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NorthVan57

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A2Z adaptor has made my road trips so pleasurable, way too long a wait for the rivian adaptor, by the time we get it we will be trading in gen1 quads for new R1 or R2 or maybe R3???
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CrazyOne

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I am guessing that those 19.6 kw chargers are AC chargers. Rivian cannot pull more than 11 KW from AC.
 

iansriv

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OP-think you've beaten yourself up enough. Probably a lot of people making similar mistakes. Not like you rolled the R1 in field, buried it in mud or tried to jump a river with it. What is cool is a story on here (wish I could link it) of a fellow that transversed over 10k miles in his new R1 on all sorts of chargers. That should give the rest of us hope. Cheers.
 

R1Sky Business

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Feel like I need to just admit this here, but yesterday was a not great day for me. I have had my R1S Dual Motor, Large Pack for just shy of a year now and have had no problems. I will admit there are some things I think could be a little better, but still great car, definitely best car I have ever owned. Also to preface, I am looking for no pity, if you call me an idiot, I agree with you. But yesterday I made literally the wrong choice every chance I got. So please I hope someone can at least laugh at me, and learn my lesson without having to live it. Also realize that this problem has probably happened before but I digress too much.

First, I live in Peoria, IL (essentially for the purposes of this story, you can use Normal, IL home of Rivian factory and it wouldnt change a thing). I left Saturday from my home with about 95% charge to drive to St, Louis, MO to see family for a birthday party. I charged to 76% from 54% (at an EVGo) when I got to STL just so I had enough to get around and not have a longer charge coming home. (This could technically be considered mistake number 1, but lets just call it mistake 0)

Next from there I got to my brothers house with about 62% charge, and we were at his house from 830 PM Saturday, til Sunday 2 PM. I had originally thought he had a 120V outlet outside his garage I could plug into, but was wrong. So no big deal just charge on the road going home (mistake 1.0). Then Sunday morning my brother tells me he actually has a random dryer outlet in his garage and I could use it to charge then, or any time in the future. It was like 12:30 pm at this point and I was like nah, we can charge on the road. (Maybe not important, brother hasnt had house long, about as long as Ive had the Rivian and this was only my second time driving it to St. Louis and his house). Mistake lets call it 1.5. Not charging at all, at my brothers house.

Next we leave, with 62% still, from my brothers house to head from St Louis to home. Rivian App says to drive from brothers house for 2 hrs and 30 mins or so to Springfield, IL where there is an Electrify America with 4 chargers. Used this location before, newer EA and pull through spots, not been busy in my experience. Mistake # 2, not checking EA app for condition of chargers, I dont know what it would have shown, at arrival 2 chargers were down and 2 were "available".

So we drive (me, my wife, my 3 yr old, my 4 month old) to Springfield, smooth trip no issues, arrived with like I think 25% . We pass multiple chargers in STL that we could have stopped at, would have been annoying because hopefully its obvious, we were trying to minimize stops for the 4 month old. Its a charging desert between St. Louis and Normal/Peoria with the only 150kW charger or faster being the EA in Springfield that Rivian App directed me to. Now the crux of my sad tale, probably not surprising,. The EA charger in Springfield would not initiate charge. A Honda Prelude was charging at one of the 2 "working" chargers, rated for 150 kw but was only getting like maybe 30-50kW of charging. Calling EA revealed that whole station was low on recieving power, and so could not initiate a second car to charge. Literally on the phone with EA Support and the guy said verbatim... youre not going to make it. He was right, my range was just barely below what I would need to make it to next closest EA fast charger or to my house. My wife located a supposed 50 kW charger about 25 minutes away at a Chevy Dealer, I wasnt sure if EA charger would work, or how much longer the Honda Prelude would be, because of how inconsistent and slow it was charging. Mistake #3 was leaving Springfield and going to this next location (Lincoln, IL) as there might have been more options to peruse in Springfield, IL being bigger city.

