump over to PlugShare and lookup those specific stations Cordele (https://www.plugshare.com/location/186713) and Gainesville (https://www.plugshare.com/location/192956). If you filter by network (I generally look first at EA and Rivian) and speed (I typically have it set to 120+) you can find them really quickly on the map. I look not at the listed speeds but the speeds in the checkins to see what people are actually getting.

In Cordele, I see 122, 158, and 124 along with a 210 from an R1S back on 6/22. I only see 1 note on 6/23 about stations being full and only 1 no charge which was for maintenance on 6/26 with several successful charges since. So I wouldn't expect to get 200kw here but 120-150 seems likely. Then I do the same in Gainesville. It's similar. I see 160, 238, 183, and 150 all in the past week. I only see one note about stations being full and a 15min wait on 6/24. So it seems likely to provide higher speeds than Cordele.

I then go back to ABRP, click on the planned charging stop, and then click add waypoint at the bottom. That essentially "locks in" my charging station choice so it doesn't change it later. I'm hopeful with Rivian's acquisition of ABRP that at some point I can send to the Rivian nav. Right now I have to plan this in the Rivian app which isn't as robust and send to car only sends the destination, not the individual planned stops. So hopefully that will get better. Has anyone seen different behavior here? I've only had a chance to use it once and actually ran into a guy from Rivian at a charger in IL and chatted with him about it. He was like, "that's not the way it's *supposed* to work." But that's what I saw - the planned charging stops changed when the route went from the app to the car.

Anyway, once I'm on my trip, I set my destination as my first charging stop so it'll precondition the battery. I also want to keep an eye on miles on arrival (I wish Rivian would show SoC on arrival). ABRP and Rivian are ALWAYS conservative for my driving so if it says 39 miles on arrival when I leave, it might say 63 by the time I actually get there. I note the SoC on arrival vs. what ABRP said and charge up to what I need to make it to the next charging stop.

Hopefully this makes sense and helps people! ABRP and PlugShare are your friends! Overcome range anxiety and get out there!

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[invernite]

A couple of weeks ago I got back from my 3rd multi-day road trip in my R1S. I'm not going to call my planning methods perfect but I've yet to run into any serious charging issues so I thought I'd share the process and planning that's worked well for me. I've done multiple stretches of 250+ miles between charges. I usually drive in All Purpose around town and Conserve on the highway. I set the cruise 6-8 mph above the speed limit, 78 in a 70. I typically see 2.2mi/kwh on longer trips (see image below for my most recent trip). Also, I have 22" sport bright wheels.

Here's the process I normally follow. I go to ABRP and plot my route. I set it for quickest arrival. I have my reference consumption at 2.25 (and could probably go higher). I have it set to prefer EA chargers (I've yet to road trip through an area where RAN chargers are available) and have charging overhead set to 2 minutes. Arrival SoC is defaulted to 10% and I normally plan to leave for a long road trip at 100% so I set that, too. Then I click route and let ABRP do its thing.

Routing from Atlanta to Orlando, just as a recent example, ABRP recommends that I stop at EA in Cordele 42%->89% (32 mins) and then in Gainesville and go from 10%->57% (34 mins). I use that info and jump over to PlugShare and lookup those specific stations Cordele (https://www.plugshare.com/location/186713) and Gainesville (https://www.plugshare.com/location/192956). If you filter by network (I generally look first at EA and Rivian) and speed (I typically have it set to 120+) you can find them really quickly on the map. I look not at the listed speeds but the speeds in the checkins to see what people are actually getting.

In Cordele, I see 122, 158, and 124 along with a 210 from an R1S back on 6/22. I only see 1 note on 6/23 about stations being full and only 1 no charge which was for maintenance on 6/26 with several successful charges since. So I wouldn't expect to get 200kw here but 120-150 seems likely. Then I do the same in Gainesville. It's similar. I see 160, 238, 183, and 150 all in the past week. I only see one note about stations being full and a 15min wait on 6/24. So it seems likely to provide higher speeds than Cordele.

