Vampire Drain - 4.57 kWh/day, 8 miles rated range per day

[jakef801]

FWIW, as a test, I let mine sit unplugged, outside for almost 10 days while I was out of town. Temps were in single digits Fahrenheit much of the time. It went from 85% to 82% during that time frame.

Well, maybe I jinxed myself by posting the above message. The drain has increased under similar conditions over the last week or so as I've been monitoring. Perhaps the speculation about the most recent update adding to the drain is true. I'm now spending a lot of my time working on a vacation house and I don't have an L2 charger or access to 240V. I hesitate to even use the 120V charger, in below freezing temps, from what I've read on this forum. Luckily, there are two 50kwh ChargePoint stations about a mile away from me at the local grocery and hardware stores. I'm on Bear Lake in NE Utah and I have yet to see another vehicle use these chargers. It's all Ford, Chevy, and Rams up here. I do get a lot of questions, though. I always say that, "Hey, I haven't sold my Tundra or Jeep just yet". Ha ha. Everyone has been cool and genuinely interested. When I tell them about the HP & Torque, it's like their heads almost explode.

Anyway, about to head to my buddy's private 40,000 acre ranch (Shout-out to Backcountrysnow.com), towing two 800cc snowmobiles, on the north slope of the Uinta Mountains for the weekend. It will be single digits for sure. We'll see how the R1T holds up as well as how the 21" AS tires perform. I've been testing it out on the snowy and icy roads around town, trying to get it to to slip and slide....they seem to be doing just fine. Side note: I had a '92 Subaru Legacy AWD sedan in college and that SOB would not ever get stuck in snow with AS tires. Tried as I may, it wouldn't. One day it dumped almost 40 inches and I took it through a church parking lot and it went subterranean in the snow, full submarine style...never got stuck. Let's hope the R1T will do the same. TMI, I know...I get rambling.

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[shrink]

Okay, got back into town last night after 2 weeks.

- Gear guard was off
- My home location was entered correctly in the Navigation screen

Day 10:

Day 11:

Day 12:

Forgot to take a screenshot

Day 13:

Day 14:

Final tally from 2 weeks of being parked:

- Added 114 miles of rated range and 63 kWh of electricity
- 63/135 usable = 46.7% of usable battery capacity drained while parked
- I believe this an MPGe of 0. The truck traveled 0 miles

By contrast, here's the final tally for my wife's Model 3, which was parked next to the Rivian for the past 2 weeks:

 

[Doug]

It seems to vary between R1T's as far as the vampire drain. Mine has been 4 miles or 1% a day pretty consistently. It is in a 55 decree garage with gear guard off.

 

[Arky]

One thing that I think makes it hard to quantify the drain is that coming from a drive cycle and storing the car especially outside in the cold could lead to a lower voltage reading on the cells without really using energy. It's extremely hard to quantify charge levels across a temperature swing like that.

I left my R1 outside overnight on a subzero (-20C) day after a long drive and the next morning it appeared to have lost 7% charge. That seemed ridiculous and I suspected a reporting issue, I drove 25 miles that morning at an ambient temperature of 0F and lost about 2% charge per the car - telling me that as the battery warmed up it 'recovered' that visible energy.

While these cars do have rather excessively high idle drain (1-3kwh/day is not unusual), certain situations can make it appear worse than it is, and that's really just a problem with how battery SoC is measured, not anything Rivian in particular is doing.

 

[TheIglu]

I hesitate to even use the 120V charger, in below freezing temps, from what I've read on this forum.

What have you read on this forum regarding 120v charging in below freezing temps?

I do that a day a week at work without issue. Usually gets me 1% per hour or so. Better than losing charge.

 

[shrink]

Quick update. I'm just trying to gather data at this point. Even though I'm back in town, I again won't be driving my R1T this week due to some paver work (acid wash and resealing).

I charged up to 85% last night and drove it to a family member's place to park for the week.

Upon parking, charge was at 74% and 228 miles of rated range - in Conserve Mode, I should add. I set the charge limit to 70% and plugged the car into a 110V outlet and set the charge amperage to 12. I don't have access to L2 charging at this location. I left Gear Guard on.

