Road Trip Recommendations

[stynes]

I took delivery of my R1S back in October and I'm leaving on my first long distance (>2600mi) road trip on Monday after Christmas. This will be my first non-Tesla long distance EV trip of any kind and I think we all know how easy the Tesla network is vs. the patchwork of EA, EVGo, ChargePoint, and everyone else. So I'm looking for any recommendations, suggestions, and guidance.

It looks like most of the extreme cold will be gone but it's winter in the NE so it'll still be mostly 20s at night to 40s in the day. I have my daily routes planned on ABRP. I've used PlugShare to confirm locations that ABRP is recommending and is near where we're staying. I'll then use the provider specific app to confirm status, etc.

Right now there seems to be pretty broad availability of chargers along the route (mostly EA) except for one stretch of I-77 through WV on our way home. My plan right now is to top off at an EA in Peninsula, OH. From there it's ~140mi to Charleston, WV where there are only 2 "high speed" (60kwh) chargers to be found, both at car dealerships. We'll stay the night in Charleston, leave the next morning at 100%, and then it's ~160mi to the EA in Wytheville, VA including a stop we plan to make to New River Gorge. ABRP says I should arrive with 26% charge remaining.

Anyone with good stats/info on how accurate ABRP is for Rivians today, how accurate the on board computers will be given temperature, terrain, given that we'll be carrying 6 people with luggage, etc? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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[jbronkoR1T]

How did this go? Because that plan seems like it includes a pioneer spirt and a healthy dose optimism.

 

[Rally1]

Having just done a relatively short road trip in a state with “some of the best” infrastructure, it’s a mess out there. I absolutely would not take the Rivian again, it just wasn’t fun for anyone. Suddenly your navigator has to be a rally copilot, with Plugshare and all the charging network apps open constantly scanning to evaluate a the next functional station.
I hope you had better luck.

 

[stynes]

So far so good. I'm nearly halfway through. Was concerned given some of the other feedback I had heard but have had probably 6-8 EA stops that have gone flawlessly. Will post more when I get back home.

 

[R1Sky Business]

So far so good. I'm nearly halfway through. Was concerned given some of the other feedback I had heard but have had probably 6-8 EA stops that have gone flawlessly. Will post more when I get back home.

Remember if the range at destination # gets a bit too small for comfort....slow down.

 

[WSea]

Having just done a relatively short road trip in a state with “some of the best” infrastructure, it’s a mess out there. I absolutely would not take the Rivian again, it just wasn’t fun for anyone. Suddenly your navigator has to be a rally copilot, with Plugshare and all the charging network apps open constantly scanning to evaluate a the next functional station.
I hope you had better luck.

Sounds like you are expecting the ICE gas station experience and should wait a few more years.
Recently completed a 3000 mile road trip seattle-san diego RT and it was pretty easy. Mainly used the Riv NAV and plugshare. Sometimes cross referenced the EA app or Riv app. At each charge stop I'd spend a few minutes checking on the next charger location on those apps. In general, each stop was only 5-10 minutes longer if in ICE after bathroom breaks, walk the dogs and grabbing food. Not a big deal.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Sounds like you are expecting the ICE gas station experience and should wait a few more years.
Recently completed a 3000 mile road trip seattle-san diego RT and it was pretty easy. Mainly used the Riv NAV and plugshare. Sometimes cross referenced the EA app or Riv app. At each charge stop I'd spend a few minutes checking on the next charger location on those apps. In general, each stop was only 5-10 minutes longer if in ICE after bathroom breaks, walk the dogs and grabbing food. Not a big deal.

Just requires planning.

 

[stynes]

One other thing that's been interesting on my trip is to get a feel for the highway assist features. I plan to write a comparison between that and Tesla's autopilot when I get back.

 

[WSea]

Remember if the range at destination # gets a bit too small for comfort....slow down.

And/Or draft a high profile vehicle...preferrably one that is speeding. Set driver+ and shortest following distance and get 2.8mi/kwh. Do it for 30 minutes and gain 20+ mile range buffer

 

[stynes]

For anyone that might be interested, 2,800+ miles over 10 days. 55+ hours behind the wheel. Averaged exactly 2kw/mi for the trip carrying 6 people plus luggage.

The cargo room was plenty ample. We put 2 of the pictured bags in the frunk. In the back, I don't have a spare so I pulled the little insert and the 3rd bag went where the spare well. Plenty of other room on top of that for other small bags. The room for people, specifically the leg room was a little tighter but we made it work.

The charging experience was honestly not too bad. We had 19 EA charges, 2 Electrify Canada charges, 1 FLO charge, and a couple of L2 charges just because they were there. I had read all of the EA horror stories and virtually every station we stopped a had at least 1 charger down but only once did we have to wait (3 of the 4 were down just outside Philly and the working one was being used). Not all of the 350kw stations delivered the 200+kws I expected but really only once was it really slow (like 50kw). 5 of our charges were somehow free and another few were otherwise discounted. No idea why but I'll take it.