I then go back to ABRP, click on the planned charging stop, and then click add waypoint at the bottom. That essentially "locks in" my charging station choice so it doesn't change it later. I'm hopeful with Rivian's acquisition of ABRP that at some point I can send to the Rivian nav. Right now I have to plan this in the Rivian app which isn't as robust and send to car only sends the destination, not the individual planned stops. So hopefully that will get better. Has anyone seen different behavior here? I've only had a chance to use it once and actually ran into a guy from Rivian at a charger in IL and chatted with him about it. He was like, "that's not the way it's *supposed* to work." But that's what I saw - the planned charging stops changed when the route went from the app to the car.

Anyway, once I'm on my trip, I set my destination as my first charging stop so it'll precondition the battery. I also want to keep an eye on miles on arrival (I wish Rivian would show SoC on arrival). ABRP and Rivian are ALWAYS conservative for my driving so if it says 39 miles on arrival when I leave, it might say 63 by the time I actually get there. I note the SoC on arrival vs. what ABRP said and charge up to what I need to make it to the next charging stop.

Hopefully this makes sense and helps people! ABRP and PlugShare are your friends! Overcome range anxiety and get out there!

Thanks for posting this - it's super helpful and timely for us given we're leaving next week for our first road trip (~1,250 miles) in our 9-day old R1S. I'll give your suggestions a try!

 

[Jccoryell]

What I would like to know is why the maps still put me on a parkway despite the fact that the Rivian knows I'm trailering? As soon as I attach the trailer it asks me if I want to go into trailer mode so why does the maps still put me on a parkway? Also, I can't seem to find a way to manually set that I'm trailering in the maps. This leads me to my next issue, I just drive from my own personal planning but there doesn't seem to be a way to manually condition the battery. Where did I go wrong here?

 

[stynes]

What I would like to know is why the maps still put me on a parkway despite the fact that the Rivian knows I'm trailering? As soon as I attach the trailer it asks me if I want to go into trailer mode so why does the maps still put me on a parkway? Also, I can't seem to find a way to manually set that I'm trailering in the maps. This leads me to my next issue, I just drive from my own personal planning but there doesn't seem to be a way to manually condition the battery. Where did I go wrong here?

I'm not aware of a way to manually precondition. It does this automatically based on routing. I'm not sure about different routing based on towing. I'm not sure if Waze or Google Maps or others do this either. I agree would be helpful though.

 

[NachoRivian]

Agree with the ABRP/Plugshare combo. Also recommend going to specific charging app (EA, EVGO, etc) and verify current availability. I've found it's a bit challenging locating reliable hotel charging.

With so many EVs, and frequent unreliability of charging locations, we have a lot of room for improvement.

But so far zero issues at Rivian Level3s! Fast, reliable, available, and free!

 

[carancpa]

Thanks, stressing over my first 550 mile trip NV to AZ. I'm in rural NV and ABRP is not helpful, making many turns to nowhere in the middle of the hundred miles of desert. I almost didn't make it home as there were 2 chargers in the 200 miles that were out of service. Finally found a private charger that cost me $30 for 50 mile trek home.

I also started on the ABRP but it would not pick up the RAN in Kingston and then it drops off as to chargers until I'm closer to urban areas. I tried Share Plug and looked at the RAN online to get my charger stops in order. There are not as many EA here, Las Vegas has EVGo and only one supercharger 350kWt in entire Las Vegas right now. RAN is working on the charger there near downtown.

I hope ABRP improves soon and there are more superchargers in Nevada soon. Our Tesla network through NV is no for fast charging even though it's 100s of miles between chargers.

 

[OnePedaler]

A couple of weeks ago I got back from my 3rd multi-day road trip in my R1S. I'm not going to call my planning methods perfect but I've yet to run into any serious charging issues so I thought I'd share the process and planning that's worked well for me. I've done multiple stretches of 250+ miles between charges. I usually drive in All Purpose around town and Conserve on the highway. I set the cruise 6-8 mph above the speed limit, 78 in a 70. I typically see 2.2mi/kwh on longer trips (see image below for my most recent trip). Also, I have 22" sport bright wheels.

