Tested: Does charging a Rivian with 350kW vs150kW station actually matter?

[zipzag]

I’ll admit I haven’t watched any of these. My take is if he needs to self promote then his videos must not be that great.

He's learning. Unless the maker has previous experience getting good obviously takes time. I don't find him concise and entertaining enough to watch. But I'm sure if I went back and watch the first videos of many Youtubers I would have a similar reaction.

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[MoreTrout]

Obviously the Lucid and the Mercedes do not have many of the capabilities of the R1T (they are intended for different buyers), and charging speeds aren't that important for everyone. For me personally I'm not concerned about the charging speeds, as I rarely use DCFC chargers.

I'm simply pointing out that this will become a weakness for Rivian unless they improve charging speeds over time. Most new EVs in the premium categories are hitting the 30 minutes or less mark. GM will most likely hit this with the Silverado next year. Hopefully when Rivian moves to the 800V architecture in a few years, the charging speeds improve.

All very true. I have little doubt battery and charging technology in a decade or so will make all of these discussions seem pointless. But I still think the focus on xx%-xx% in xx minutes isn't the benchmark that needs to be achieved to be competitive. I have found that my bladder/pets/hunger/fatigue dictate when I will be stopping far more than when I hit a somewhat arbitrary target on a gas gauge or battery SOC. For me that typically occurs every 2-3 hours of driving, and averaging 70mph on highways or significantly less on my more common trips means I don't need anywhere near 10-80%. Having far more charging location options would solve more of the pre-trip planning and decision making work than shaving off 10 or 15 minutes for a longer charge I don't need. Bottom line, I pretty routinely get all the charging I need in 30 minutes or less to make it to my next planned stop in the Rivian. For very long trips, I'm going to eat once or twice, so the extra 15 minutes makes no difference for one or two longer stops.

I liked Branden's comment at the end of the video. Drive more and worry less. I'm among those willing to admit it's fun to nerd out on the details and specs, but practically speaking, the current state of charging speed for the truck absolutely meets my needs. My wife rolls her eyes every time I inevitably get asked the most common question - How long does it take to charge? Rather than get into the mind numbing metrics and math, I tell them practically speaking it takes me 10 seconds. 5 to plug it in, and 5 to unplug it. (Current state of public charging reliability to initiate/pay aside) Whether at home overnight or on road trips, that isn't far from the truth, because I can pretty readily find a productive use of my time away from the truck while it charges both at home and on the road. I know this, it takes much less of my time for me to plug it in with my 32A mobile EVSE at camp at the end of the day than do the 30 mile round trip to stand in the cold at a gas station to refuel like it used to take me. Either way I get into my vehicle with a full tank/charge the next morning.

 

[jjswan33]

He's learning. Unless the maker has previous experience getting good obviously takes time. I don't find him concise and entertaining enough to watch. But I'm sure if I went back and watch the first videos of many Youtubers I would have a similar reaction.

I was just pointing out that he was self promoting his video, I haven’t seen other YouTubers do that and honestly I am surprised the @Administrator allows it.

I guess the message is if you want to promote something on here just create a YouTube video and post it without any explanation.

Bottom line I wish @branden the best of luck promoting his channel, just not falling for the bait.

 

[manitou202]

I was just pointing out that he was self promoting his video, I haven’t seen other YouTubers do that and honestly I am surprised the @Administrator allows it.

I guess the message is if you want to promote something on here just create a YouTube video and post it without any explanation.

Bottom line I wish @branden the best of luck promoting his channel, just not falling for the bait.

Branden is part of the Rivian community and is posting videos specifically about Rivian. Seems very appropriate.

 

[jjswan33]

Branden is part of the Rivian community and is posting videos specifically about Rivian. Seems very appropriate.

Does he contribute anything to this community besides posting his videos? I don’t see his regular participation (or any participation) in threads on this forum.

 

[SANZC02]

I was just pointing out that he was self promoting his video, I haven’t seen other YouTubers do that and honestly I am surprised the @Administrator allows it.

I guess the message is if you want to promote something on here just create a YouTube video and post it without any explanation.

Bottom line I wish @branden the best of luck promoting his channel, just not falling for the bait.

I can see where you are coming from but for me he was upfront about it. It is not like he created a John Doe account and posted the link trying to hide his identity.

I appreciated the info in the video and had it not been posted here I probably would not have seen it.

On a side note, it does reinforce similar information by a couple of other tests I saw that were done on fewer chargers.