Arriving in Lincoln to the supposed 50 kW charger at the local dealer, it wont let me initiate anything. Going onto the dealer website vs this "charging station" google maps listing, the 50 kW charger is not yet available to public, but next to it is a 19.6 kW Eaton Charger. I go ahead and plug into it, set up pretty easily. Charges at only 9.1-9.3 kW though, so 22 miles/hr. For reference, at this point Im at like 11% or 30ish miles of range. Exact mileage home at this point is 54 miles. Doing the math, to be safe I need 70-75 miles of charge or 22-23% to get home. There is one other 19.6 kW charger in this town at a Quality Inn and Suites, a "Blink" Charger near more food options for my family to not be sitting outside in a closed Chevy dealer parking lot. its only 4 miles away, so I pack up the family after a quick 40 minute charge that added 12 miles to go here... this while a mistake was necessary as it was 4 pm when I left the dealership, getting dark and approaching dinner time for kiddos. Call this mistake #4.

Major Advise.... never use a blink charger. I havent really experienced recently the internal rage of a clunky app/set up just failing repeatedly to accept my money and use their service. I wasted 30-45 minutes of trying to charge at this hotel only to give up, drop off my family at Culvers and return to the known working charger at the Chevy dealer. I then sat stewing in my car for an hour and 40 minutes getting just enough charge to get home. and I did it, with 76 miles of range, I made it home with 22 miles of range at I think like 7 or 8%.

In total what is normally a 3.5-4ish hour trip with the R1S turned into a 8 hr almost nightmare. Again, like I said at the outset my luck was really bad and I think I had some as I coined it in the title "Range Cockiness" because of the success Ive had doing similar trips. I do much more regular trips to Chicago, and have had very few issues, nothing like this trying to get back and forth from there.

Again sorry for the long, long post. Mostly this is for me to just let go and move on, share my experience, and pray, pray, pray that the NACS adapter shows up soon because there were Tesla Chargers in multiple spots that could have saved me but were unavailable to me for now. Again... on me, I know.

Thanks Rivian Community, Keep On Adventuring!

Screenshot_20240909_124909_Maps.jpg
Sounds like your wife loves the EV adventures. EA strikes again
 

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10BladeDad

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Feel like I need to just admit this here, but yesterday was a not great day for me. I have had my R1S Dual Motor, Large Pack for just shy of a year now and have had no problems. I will admit there are some things I think could be a little better, but still great car, definitely best car I have ever owned. Also to preface, I am looking for no pity, if you call me an idiot, I agree with you. But yesterday I made literally the wrong choice every chance I got. So please I hope someone can at least laugh at me, and learn my lesson without having to live it. Also realize that this problem has probably happened before but I digress too much.

First, I live in Peoria, IL (essentially for the purposes of this story, you can use Normal, IL home of Rivian factory and it wouldnt change a thing). I left Saturday from my home with about 95% charge to drive to St, Louis, MO to see family for a birthday party. I charged to 76% from 54% (at an EVGo) when I got to STL just so I had enough to get around and not have a longer charge coming home. (This could technically be considered mistake number 1, but lets just call it mistake 0)

Next from there I got to my brothers house with about 62% charge, and we were at his house from 830 PM Saturday, til Sunday 2 PM. I had originally thought he had a 120V outlet outside his garage I could plug into, but was wrong. So no big deal just charge on the road going home (mistake 1.0). Then Sunday morning my brother tells me he actually has a random dryer outlet in his garage and I could use it to charge then, or any time in the future. It was like 12:30 pm at this point and I was like nah, we can charge on the road. (Maybe not important, brother hasnt had house long, about as long as Ive had the Rivian and this was only my second time driving it to St. Louis and his house). Mistake lets call it 1.5. Not charging at all, at my brothers house.

Next we leave, with 62% still, from my brothers house to head from St Louis to home. Rivian App says to drive from brothers house for 2 hrs and 30 mins or so to Springfield, IL where there is an Electrify America with 4 chargers. Used this location before, newer EA and pull through spots, not been busy in my experience. Mistake # 2, not checking EA app for condition of chargers, I dont know what it would have shown, at arrival 2 chargers were down and 2 were "available".