The cost of charging on the road trip is, in a word: expensive. Charging at home for me is $.045/kwh at night and I get 500kwh free every month. Charging on a road trip is expensive, though. I save so much money in town because charging at home is so cheap. I knew it would be more expensive on the road but didn't really know how much more. I spent roughly $300 for 2,800 miles or $.11/mi - and that includes the 5 free charges. Cost equivalent, at last week's average of $3.16/gallon, we'd need to average 29mpg to break-even on gas costs vs charging. And I don't think gas stations ever give free or discounted gas. So while most 6 seaters probably aren't going to average 29mpg, my charging costs would typically be higher. I averaged $.20/kwh including the free and discounted charges with 1,457kwh delivered across the 22 DCFC stops.

Incidentally, on my trip report, Rivian's estimate is way off. It shows 2,815.6 miles, 2 mi/kwh, and 704.8kwh consumed. The 2kwh is roughly correct as the DCFCs logged 1,457 kwh delivered. Not accounting for loss in delivery, vampire drain, etc. That's 1.93mi/kwh which doesn't seem crazy for 1K lbs of people and gear in a 7K lb SUV. So Rivian's 2mi/kwh seems reasonable. The 704.8kwh consumed has to be off by 2x, though. Anyone else seeing that?

Also, I used Driver+/Highway Assist a lot and wrote about it. Welcome anyone's feedback on the comparison to Tesla Autopilot:
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...vs-tesla-autopilot-an-extensive-review.11518/

 

[MoreTrout]

I know EA usually provides complimentary charging sessions on holidays, usually all weekend. That's probably why they were free.

I haven't had an EA horror story yet either. Charged fine every time I visited one. I have seen 200+ kW, but never sustains it more than at most 30 seconds. It will usually sustain between 175-185 kW. I don't think Rivian's thermal management system is capable of sustaining anything higher right now.

 

[stynes]

I know EA usually provides complimentary charging sessions on holidays, usually all weekend. That's probably why they were free.

I haven't had an EA horror story yet either. Charged fine every time I visited one. I have seen 200+ kW, but never sustains it more than at most 30 seconds. It will usually sustain between 175-185 kW. I don't think Rivian's thermal management system is capable of sustaining anything higher right now.

1 of my 4 charges on 12/26 was free. 3 of my 4 charges on 1/1 and 1 of my 2 on 1/2. So I have no idea how that works.

On the charging speeds, I definitely saw 200kw for longer than 30 seconds. Obviously not the entire charge but for several minutes at a time. Maybe cooler temps for a lot of the trip? I don't know.

 

[Bf3]

I took delivery of my R1S back in October and I'm leaving on my first long distance (>2600mi) road trip on Monday after Christmas. This will be my first non-Tesla long distance EV trip of any kind and I think we all know how easy the Tesla network is vs. the patchwork of EA, EVGo, ChargePoint, and everyone else. So I'm looking for any recommendations, suggestions, and guidance.

It looks like most of the extreme cold will be gone but it's winter in the NE so it'll still be mostly 20s at night to 40s in the day. I have my daily routes planned on ABRP. I've used PlugShare to confirm locations that ABRP is recommending and is near where we're staying. I'll then use the provider specific app to confirm status, etc.

Right now there seems to be pretty broad availability of chargers along the route (mostly EA) except for one stretch of I-77 through WV on our way home. My plan right now is to top off at an EA in Peninsula, OH. From there it's ~140mi to Charleston, WV where there are only 2 "high speed" (60kwh) chargers to be found, both at car dealerships. We'll stay the night in Charleston, leave the next morning at 100%, and then it's ~160mi to the EA in Wytheville, VA including a stop we plan to make to New River Gorge. ABRP says I should arrive with 26% charge remaining.

Anyone with good stats/info on how accurate ABRP is for Rivians today, how accurate the on board computers will be given temperature, terrain, given that we'll be carrying 6 people with luggage, etc? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

You mentioned Peninsula, OH. Where’s the charger?

 

[stynes]

You mentioned Peninsula, OH. Where’s the charger?

No clue where that came from. World's worst auto correct? Not sure. Cambridge is where I was looking at but ended up taking a different route there down I-75 instead.

Walmart 3262 Cambridge
61205 Southgate Rd, Cambridge, Ohio 43725
http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=61205+Southgate+Rd,+Cambridge,+Ohio+43725

 

[screamingkarts]

We did ~2700 miles round trip between Houston, TX and Arizona. We used only EA network and worked fine for us. Charged in 13 different locations and had more than one working chargers available all the time. Approximately 30% of the stations had at least one charger that was not working or very slow and I had to switch to different charger (in the same station). We were planning this trip with my R1S but unfortunately it was in the SC for changing the motor and hence I had to use a R1T. We charged 25 times for $164.82 in the whole trip and used 945 kwh for 2636 miles which averages to 2.77 miles/kwh. We are 2 Adults + 2 kids and enough luggage to fill the bed/frunk. One thing I noticed is the price in Texas - $0.24/min (vs New Mexico/Arizona - $0.31/kwh) was so much cheaper as it is calculated per minute.


Sorry if there not enough data presented in this post as I was not tracking everything. Just got these numbers from EA app and Google Maps (approx. miles).

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