Rivian Wall Charger inefficiency

[Dan_Foothill]

Has anyone see and more importantly know how to correct this charging issue with the Rivian Charger. It seems to waste approximately 5kw of power per charge. This coupled with all of the Vampire Drain makes for a very inefficient vehicle to own.

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[CommodoreAmiga]

Looks like 1kW didn't go to the battery... not 5kW.

 

[Dan_Foothill]

Looks like 1kW didn't go to the battery... not 5kW.

the Picture on the left is from the wall charger which was 62.3kw used. the picture on the right is the changing summary that was 56.9kw received by the car. so the 5kw must have go up in thin air to heat i guess? See like a lot of waste.

 

[Aroohoo]

I would assume that the charger is reporting the AC power because that is all it sees. I suspect that the R1 is reporting DC power delievered, which would happen after the onboard charger/inverter converts from AC to DC. Typically, these have a 90-95% effeciency, so could explain the difference you are seeing.

A good test would be to hook up different lvl 2 EVSE.


One other thought, could be that if the EVSE is using a current couoler to measure current it has the wrong correction factor to convert to Watts. This happens a lot in home solar power applications where the installer doesn't set the right value resulting in Watt reading higher or lower than actuals.

 

[tojesky]

Has anyone see and more importantly know how to correct this charging issue with the Rivian Charger. It seems to waste approximately 5kw of power per charge. This coupled with all of the Vampire Drain makes for a very inefficient vehicle to own.

62.3/55.9 yields 1.114 or 11.44% losses. That number is typical for Level 2 EVSEs. My average loss over 10,000 miles of charging my Bolt with a 240v/32 amp EVSE is about 9.1%. (I do keep detailed charging records) But that includes cooler non-summer weather charging.

I assume you are on a timer with only 4kWh added each hour you were plugged in.

 

[Kidentist]

So, please correct me if my math is wrong, but in the OC, 5 Kwh is about $1.50. Is this a daily issue? If it is, well I do agree it adds up to about $550 per year (rounded up).
Still I wonder how much fuel your comparable ICE vehicle would consume "idling" per year....?? My guess, you're still better off with the EV???

 

[HimuraMOdo]

So 56.9kwh/62.3kwh =91.33%. If the 62.3kwh reported from the charger was the actual total power consumed. It seems this is reasonably good. I'd doubt other charger would be anymore better.

If you want to test it out, try lowering the charge current from the vehicle so there would be less IR drop through the current path. That might help in efficiency.

 

[shrink]

62.3/55.9 yields 1.114 or 11.44% losses. That number is typical for Level 2 EVSEs. My average loss over 10,000 miles of charging my Bolt with a 240v/32 amp EVSE is about 9.1%. (I do keep detailed charging records) But that includes cooler non-summer weather charging.

Exactly. I think 10% charging loss is pretty typical.

So 56.9kwh/62.3kwh =91.33%. If the 62.3kwh reported from the charger was the actual total power consumed. It seems this is reasonably good. I'd doubt other charger would be anymore better.

If you want to test it out, try lowering the charge current from the vehicle so there would be less IR drop through the current path. That might help in efficiency.

There's an engineer over on the Tesla boards who did a big study on most efficient charging amperage. I think he used the old school dual charger Model S's. Those were 40 amps each for a total of 80 amp charging capability. I had one of those cars and I really liked it, but just sold it for my current R1T.

Anyway, if I recall correctly, I think the most efficient charging amperage was 42 amps.

I have no idea what would be most efficient on the Rivian. We need an electrical engineer to do some testing.

 

[Dirty_B]

So, please correct me if my math is wrong, but in the OC, 5 Kwh is about $1.50. Is this a daily issue? If it is, well I do agree it adds up to about $550 per year (rounded up).
Still I wonder how much fuel your comparable ICE vehicle would consume "idling" per year....?? My guess, you're still better off with the EV???

Comparable would be how much drops/drips onto floor when refueling ... Not idling.

My ICE loses approaching 0 gas in 24hrs.

So vampire drain, coupled with inefficient "refueling" does make it a not very efficient BEV all things considered. My last long non use period I lost over 100mi to vampire drain... Yep they got it licked.

 

[jphillips97]

Has anyone see and more importantly know how to correct this charging issue with the Rivian Charger. It seems to waste approximately 5kw of power per charge. This coupled with all of the Vampire Drain makes for a very inefficient vehicle to own.

Looks like two different charging sessions... One was 15 hours long and the other was 5 hours long.... Also it is not kW, it is kWh.... One is a measure of power (rate of energy flow) and one is a measure of energy.......

 

[Dan_Foothill]

Comparable would be how much drops/drips onto floor when refueling ... Not idling.

My ICE loses approaching 0 gas in 24hrs.

So vampire drain, coupled with inefficient "refueling" does make it a not very efficient BEV all things considered. My last long non use period I lost over 100mi to vampire drain... Yep they got it licked.

Totally Agree. I loose 10mi/day doing nothing. so that is 5kw*365 + I loose another 5kw every charge so like once a week. 5*52. Total lose of energy would be 2085kw @ $.18= $375

So exciting right. i could drive 1000 miles with the shitty current cali gas prices for that. This is a total joke that needs to get fixed.

 

[tojesky]

...
Anyway, if I recall correctly, I think the most efficient charging amperage was 42 amps.
...

Power losses are equal to current squared times resistance. So a higher current at 240 volts would have higher losses. That is why long distance power transmission lines have higher voltages so current is kept lower and line losses are reduced.

 

[zipzag]

The charger is in your vehicle. The "wall charger" is a fancy extension cord with a few saftey feature. All level 2 chargers are the same as far as efficiency of near 100%. (some resistance loss on the cord).

The charge in you vehicle is perhaps 90% efficient. How did you feel about your gas vehicle being 30% efficient?

 

[sillygoose]

You are seeing the loss converting from 240V AC to ~360V DC where the efficiency is the kWh delivered to the battery (energy added) divided by the kWh measured at the charger (energy used) times 100. There are other small resistive losses but AC to DC conversion is the big one.

About 10% percent is pretty common, here is a snapshot of the past months charging sessions on my Mustang Mach-E with the session details on one:

 

[Plummer43]

Totally Agree. I loose 10mi/day doing nothing.


Have you tried camp mode stay off setting to put truck in deep sleep?

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