24 hours later, the car didn't charge at all per the set charging limit, but I'm down to 71% charge and 218 miles of rated range, so 3% loss and 10 miles loss of rated range sitting idle. That still seems to be about 4 kWh/day and still seems high to me. I just turned Gear Guard off via the app and will gather more data tomorrow, but this vampire drain rate is about the same as when I was away for 2 weeks with Gear Guard off. I have also turned off Wi-Fi, but the car isn't setup to connect to a Wi-Fi network at this location anyway.

Service appointment is for early February 2023. I added a note and asked them to check the frunk sensor per the Reddit thread.

 

[strykerwsu]

First night using my Rivian charger to 70%. charged from 12:30 to about 2 AM. Before to garage, app showed the 70% and about 214 miles. When it unlocked 68% and 209 miles. Heat and everything else I can control off. In an insulated 50 degree garage. Yikes 5 hours?

Will report back tomorrow as well.

 

[JamesPolk24]

Okay, got back into town last night after 2 weeks.

- Gear guard was off
- My home location was entered correctly in the Navigation screen

Day 10:

Day 11:

Day 12:

Forgot to take a screenshot

Day 13:

Day 14:

Final tally from 2 weeks of being parked:

- Added 114 miles of rated range and 63 kWh of electricity
- 63/135 usable = 46.7% of usable battery capacity drained while parked
- I believe this an MPGe of 0. The truck traveled 0 miles

By contrast, here's the final tally for my wife's Model 3, which was parked next to the Rivian for the past 2 weeks:

What was total drain by Model 3? Looks like roughly 2-3kwh versus 63kwh for the R1T? 20-30X more drain?

Crazy I can run my entire home for 2-3 days with 5 kids leaving lights on everywhere/laundry/dishes/gaming/hvac for what our trucks do while doing nothing for a couple weeks.

 

[Aag12]

I have similar issues. Lost 5% overnight in single digit weather after a drive through snow. Lost a total of 13% over 3.5 days

 

[Antonio]

Similar boat over here! My wife has a model X, no loss overnight. Actually, might lose 1 % every couple of days if left untouched. My R1T is losing about 2% every 8 to 10 hours! (Still love this truck though)

 

[shrink]

What was total drain by Model 3? Looks like roughly 2-3kwh versus 63kwh for the R1T? 20-30X more drain?

Crazy I can run my entire home for 2-3 days with 5 kids leaving lights on everywhere/laundry/dishes/gaming/hvac for what our trucks do while doing nothing for a couple weeks.

Yeah, per the Tesla graphs, looks like it was 2-3 kWh over the same 2-week time period.

I think 30 kWh is roughly the amount it takes to power a house for a day in the US - depending on many factors of course such as weather, household size, etc. The Rivian using 63 kWh over 2 weeks parked is a little crazy - especially when this is on the home page:

 

[strykerwsu]

First night using my Rivian charger to 70%. charged from 12:30 to about 2 AM. Before to garage, app showed the 70% and about 214 miles. When it unlocked 68% and 209 miles. Heat and everything else I can control off. In an insulated 50 degree garage. Yikes 5 hours?

Will report back tomorrow as well.

Well it is consistent, same exact #'s lost second straight day. Good news, didn't drive today and only lost another 1% in the last 8 hours

 

[Indy avocado]

Congratulations! Your story was wildly misconstrued and used as anti-ev propaganda by the Washington Examiner.

The phantom drain thing is a real environmental and potentially usage problem though. Rivian needs to address this.

 

[shrink]

Congratulations! Your story was wildly misconstrued and used as anti-ev propaganda by the Washington Examiner.

The phantom drain thing is a real environmental and potentially usage problem though. Rivian needs to address this.

Well, that’s annoying but I’m sure will be quickly forgotten.

In other other news, I found this in the release notes for an upcoming software update.

I hope it improves the vampire drain for at least some of us!

• Software containment for front trunk latch sensor issue resulting in reduced sleep and increased overnight range loss.

 

[yizzung]

Reno airport, outside, gear guard ON, temps ranging from mid 30s to single digits overnight. Unplugged. Shot below is 3 days, 4 hours later. 10 miles or about 4% loss.

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