Share Your Charging Horror Stories

[DuckTruck]

Wait, I can fix this.

So I have a battery powered coffee mug (Ember), which I love! But I didn't have a good way to charge it during the day (after leaving for work).

Fortunately, Ember came out with a 12v charger that nests in the car cupholder in my Tesla! It's perfect!

But it won't work with Rivian's pop-out cupholder design! How can a $70,000 vehicle not have more and better cupholders!??!?!?!

(hopefully obvious /sarcasm ? )

You're good with me! No explainer necessary - sarcasm detectors working just fine..... ?

Sponsored

 

[Longhorngirl]

Longhorngirl,

Thank you for starting this thread. Not only is it fun to read, it's informative to me, having never yet had a full BEV. With a PHEV for over 5 years now, I think I've charged it away from home only once, that was during my drive home to Portland, OR from Cincinnati, where I'd flown a red-eye to purchase it.

Luckily for me, no real horror stories. I'm just chiming in to say that I found many hotels in cold areas (in this case, Roosevelt, Utah) have 110 volt plugs right outside their rooms for block heaters in the Winter. Not going to get a ton of charge quickly, but my little battery was full by morning using my portable charger, like the one that comes with either Rivian.

Thanks again for starting a thread where all of the angst seems to be shared, rather than directed at each other. ?

Thanks DuckTruck!

But don’t thank me. Thanks to everyone who has responded with a charging story. It has been very entertaining reading all the posts. Thanks guys!

 

[RonVS]

Yes, yes and yes!

So....

November 24th 2015 I'm commuting from Iowa to Illinois, and it's cold and snowy.

I start my day full charge in my Tesla Model S (275 miles) from Dubuque at the hotel charging station. Then off West Union Iowa. It's an 81 mile drive, but probably lost 135 miles, because it was so cold and high speed driving. So I'm heading in for my work day not worried because there's a level two charger outside the West Union Court House. I get there and to my surprise it's out of order and not working.

It's really cold and about 3pm when I get out of work, and I have about 130 miles range (about 85 real world) and my Tesla tells me I don't have enough juice to get to Davenport IA (150 miles) for the supercharger. Cherry Valley Mall IL supercharger is even further away (180 miles) so my only option is to head north!

So I drove 85 miles through northern Iowa, with no 4G, so no Tesla GPS maps, no T-Mobile cell phone coverage either, and it's so cold my car is telling me to reduce speed and turn off the heat to make it to my destination. So I have to turn off my heat just simply to make it to the La Crosse WI supercharger (traveling through Iowa and Minnesota to get there). I'm navigating old school, by map in hand on back country roads the whole time.

I make it to La Crosse on electron dust... Plug in and eat at BW²... Sleep in my car till fully charged and then I'm off. Only problem is I'm 260 miles away from home, so still can't make it there without more stops. As I head off to Madison WI to hit their supercharger, I get pulled over by a Wisconsin cop, because he never saw a Tesla before. Funny, none the less he was really impressed, but now make it to Madison (145 miles, but again drained like 200 miles). So need another near full charge to make it the last 130 miles home.

So I was able to roll into a bar to have a black out Wednesday drink (+4-7 more drinks) with my brother after driving a total of 360 miles taking 9 hours and traveling through 4 states for what otherwise should've been a 230 mile drive through 2 states taking me 4.5 hours.

It was a hard lesson learned, but it was kinda funny all in all. Especially when my brother got thrown out of the bar and almost beaten up by an angry mob, diving into my speeding Tesla with it's passenger door open as I drove the last 10 miles to get home.

Battery left with about 55 miles I think... Give or take?

And people ask why someone opts for the Max Pack...

 

[Denver_Paulie]

And people ask why someone opts for the Max Pack...

And people ask why someone opts for the Max Pack...

Has absolutely nothing to do with a max pack. I survive more than fine driving a Taycan across most of the western US that has max 225 miles of range in warm weather and while driving 75-80mph. I also drove from Denver to Vegas multiple times in an 200 mile range Audi e-Tron back before Electrify America had finished the I-70 corridor across Utah. The CCS charging infrastructure is expanding by the day, so nightmare charging stories will be less frequent moving forward. EA's expansion target is currently focused on I-80 across Wyoming, and then they will shift to Montana and North Dakota by next fall, hopefully.

That being said, if you are towing, or going to a super remote place for weeks at a time, then the max pack is necessary. As the Rivian charging network rolls out in the distant future, many of the more remote national parks will be easily accessible by EV, so the typical weekend warrior type truck owner can survive just fine with the available battery pack.

When road tripping in a ZEV, preparedness is the key. Know the capabilities of the vehicle, know where chargers are located, have a back up plan, and be prepared to change plans if $hit out of your control happens.

Cheers

 

[Max]

Does anyone know if Rivian is capable of Plug & Charge like Mach e?

 

[jtshaw]

Does anyone know if Rivian is capable of Plug & Charge like Mach e?

They talk about it as a feature of the Rivian Adventure Network… and say this: “We're integrating with the largest networks so you can manage payment and planning from the Rivian app and in-vehicle navigation.”

 

[KingofThorns]

You have to be patient because the worst kind of charger blocking happens in more rural areas where people are openly hostile to ZEV's. These are the poorly educated, Fox News watchers who have more guns than sense.