 

[jjswan33]

I can see where you are coming from but for me he was upfront about it. It is not like he created a John Doe account and posted the link trying to hide his identity.

I appreciated the info in the video and had it not been posted here I probably would not have seen it.

On a side note, it does reinforce similar information by a couple of other tests I saw that were done on fewer chargers.

How was he up front about it? As far as I can tell all of his threads are just a posted video from his YouTube channel without any explanation.

 

[manitou202]

How was he up front about it? As far as I can tell all of his threads are just a posted video from his YouTube channel without any explanation.

Dude, why are you so upset about this?

How many people on this forum are just trolls, or posting misc BS about unrelated crap. People post trip reports and tests all the time. He just happens to post them on YouTube and maybe is trying to make a hobby/living out of it. If you don't like his Rivian related YouTube videos don't watch them. Move on.

 

[branden]

Dude, why are you so upset about this?

How many people on this forum are just trolls, or posting misc BS about unrelated crap. People post trip reports and tests all the time. He just happens to post them on YouTube and maybe is trying to make a hobby/living out of it. If you don't like his Rivian related YouTube videos don't watch them. Move on.

I appreciate the support. I don’t understand why some people get so upset about someone taking time to make useful content and then post it on a platform for others to enjoy *for free*. There are plenty of useless posts on here, Facebook groups, Reddit, etc and I just scroll by those. No reason someone not interested couldn’t just keep scrolling past this too.

 

[SANZC02]

How was he up front about it? As far as I can tell all of his threads are just a posted video from his YouTube channel without any explanation.

Clearly we are not going to see eye to eye on this.

He created content that is clearly stated in his thread titles. His avatar is the same image as his branded UTube channel. You clearly had no problem identifying that the content was created by the person posting it.

The information he is sharing is relevant to this forum. If people do not want to click on the link and view it that is perfectly fine but to say he should not be able to post it is an over reach. If you want to say no one should be able to link to a uTube channel from the forum that is one thing but to say he can’t post links to his is another. It is not a competing forum and being able to post links to these channels that are relevant to this forum is one of the reasons I log in here.

 

[jjswan33]

Dude, why are you so upset about this?

How many people on this forum are just trolls, or posting misc BS about unrelated crap. People post trip reports and tests all the time. He just happens to post them on YouTube and maybe is trying to make a hobby/living out of it. If you don't like his Rivian related YouTube videos don't watch them. Move on.

Who said I was upset? I just commented to someone above who was saying he didn’t understand criticism of his posts here and on Reddit.

His whole purpose here is to get views and subscribers for his YouTube channel. Feel free to watch if you wan. Was just pointing out my reason to ignore and why some other people might criticize.

Furthermore he confirmed that when someone asked for a summary (see above) and he posted a purposely vague answer. Because all he wants is views for his video.

 

[branden]

Who said I was upset? I just commented to someone above who was saying he didn’t understand criticism of his posts here and on Reddit.

His whole purpose here is to get views and subscribers for his YouTube channel. Feel free to watch if you wan. Was just pointing out my reason to ignore and why some other people might criticize.

Furthermore he confirmed that when someone asked for a summary (see above) and he posted a purposely vague answer. Because all he wants is views for his video.

And so what if I get views / subscribers as a result of making content that people find valuable and share it on a forum with people that are looking for Rivian content?

I didn’t post a vague answer - the conclusion is that it does depend. Depending on whether you’re doing a short charge or deep charge, starting and target SoC, etc.

I have contributed in other threads and am also active across Rivian circles on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook groups, RS, etc. I work a full time job literally building better charging for all of us to use and use my free time to make content like this for others to watch and gain knowledge from *for free* - if you don’t find value in that, keep scrolling. No one is forcing you to watch it, and if you’re interested in the content and information gathered, the least you can do is click on the video and even skip to the end if you want or let it play while you do other stuff.

 

[Bee]

I don't know that I've learned anything about charging but I may need to confront the wife regarding Ocean Coast. Man that looks good.

 

[RWerksman]

Him making the video *IS* him contributing content to the community.

I'm of the opinion the more activity in the community the better and that we shouldn't gatekeep. If you don't enjoy it, you can ignore or not read / watch it.

 

[Mathme]

I for one appreciated this video as I don't have a Rivian yet, I found it helpful. Bottom line is it'll take about the same amount of time on a 150 as it will a 350 DCFC...so when on a road trip it doesn't make sense to get your panties all bunched up looking for the fastest charger out there. Pick the open one that works and don't stress about it and get on with your day and you trip...

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