Here's the process I normally follow. I go to ABRP and plot my route. I set it for quickest arrival. I have my reference consumption at 2.25 (and could probably go higher). I have it set to prefer EA chargers (I've yet to road trip through an area where RAN chargers are available) and have charging overhead set to 2 minutes. Arrival SoC is defaulted to 10% and I normally plan to leave for a long road trip at 100% so I set that, too. Then I click route and let ABRP do its thing.

Routing from Atlanta to Orlando, just as a recent example, ABRP recommends that I stop at EA in Cordele 42%->89% (32 mins) and then in Gainesville and go from 10%->57% (34 mins). I use that info and jump over to PlugShare and lookup those specific stations Cordele (https://www.plugshare.com/location/186713) and Gainesville (https://www.plugshare.com/location/192956). If you filter by network (I generally look first at EA and Rivian) and speed (I typically have it set to 120+) you can find them really quickly on the map. I look not at the listed speeds but the speeds in the checkins to see what people are actually getting.

In Cordele, I see 122, 158, and 124 along with a 210 from an R1S back on 6/22. I only see 1 note on 6/23 about stations being full and only 1 no charge which was for maintenance on 6/26 with several successful charges since. So I wouldn't expect to get 200kw here but 120-150 seems likely. Then I do the same in Gainesville. It's similar. I see 160, 238, 183, and 150 all in the past week. I only see one note about stations being full and a 15min wait on 6/24. So it seems likely to provide higher speeds than Cordele.

I then go back to ABRP, click on the planned charging stop, and then click add waypoint at the bottom. That essentially "locks in" my charging station choice so it doesn't change it later. I'm hopeful with Rivian's acquisition of ABRP that at some point I can send to the Rivian nav. Right now I have to plan this in the Rivian app which isn't as robust and send to car only sends the destination, not the individual planned stops. So hopefully that will get better. Has anyone seen different behavior here? I've only had a chance to use it once and actually ran into a guy from Rivian at a charger in IL and chatted with him about it. He was like, "that's not the way it's *supposed* to work." But that's what I saw - the planned charging stops changed when the route went from the app to the car.

Anyway, once I'm on my trip, I set my destination as my first charging stop so it'll precondition the battery. I also want to keep an eye on miles on arrival (I wish Rivian would show SoC on arrival). ABRP and Rivian are ALWAYS conservative for my driving so if it says 39 miles on arrival when I leave, it might say 63 by the time I actually get there. I note the SoC on arrival vs. what ABRP said and charge up to what I need to make it to the next charging stop.

Hopefully this makes sense and helps people! ABRP and PlugShare are your friends! Overcome range anxiety and get out there!

I agree with your approach! Very good advice! Also I have the same complaint about Rivian NAV. I hope I can see how do get it to take my plan “as is” and not just destinations. Till then it’s one step at a time with planned charging stops.

 

[OnePedaler]

Agree with the ABRP/Plugshare combo. Also recommend going to specific charging app (EA, EVGO, etc) and verify current availability. I've found it's a bit challenging locating reliable hotel charging.

With so many EVs, and frequent unreliability of charging locations, we have a lot of room for improvement.

But so far zero issues at Rivian Level3s! Fast, reliable, available, and free!

Excellent addition to include going to actual charging apps to verify availability. I’ve decided to label my process of road trips with the R1S (or any EV) as requiring “driving with intent!” And I’ve yet to find and use a hotel charger!!!

 

[dgennetten]

Just read this thanks to your recent reference in another post. Are there any significant changes/updates you would make today?

Day 5 in my Rivian and looking forward to having the guts/prep to embark on a serious road trip.

 

[BrianNakata]

This is pretty much exactly what I did for our 9000 mi trip from Portland, OR to the Florida Keys and back: Portland->Keys thread.

