JohnK
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- #1
After waiting 3 years, 7 months and 17 days from our pre-order deposit, our R1T finally arrived. The promise of near instant delivery from the R1 Shop prompted us to change our plans to wait for the Max Pack. From R1 Shop invitation to delivery - 6 days.
Delivery came off on time, exactly as promised. The truck was gorgeous, no visible flaws and everything worked perfectly (even the power tonneau). Forrest Green with Black interior and 21” wheels. Fortuitously the truck arrived the day before a long planned 7 day road trip.
Averaged over the 780 mile trip, efficiency worked out to 2.54 mi/kWh (all in Conserve mode). Definitely better results than expected, all the more impressive given nearly all of those miles were with 2 bikes on a 1Up hitch rack. Speeds were typically 5 mph over posted limits, but most were 55 mph roads or slower (except for about 200 miles on I-5 between Salem and Medford, OR).
The truck was delivered with a 98% charge, showing a range of 326 mi in Conserve mode. Between that initial charge and various destination chargers along the way, we only used paid charging twice - EA charger at Walmart in Albany, OR and EA charger at Walmart in Grants Pass, OR totalling $65.10. At the Albany charger we peaked at 199kW. Two of the 350kW stations posted signage for reduced charging speeds “to improve service and perform an update” and the two 150 kW stations were out of order. At Grants Pass, the first station I plugged into only went to 35 kW, so I switched stations and peaked at 203 kW. I wasn’t in the vehicle much of the time to observe the charging taper, but it seemed to not slow significantly until above 80% SOC. Bottom line - EA charging worked out fine but it’s clear EA is a long way from Tesla Supercharger predictability and reliability. I trust that will improve with time.
Overall Impressions
The truck exceeded my expectations in just about every way.
Delivery came off on time, exactly as promised. The truck was gorgeous, no visible flaws and everything worked perfectly (even the power tonneau). Forrest Green with Black interior and 21” wheels. Fortuitously the truck arrived the day before a long planned 7 day road trip.
Averaged over the 780 mile trip, efficiency worked out to 2.54 mi/kWh (all in Conserve mode). Definitely better results than expected, all the more impressive given nearly all of those miles were with 2 bikes on a 1Up hitch rack. Speeds were typically 5 mph over posted limits, but most were 55 mph roads or slower (except for about 200 miles on I-5 between Salem and Medford, OR).
The truck was delivered with a 98% charge, showing a range of 326 mi in Conserve mode. Between that initial charge and various destination chargers along the way, we only used paid charging twice - EA charger at Walmart in Albany, OR and EA charger at Walmart in Grants Pass, OR totalling $65.10. At the Albany charger we peaked at 199kW. Two of the 350kW stations posted signage for reduced charging speeds “to improve service and perform an update” and the two 150 kW stations were out of order. At Grants Pass, the first station I plugged into only went to 35 kW, so I switched stations and peaked at 203 kW. I wasn’t in the vehicle much of the time to observe the charging taper, but it seemed to not slow significantly until above 80% SOC. Bottom line - EA charging worked out fine but it’s clear EA is a long way from Tesla Supercharger predictability and reliability. I trust that will improve with time.
Overall Impressions
The truck exceeded my expectations in just about every way.
- The range in Conserve mode at some 330 miles or more was a nice bonus I did not expect.
- The overall UI is excellent and easy to learn. I’ve driven a Tesla for 9+ years, so the touch screen controls come much more naturally than they did when I first got my Tesla in 2013.
- The stereo system is awesome, especially with a little tuning to personal preferences. The 3D Surround and Dynamic Sound Adjustment do a good job of overcoming road noise at highway speeds to produce a great sound with nice imaging and soundstage. I could quibble with some UI artifacts, especially with TuneIn stations, but those are pretty minor.
- Handling and ride quality are excellent. Steering is direct, and even with the Soft suspension setting, the handling is excellent (albeit with a bit of body roll). It’s hard to really believe you are driving a truck.
- Fit and finish (built quality) is excellent. The interior is just plain awesome. Beautiful, functional and comfortable.
- The Camp Speaker is awesome. Sound quality is excellent for a small box. It’s a little slow to power up, but once connected it’s a great sound in a cool package.
- The Gear Tunnel is brilliant. Along with the fronk and tonneau-covered bed, there is a ton of secure, locked, out of sight storage. Very reassuring when traveling with lots of gear.
- Gear Guard - I was able to secure two bikes on the 1Up rack using the Gear Guard cable which was then secured under the locked tonneau. Very nice.
- I don’t have much experience with systems like Driver+, so I can’t compare with other systems. The Highway Assist was only available on the Interstate, where I used it for most of the 200 miles. Other than some squirrelly behavior on twisty mountain passes, I really liked it. Same for the Adaptive Cruise Control. I only experience a handful of phantom braking instances over hundreds of miles.
- Love the AC cooling in the ventilated seats. Really helps cool down in vehicle in really hot weather or after being parked in the hot sun for a while.
- Unplugging the charging cable without stopping the charging through the app or UI crashes the charging system and requires a reboot of the truck infotainment system to restart charging. This came into play when our truck was unplugged during a hike when parked at the trailhead using the charger at Crater Lake National Park.
- Better use of the screen real estate in front of the driver. A few simple things such as an odometer reading and SOC % as well as range mileage seem obvious, but with so much screen real estate there are probably lots of good ideas to be had.
- Reduce text font size or expand text area in the slide-in media window for TuneIn stations so you can see the entire song name.
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I’m sitting at home eating my yogurt and granola with nothing to drool over. Surely there are photos.