...

I hope the hostility lowers a bit when the ZEV F-150 and Silverado start rolling out, but it will take some time out in more remote areas of the country. Until then, expect to occasionally see chargers blocked at hotel parking lots or in Walmart parking lots in rural or remote areas.

Odd that you accuse others of hostility when you first refer to them as poorly educated and lacking sense.

 

[Denver_Paulie]

Odd that you accuse others of hostility when you first refer to them as poorly educated and lacking sense.

Not to derail this thread any further, but why would anyone purposefully block an electric vehicle charger? That goes for a Tesla parked in a CCS compatible charging space and not plugging in, a huge semi blocking all the Electrify America chargers in Salina, Utah, a pick up truck blocking the chargers in a hotel parking lot even though they are not pulling a trailer, or a Porsche Taycan blocking a Tesla Supercharger stall.

People who purposefully do this are selfish, lazy, poorly educated, and lacking sense. Is that hostile opinion? No. Is it a generalization? Maybe. But in most cases it is the truth. I am trying to be polite when I use these words to describe people who deliberately block a charger because most of the time they are just being gigantic d*cks.

From your profile, it seems you are still waiting on your first electric vehicle. Honestly, I hope you get one soon. I also hope you are able to road trip freely and enjoy the vehicle while seeing some great parts of the country. Finally, I hope you never run into a situation where you need to charge, but cannot, because someone is blocking the charger you need to continue your journey. You may feel very differently about this topic when this happens to you in real life.

Be safe out there.

Cheers

 

[moosetags]

We live in the rural Deep South, watch Fox News, and own a number of guns. We never block EV charging stations, even though we drive a Silverado one ton Diesel Pick-up truck. We are in the process of buying a an R1T and one of our sons is about to get his Launch Model R1S.

Rash generalizations are just that, rash.

 

[tk21]

You have to be patient because the worst kind of charger blocking happens in more rural areas where people are openly hostile to ZEV's. These are the poorly educated, Fox News watchers who have more guns than sense.

well that was aggressive and judgmental…

Let me ask you, of all those you referenced, how many did you ask in person what news they watch, their feelings on EVs, and how many guns they own?

Associating anyone that may align with any or all of those preferences as a negative person with no sense is what propagates conflict in this nation and gives a bad rep. to folks who think EVs are kinda neat. You’re hurting your cause.

chill bro…

 

[Andystroh]

Ok, related to charging but not the actual charger, we were going skiing in our ID4. we had a destination in mind a few hours away but ended up switching ski areas to one a bit further because of high wind at our plan A. We were pretty confident we could get to the plan B and scoped a hotel charger on PlugShare that seemed like we could access.
We arrive at the hotel with 8%(lower than expected) and made it about 10 feet from the charger through a deep unplowed lot but got stuck. This was a massive snow storm and this lot hadn’t been plowed, deep snow up a relatively steep ramp. We learned that you cannot turn traction control off the RWD ID4 and had a hell of a time getting out of that lot, fortunately we had a few shovels. EVs are heavy to push.
After about an hour we made it out (down to 4%) and found a plowed parking lot nearby, parked and had a great day of skiing. Fortunately no issues leaving the car at a low SOC in the cold, we drove downhill to another charger a few miles away, and we’re wishing we had the rivian.

 

[Denver_Paulie]

well that was aggressive and judgmental…

Let me ask you, of all those you referenced, how many did you ask in person what news they watch, their feelings on EVs, and how many guns they own?

Associating anyone that may align with any or all of those preferences as a negative person with no sense is what propagates conflict in this nation and gives a bad rep. to folks who think EVs are kinda neat. You’re hurting your cause.

chill bro…

Appreciate your contribution to this thread.

Six and a half years experience of driving EVs - done over 125,000 miles and been in 12 states, so I have seen and experienced all kinds of chargers being blocked.

I comment from experience.

Also, this is a forum about Rivian electric vehicles, let's keep it free of politics. No need for any of that bull$hit here.

 

[Dark-Fx]

watch Fox News,

At the risk of generalizing, why?

 

[Denver_Paulie]

Ok, related to charging but not the actual charger, we were going skiing in our ID4. we had a destination in mind a few hours away but ended up switching ski areas to one a bit further because of high wind at our plan A. We were pretty confident we could get to the plan B and scoped a hotel charger on PlugShare that seemed like we could access.
We arrive at the hotel with 8%(lower than expected) and made it about 10 feet from the charger through a deep unplowed lot but got stuck. This was a massive snow storm and this lot hadn’t been plowed, deep snow up a relatively steep ramp. We learned that you cannot turn traction control off the RWD ID4 and had a hell of a time getting out of that lot, fortunately we had a few shovels. EVs are heavy to push.
After about an hour we made it out (down to 4%) and found a plowed parking lot nearby, parked and had a great day of skiing. Fortunately no issues leaving the car at a low SOC in the cold, we drove downhill to another charger a few miles away, and we’re wishing we had the rivian.

Were you just short of a level two charger?

If so, I would recommend caring a J1772 extension cord. You can find them on Amazon. I carry one just in case something like this happens.

 

[Trandall]

I'd just be happy if there were DCFC to block in my neck of the woods!

Sponsored