Being able to do this sort of long trip without planning can't happen soon enough.

 

[lov2krz]

So, today we finished our 1st longish day trip from the South San Francisco Bay Area to UC Davis, where I started the trip at 100% charge and used Alexa to plot out the trip. Under all-purpose, the R1S Adventure model showed I had a 303 miles range. Side note, under All Purpose I was averaging ~1.87kW/mile. I switched to Conserve, and my range jumped to 348 miles of range. Once I got to UC Davis and dropped off my grandchild student, the R1S showed ~159 miles of range, with an actual distance of 120.6 miles to go. I asked Alexa to navigate to home, I had to put in the address even though I set my home location, it calculated a short stop at a high energy charger about 19 miles from UC Davis. I picked the wrong high energy charger (50kwH) instead of the 350kWh charger two stalls over. Anyway, 18 minutes later after adding 68 miles of range we headed home, arriving with 89 miles of range. I averaged 2.37kW/mile roundtrip. Not as good as my 2022 Tesla Model X but not bad. BTW, I used Driver+ (adaptive cruise control with steering) most of the way to and fro with an occasional dropping of the Driver+ because the car couldn't read pretty well-defined lane markings or "tight" freeway turns. Also, the entire trip was highway except for 3.1 miles of surface streets in total.

 

[OnePedaler]

Just read this thanks to your recent reference in another post. Are there any significant changes/updates you would make today?

Day 5 in my Rivian and looking forward to having the guts/prep to embark on a serious road trip.

I've got a new tips after our 4,800 mile road trip starting at home in Black Hills of SD to Coco Beach Florida to Savannah GA to Cinci OH to Nashville TN and back home to SD. (I use all the tips mentioned in the original thread too.)

My biggest flaw was the tendency to get greedy on racking up miles (kwh) at the chargers that work well. That ends up adding unnecessary time to the trip. I began to stick to what was absolutely needed plus a cushion of 40 miles. This kept me to 30 min stops instead of staying 45 -50 min. With about 4 stops a day on the long stretches, that made a difference of an hour or more spent charging.

Our set up time to get charger going is now 2 min or less too. I use the charger apps not the card readers.

And, I really learned the lesson that if the charger dips below a 80 kwh rate to leave asap! Don't even bother with my self imposed 40 mile cushion! (Of course, given the state of chargers there are time when we are stuck using lower rate chargers. Yuck!!)

 

[stynes]

I've got a new tips after our 4,800 mile road trip starting at home in Black Hills of SD to Coco Beach Florida to Savannah GA to Cinci OH to Nashville TN and back home to SD. (I use all the tips mentioned in the original thread too.)

My biggest flaw was the tendency to get greedy on racking up miles (kwh) at the chargers that work well. That ends up adding unnecessary time to the trip. I began to stick to what was absolutely needed plus a cushion of 40 miles. This kept me to 30 min stops instead of staying 45 -50 min. With about 4 stops a day on the long stretches, that made a difference of an hour or more spent charging.

Our set up time to get charger going is now 2 min or less too. I use the charger apps not the card readers.

And, I really learned the lesson that if the charger dips below a 80 kwh rate to leave asap! Don't even bother with my self imposed 40 mile cushion! (Of course, given the state of chargers there are time when we are stuck using lower rate chargers. Yuck!!)

Totally agree on knowing when the keep the kw flowing and when they drop too much, just go to the next one. And really take advantage of lunch, etc. when you don't mind waiting a little longer at slower chargers. Great tips!

 

[Green Mean Machine]

I finally going for my first "long" trip about 700 miles round trip. So thank you for all the tips here. I will apply it and see what happens. Destination Pagosa Springs, CO from Thornton , CO.

 

[EchoDelta]

Im sure this guide will help many, but I hope in some office or conf call somewhere some product manager brings this post up as hard evidence of how broken the experience is.
Even within ABRP the ux is abysmal- you have to keep mental model of what’s going on and the app flow is atrocious

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