my R1S charging nightmare

[Riviot]

What happened here was akin to setting sail without a lifejacket while your taking in water. That's a recipe for disaster ?

More like setting sail with no MoGas and calling the Coast Guard to save you when the wind dies. We ought to start charging!

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[SoCal Rob]

First, I think that there are going to be cases where people deplete their battery: maybe a road trip with charging misadventures or an extended power outage while home. There should be a Rivian-approved, documented method for owners to resuscitate their vehicle when this happens, assuming that they haven’t caused permanent damage to a battery.

Ideally, the vehicle would provide prominent warnings when below 20% (OP was probably around 5%) that the vehicle should be charged immediately because battery damage may result and this damage may not be covered under warranty.

This particular case strikes me a bit odd, though. Before I owned an EV and when driving a Land Rover LR3 on a roadtrip to Death Valley, we ended up getting worse fuel economy than expected and took a little side trip so we ended up with 16 miles of range showing (this was in 2017 and, yes, I still remember that it was 16 and not “10 or 20” so color me a little skeptical) when we got into the valley and a gas station on the way to our hotel. Even with only ICE experience, I knew it would be dicey to go to the hotel and then drive to get gas. In my mind, an estimated range that low was never to be trusted and it wasn’t like I could refuel while parked at the hotel. I wouldn’t assume that an EV would do any better so I don’t really understand how this happened on the way to a destination which was known to not have charging.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

More like setting sail with no MoGas and calling the Coast Guard to save you when the wind dies. We ought to start charging!

I had a co worker that ran out of fuel and called a may day ....that didn't go over too well.

 

[Riviot]

I had a co worker that ran out of fuel and called a may day ....that didn't go over too well.

https://seatow.com/

As an owner, I agree this shouldn't really be a Rivian problem to solve. If you run it "dead", a 12v jump should make you able to charge, probably L2 then DCFC at higher rate. But tell people that in the manual.

As a shareholder, limit this to Rivian support and charge through the nose. If you've got that vessel, you can afford it.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

First, I think that there are going to be cases where people deplete their battery: maybe a road trip with charging misadventures or an extended power outage while home. There should be a Rivian-approved, documented method for owners to resuscitate their vehicle when this happens, assuming that they haven’t caused permanent damage to a battery.

Ideally, the vehicle would provide prominent warnings when below 20% (OP was probably around 5%) that the vehicle should be charged immediately because battery damage may result and this damage may not be covered under warranty.

This particular case strikes me a bit odd, though. Before I owned an EV and when driving a Land Rover LR3 on a roadtrip to Death Valley, we ended up getting worse fuel economy than expected and took a little side trip so we ended up with 16 miles of range showing (this was in 2017 and, yes, I still remember that it was 16 and not “10 or 20” so color me a little skeptical) when we got into the valley and a gas station on the way to our hotel. Even with only ICE experience, I knew it would be dicey to go to the hotel and then drive to get gas. In my mind, an estimated range that low was never to be trusted and it wasn’t like I could refuel while parked at the hotel. I wouldn’t assume that an EV would do any better so I don’t really understand how this happened on the way to a destination which was known to not have charging.

Agree there needs to be more education. I am sure the OP is somewhat in the know on EVs since he has owned one for 4 years. I am guessing he was in a rush and made the assumption that it would be fine based on how the Bolt EV behaves. I owned a Bolt EV for three and a half years and it does hold a charge pretty well but its a much simpler machine.

With that said neither of mine lose much range when gear guard is turned off and they are allowed to sleep (e.g. not checking the app constantly etc.). Between the really low SOC and probably having GG on there wasn't much to prevent this from happening unfortunately.

Rivian should benchmark Tesla here. With Tesla, sentry mode is automatically disabled when the SOC is below 20%. Rivian needs to have some kind of low power mode and a warning system in place to prevent this from happening. Maybe put the truck into some kind of ultra battery saver mode when its parked, unplugged, and the SOC is below 20%.

 

[Zoidz]

”My device X did this so I expect the same from device Y” is not a realistic approach. Bolt and Rivian are vastly different, like an old flip phone vs a smart phone. I do agree that it should not kill the 12 volt battery(s)or require a service event to recover. That should be addressed by Rivian. It ultimately may lose customers.

 

[manishie]

Look y'all, let me address some of the comments that have been coming in. I did indeed RTFM, and yes, I should have recalled reading to always leave the car plugged in when parked. My simpler experience with my Bolt made it easier to forget that the Rivian is a much more complex beast.

It just isn't always possible at the Berkeley Marina, which has a single working level 2 Chargepoint charging port, which on this particular night was in use. (The charger has two ports, but one port refuses to charge my Rivian, though that same port can charge my Bolt.)

Here are some of the issues which make no sense to me. When initially I couldn't unlock the doors, I Googled and figured out we could jump the 12v battery from the leads in the back. Eventually I was able to unlock the doors, and after a short wait, the dashboard turned on. But no matter what I tried, I was unable to press the toggle button to disable the parking brake. Very frustrating, so AAA had to send a second tow truck which had some skates on it since the rear wheels were locked (the front wheels were spinning). That seems like a bug to me.