So we drive (me, my wife, my 3 yr old, my 4 month old) to Springfield, smooth trip no issues, arrived with like I think 25% . We pass multiple chargers in STL that we could have stopped at, would have been annoying because hopefully its obvious, we were trying to minimize stops for the 4 month old. Its a charging desert between St. Louis and Normal/Peoria with the only 150kW charger or faster being the EA in Springfield that Rivian App directed me to. Now the crux of my sad tale, probably not surprising,. The EA charger in Springfield would not initiate charge. A Honda Prelude was charging at one of the 2 "working" chargers, rated for 150 kw but was only getting like maybe 30-50kW of charging. Calling EA revealed that whole station was low on recieving power, and so could not initiate a second car to charge. Literally on the phone with EA Support and the guy said verbatim... youre not going to make it. He was right, my range was just barely below what I would need to make it to next closest EA fast charger or to my house. My wife located a supposed 50 kW charger about 25 minutes away at a Chevy Dealer, I wasnt sure if EA charger would work, or how much longer the Honda Prelude would be, because of how inconsistent and slow it was charging. Mistake #3 was leaving Springfield and going to this next location (Lincoln, IL) as there might have been more options to peruse in Springfield, IL being bigger city.

Arriving in Lincoln to the supposed 50 kW charger at the local dealer, it wont let me initiate anything. Going onto the dealer website vs this "charging station" google maps listing, the 50 kW charger is not yet available to public, but next to it is a 19.6 kW Eaton Charger. I go ahead and plug into it, set up pretty easily. Charges at only 9.1-9.3 kW though, so 22 miles/hr. For reference, at this point Im at like 11% or 30ish miles of range. Exact mileage home at this point is 54 miles. Doing the math, to be safe I need 70-75 miles of charge or 22-23% to get home. There is one other 19.6 kW charger in this town at a Quality Inn and Suites, a "Blink" Charger near more food options for my family to not be sitting outside in a closed Chevy dealer parking lot. its only 4 miles away, so I pack up the family after a quick 40 minute charge that added 12 miles to go here... this while a mistake was necessary as it was 4 pm when I left the dealership, getting dark and approaching dinner time for kiddos. Call this mistake #4.

Major Advise.... never use a blink charger. I havent really experienced recently the internal rage of a clunky app/set up just failing repeatedly to accept my money and use their service. I wasted 30-45 minutes of trying to charge at this hotel only to give up, drop off my family at Culvers and return to the known working charger at the Chevy dealer. I then sat stewing in my car for an hour and 40 minutes getting just enough charge to get home. and I did it, with 76 miles of range, I made it home with 22 miles of range at I think like 7 or 8%.

In total what is normally a 3.5-4ish hour trip with the R1S turned into a 8 hr almost nightmare. Again, like I said at the outset my luck was really bad and I think I had some as I coined it in the title "Range Cockiness" because of the success Ive had doing similar trips. I do much more regular trips to Chicago, and have had very few issues, nothing like this trying to get back and forth from there.

Again sorry for the long, long post. Mostly this is for me to just let go and move on, share my experience, and pray, pray, pray that the NACS adapter shows up soon because there were Tesla Chargers in multiple spots that could have saved me but were unavailable to me for now. Again... on me, I know.

Thanks Rivian Community, Keep On Adventuring!

Screenshot_20240909_124909_Maps.jpg
Well, glad you & family made it home safely. Yeah, you f'd up, but you made it home & seemly have a great sense of humor about it. Not all bad.
 

vicq

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Well, glad you & family made it home safely. Yeah, you f'd up, but you made it home & seemly have a great sense of humor about it. Not all bad.
Haven’t had these adventures in our Rivian yet, but had 2 close ones with a Tesla Model Y:

1) Towed a teardrop trailer approx 120 miles each way. Pre-tested towing on shorter trips, and planned it perfectly in ABRP. Going there, made it with lots of battery to spare… coming back, well, didn’t anticipate 30+ MPH headwinds. I drove ~25 MPH on an interstate for roughly 70 miles. Lost count of how many times I got honked at and flipped off for driving so slow. Finally made it to my plan B, a campground, where I could drop the trailer, drive 20 miles to the Supercharger, and go back for the trailer.

