Today I F***ed Up - Range Cockiness

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!

Happy ending since you made it.

This is the biggest issue with non-Tesla EVs! I've had multiple trips were the EA chargers are derated so that 40 minute charge I was ready for is now 2 hours so I can continue my trip. I now try to plan for up to 3 contingency plans when traveling which isn't fun.

I agree can't wait for the adapter as it will make things much easier.

Always use something like plugshare or a better route finder if you are doing a road trip. Also if you don't want to wait, get the A2Z adapter. Even when you eventually get the Tesla adapter from Rivian, always good to have a backup.

Glad you made it ok. First utilize ABRP and plugshare and two just buy an A2Z NACS adapter and this would have been an easy trip with zero problems. Trust me I’ve seen the difference before NACSand after and it’s wonderful.

I wouldnt travel with my NACS A2Z (or Rivian supplied one). On a recent trip the Rivian maps kept trying to take me to a Shell Charger which I refuse to use even though it was given an A score (bad experience in past) I had to make a stop sooner anyways at a place I like to get a bite and they have a Tesla SC across the street. Was able to top off and make it home without any further stops. To me its a game changer and my range anxiety is long gone now. I had a similar issue as you last year and almost got completely stuck, required to take a $200 cab ride and had other numerous times of range anxiety that did not make the trip enjoyable (traveling in Eastern WA)

lslick23 said:

Glad you made it ok. First utilize ABRP and plugshare and two just buy an A2Z NACS adapter and this would have been an easy trip with zero problems. Trust me I’ve seen the difference before NACSand after and it’s wonderful.

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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've charged at the one in Lincoln IL with my 2023 R1S DMP and it worked fine...albeit slow at 50KW. Did you try resetting the Rivian? Get the A2Z adapter and all will be fine.

It’s always nice to have options. That's why I bought the Typhoon adapter and eventually upgraded to Typhoon Pro.

Z-RO said:

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.

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Do you have the truck set up with the live data to ABRP? That is truly inspiring on range and how accurate it is on a road trip. I did South Florida to Tennessee and back and it was spot on the entire time. I felt like I truly knew what was safe to do and it made me push boundaries more.

I’ve made similar mistakes although without such dire consequence, chalk it up to luck. People say ABC (always be charging) and sometimes I ignore that to be later inconvenienced on the road.

sorry to hear about your awful day but thanks for sharing your experience.

Sounds like you took the Rivian motto about adventure to heart.

Not all of your luck was bad, at least you made it to a charger. It will be something to laugh about down the road.

Glad it all worked out in the end, hope your future trips have a little less stress and adventure.

This could happen to anyone, especially with the added factor of little ones to worry about. Sounds like you know how to prevent it from happening again!

Earlier this year I was working a contract job in Cheyenne WY (about 70 miles from home) and there are very few chargers up there, although they do have a RAN station on the other side of town from where I was working. I normally would charge for about 30 minutes each evening before heading back home where I only have L1 charging.

I got a little cocky one night because I "technically" had enough range to get home and back the next morning so I didn't stop at the RAN. I did have enough range, but pulled into work the next morning with 11 miles. After work I had 7 miles range to drive 5 miles across town. I was sweating and thinking about how stupid it would be to run out of juice like that. I made it with 1 mile left but I did NOT skip any charge sessions after work after that experience.

My range anxiety is completely gone since getting the NACS adapter--I've now charged at superchargers 20+ times and each time it's been flawless.

I've driven though that part of the country (going to and from Oshkosh, WI) four times now with the Rivian, and the charging infrastructure stinks. In a Tesla or any NACS compatible car it's just easy.

Two issues with EA:

The app is not accurate in determining the availability or performance of the chargers. use plugshare, but expect the worst.

I just assume the 350kw cabinets aren't working (in my experience about 1/5 work and charge at over 200kw) snd start with the 150kw cabinets. At any given site, and average of 2/4 stalls are functioning, and the 150kw are more likely to operate properly.

To be fair, I've only used one EA site in the last year. I'd quit using the Rivian for travel until I got the adapter.

On Labor Day, I stopped at the EA site in Alabaster, AL. It's maybe 3/4 mile from the Tesla site (which has magic docks) but literally adjacent to a Mexican restaurant we like for a stop. True to form, only 2 of the 4 cabinets were working, one occupied with an ID4 charging slowly. I didn't try the open 350kw charger, but as I was leaving another R1S attempted to and failed. He wound up moving to the 150 that I'd just left, which was throttled and maxed out around 130kw.

It didn't matter much to us since we stopped to eat and feed the dogs anyway, and it was only 97 miles to the next Tesla supercharger (Guin, AL) but it was the only less than perfect charging experience for the whole trip. All of the superchargers just worked.

phoggy123 said:

I've charged at the one in Lincoln IL with my 2023 R1S DMP and it worked fine...albeit slow at 50KW. Did you try resetting the Rivian? Get the A2Z adapter and all will be fine.

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At the Chevy/Buick Dealer? The charger was an "InCharge" I believe. It didnt have a way I saw to activate an account,etc although that could have been user error. Just trying to tap to pay got an error on the screen that said "not authorized" and like I said I gave up after the listing on their actual website said unavailable to public. If its worked for others... just add another mistake to my comedy of a day.