Second, why was I unable to charge? The EVGO person told me I couldn't charge a dead battery on a fast charger, so then I took it to a level 2 charger, but that didn't work either. The entire time at both chargers, the 12v battery leads were connected to the tow truck, providing enough juice (one would think) to get the dashboard/computer running. But no luck at all.

FYI Rivian offered me a rental car for a few days, but I only used it for a single day to drive the 100 miles home, and I'll get it again for a second day to go back to pick up my car. Thankfully my 16yo son hasn't gotten his license yet, so the Chevy Bolt is still sitting in my driveway for my use until I get the Rivian back. Also perhaps they offered me a free rental because I had an upcoming service appointment in a few weeks to deal with some warranty issues (like chipping paint and my passenger airbag not functioning correctly). Since the car is now with them, they're going to deal with those warranty issues now instead of in a few weeks.

So to summarize, in the event that a Rivian owner does something dumb (and I fully admit what I did was dumb), it shouldn't brick the entire car and force a trip to the service center. I should have been able to 1. unlock the parking brake and 2. charge the car while we had jumped the onboard computer from the tow truck. Seem like two reasonable requests for such an expensive car, no? And a reminder, my car had been sitting unplugged for ONE NIGHT when this happened. It's not like I'd left it unplugged for a month.

 

[SoCal Rob]

But no matter what I tried, I was unable to press the toggle button to disable the parking brake.

Because it’s an electric parking brake (EPB), it may be that there wasn’t enough power on the low voltage side to drive the EPB actuator.

My first thought was that there should be a manual emergency release. Our Land Rover had an EPB with a manual release cable. This would allow you to release a stuck EPB and continue on.

However, it may be that Rivian engineers and/or attorneys decided that giving people a way to release the parking brake (without a way to reapply it) on a 7,000 pound vehicle which may or may not have power brakes or even be operational at all, could turn out very, VERY badly.

The prospect of being in an unpowered Rivian with limited control and no means of keeping it stationary on anything outside of a perfectly level surface (other than wheel chocks) without a driver in the seat sounds… unappealing to me.

 

[DevSecOps]

The fact is that not everyone who buys an EV thinks like those of us who've had EVs for a while, stalk the forums and know that there's certain things you just can't do. Especially the OP having had a prior EV that didn't have the same behavior. This led him to believe that there was nothing to worry about. I'm not sure why there's so much hate. He's said that he fucked up and now he knows like 3 times, move on with the attitude.

FWIW Ford does the same thing. Under 15% on the HVB will not engage the DC/DC inverter to top off the LVB. So if you have a dash cam (akin to Gear Guard) then you will drain your LVB completely if your HVB is under the threshold. But if it's your first time leaving it under the threshold you would never know that the LVB wouldn't be topped off like you would expect and it had been all previous times. Additionally, Ford has a 30 day window as well. So even if the HVB is over 15% SOC and it sat for more than 30 days it will no longer top off the LVB. Who the hell is ever going to know that if they didn't stalk the forums? Bet those R1 owners here who haven't have a Ford wouldn't know that.

EV manufacturers need to step up and take some action so that these things don't happen. If the truck is low SOC then disable GG and go into sleep. Don't even present the handles, make it so that the only way it can be woken is via a handle push (ala carwash mode). I know that I would never park my R1 with such low range, but it's only because I've spent countless hours on here and other forums. For EV adoption to work we can't make it necessary for someone to spend 1 hour each day on a forum. Lastly, the owners manual says "If you leave the vehicle unplugged for an extended time, it may require a jump start or replacement of the 12 V batteries." I don't think many people would consider 1 night to be "extended time".

 

[R1TruKaLa]

?

 

[0ut0fenergy]

https://seatow.com/

As an owner, I agree this shouldn't really be a Rivian problem to solve. If you run it "dead", a 12v jump should make you able to charge, probably L2 then DCFC at higher rate. But tell people that in the manual.

As a shareholder, limit this to Rivian support and charge through the nose. If you've got that vessel, you can afford it.

Ignorant comments like this is why EV adoption is dead. Let alone for a "premium" nonluxury vehicle? This is pathetic. You keep saying "because I'm a whiny shareholder ". It is not going to help if the product and service I'd absolute garbage.

 

[Riviot]

Ignorant comments like this is why EV adoption is dead. Let alone for a "premium" nonluxury vehicle? This is pathetic. You keep saying "because I'm a whiny shareholder ". It is not going to help if the product and service I'd absolute garbage.

Someone must be having trouble with his Ford Tesla. Welcome to the forums! Poke around, get to know the place, and check back in. I'll be sure to /s just for you next time.

 

[Denver_Paulie]

Man, after reading the comments on this thread, remind me to keep any potential Rivian issues to myself!! Especially the self inflicted ones!

 

[0ut0fenergy]

Someone must be having trouble with his Ford Tesla. Welcome to the forums! Poke around, get to know the place, and check back in. I'll be sure to /s just for you next time.

You know what they say about assumptions. Zero problems with my teslas aside from cosmetic things. Nothing to do with trip stopping or catastrophic failures like battery or drive train. Same with my Ford Raptor R.

 

[emoore]

Ignorant comments like this is why EV adoption is dead. Let alone for a "premium" nonluxury vehicle? This is pathetic. You keep saying "because I'm a whiny shareholder ". It is not going to help if the product and service I'd absolute garbage.

Hmmmm EV adoption is dead? I don’t think so.

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