2) 150 mile trip each way on January, with temps in the 30s. I had planned it for two weeks with ABRP. Shouldn’t have been a problem, but had to run errands before the trip and didn’t leave with the proper SoC. Tesla kept trying to reroute me to charge but I was being cocky and thought I could make it. The last 15-20 miles, I had to drive 30-40 MPH and made it with single digits left on the battery.

Let’s just say my wife wasn’t as patient with me as your wife seemed to be with you. We may never go on an EV road trip again.

Here in the US Southwest, even Tesla Superchargers are few and far between. Almost have to charge up whenever you get a chance, like back in the 1940s with gas stations…
 

Carscott

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Wow this can happen and even with the A2Z typhoon Pro I find I’m driving by many Tesla V1 chargers I just can’t use. Be very careful when a hotel says yes we have super chargers in our parking lot. Use the incompatible filter in the rivian map app
 

Golfer04

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Wow this can happen and even with the A2Z typhoon Pro I find I’m driving by many Tesla V1 chargers I just can’t use. Be very careful when a hotel says yes we have super chargers in our parking lot. Use the incompatible filter in the rivian map app
I'm from Peoria area too and the lack of Central Illinois charging is frustrating (Peoria metropolitan area is 400,000 population and no dcfc charging). I've been caught on that same trip before. I ended up driving to Normal instead of Peoria at 62 mph, suspension dropped, conserve and rolled in at 2 percent. Both the Normal Walmart (often busy) and the Circle K right up the road have chargers. Circle K is 180kw. Love or hate Biden he is correct that charging needs to be every 50 miles on interstates.
 

BigSkies

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Thanks for sharing. This is what potential EV owners are most afraid of.

I can only imagine the sense of rage and frustration in dealing with this in the moment. Hopefully it’s an experience you can laugh about in the future.

One thing that gets easier with older kids is more frequent but shorter stops. When kids are old enough they need to get out and use the bathroom every 1.5 to 2 hours. You end up in situations where no one charger is a single point of failure.

Best of luck with future adventures.

Stay adventurous (aka rely on Electrify America).
 

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Wefty

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I have the NACS adapter and it has eased my range anxiety and made trips more convenient but I don't find it as liberating as others. It has made trips more flexible but when I may have really needed it on my last trip from Chicago to Copper Harbor in Michigan it wouldn't have done much.

Example 1: There is a Meijer outside of Green Bay with both EA and SC. We rolled up and there were 2 cars charging at the 150 kW EA and 0 at the SC. I decided to try the SC first just to see if we could get lucky. We didn't. I moved over to the EA and 2 stalls weren't working but 1 car left so charging wasn't too bad. It isn't a stretch that all of the EA's could have been down or super weak and the SC wouldn't have helped one bit.

Example2 : There is a 150kW Enel X charger in Copper Harbor that is well known to be flaky. After our experiences with it last year we decided to make an unneeded stop in Houghton to give ourselves enough wiggle room to at least be able to get back to that 50kW charger if the Enel X wasn't working. SC's weren't an option in any of these places.

My only point is that the adapter makes trips better but it isn't the savior I thought it would be when they were announced.
 

Treebeard

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So I do use ABRP. And like I said part of the problem was skipping chargers only 15 minutes into the trip because of timing of waking up/feeding the 4 month old. Dumb in retrospect, yes.

And to everyone, yes considering the A2Z adapter because of this.
I looked at ABRP a while ago, didn’t like it. Maybe I’ll check it again.
 

defcon888

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Major Advise.... never use a blink charger. I
That is what we have at work and they have been flawless. We also have CLIPPER CREEKS and those are always going down.
 

jwanderson88

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This brings up a fundamental question: what makes Tesla chargers better and why can't other private chargers be as good? Are Tesla chargers built better to start with or are they maintained better or both? Is the technology better? Is it just a software thing? I haven't used a Tesla charger yet, but I opted in to the converter like most people and will get it eventually. The connector looks like a simpler design, which is always better. What will other chargers do when Tesla becomes the standard, which is where things are heading.
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