Purchase hesitancy

[Hayseed_MS]

I have 2.5yrs and 105k miles road tripping in a Tesla S - so slightly different than your situation. Had massive range anxiety at first but settled quickly when I saw the reality of the trips. How many chargers and the car's direction. The stops are not bad at all - you can leave the car and go do your stuff - unlike an ICE vehicle. Now, I could not imagine roadtrippin' in a non-EV.

Looking at trading this one in for another S or the R1S in the next couple months. Will not go Rivian until the Tesla SC's are open to Rivian.

Also, keep in mind that if you camp, depending on how/where, you can plug in at the site and charge while sleeping.

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[dduffey]

Joe, we still tow our 3000lb camper with our lifted Model Y, rather than the R1T due to the supercharger network. The Model Y AWD is also not that bad of a camping vehicle (although suspension is a bit stiff).

We look forward to using our R1T for longer trips once the network improves (every out of town trip we have made in the R1T that required a charge where really poor experiences).

That said, I suggest you think about what would happen if the Rivian didn't work out? Could you keep the RAV4 for awhile until the NACS rollout (as an early VIN I kept my Model 3 for six months in case there were new company/car issues). Could you take the hit on reselling and/or buying something else that works?

If the answer to those are "Yes" and you could easily back out, I would say go for the adventure!

Guides and SCs will be hit or miss. Personally I had four different guides but never really interacted with any except during purchase. My local service center is has been awesome, way better than the Tesla service center.

I suspect in general Rivian SC is better than Tesla SC as the company ethos are driven "top down". When our SC opened, they had an experienced lead from another SC move in for awhile to help make sure the SC experience is consistent.

 

[Redline]

I haven't done cross country road trips in the R1S, but we've done 6-8 hour trips a few times. With CCS it takes a bit more work, with Plug Share as your best friend, to make sure chargers are up and to pick the best path with ABRP.

Those things are rapidly changing. As soon as we get access to Tesla's network, the thinking will basically go away. If you can charge at home with a lvl 2, really, I think you should go for it!

 

[Cycliste]

My range limitation is my body’s fatigue level while driving. After about 90 minutes, I need a break, and charging on a road trip fits perfectly by giving me an opportunity to get out, stretch my legs, etc. I'm way less fatigued driving my truck at the end of the day on a road trip

I’ve really enjoyed ‘relearning’ to drive which is actually relearning to refuel with electricity instead of a liquid fuel.

What kind of camping do you do?

Fellow 66 year old

 

[BigSkies]

A big thing with longer trips is what your expectations are. I’ve done road trips with kids, and it’s fine. We typically do 500-700 miles in a day. That gives us a modestly long day with some stops for the kids to get out while charging.

I’ll commonly break out the induction cooktop to make a nice lunch while doing a longer charging stop. It’s superior to relying on fast food.

I think EV road trips are just fine if your expectations are somewhat similar to mine. I think you’ll be deeply frustrated if you’re the type of person that tries to make 1,000+ miles per day.

The vehicle is amazing for camping.

The biggest part of the learning curve is figuring out the fast charging networks. It’s different, but it’s not a huge deal. Try out all of the different networks you can in your local area before any long roadtrips. Maybe start with a localish 1-2 day road trip just to get used to the process and the time involved.

 

[Golfer04]

Based on your concerns about range and charging an EV might not be for you. EVs are not easy to road trip with either. I think a plug in hybrid might be the best bet for you and give you more peace of mind about being environmentally friendly.

All that being said the R1 is an insanely fun and capable vehicle so from that point of view it’s worth having.

I think for people who are afraid of EV the PHEV makes sense, but once you have owned an EV don't get one. We just traded my wife's RX 450h for a BMW X5 50e because she can almost make it to work and back every day on electric. Big mistake. Even if dcfc was readily available the plug won't take it, and every time she goes somewhere she uses at least half the battery. Then 3 hrs to recharge so you can go another 35 miles. I told her let's just get a model X. We should have done that or just stayed regular hybrid?.

 

[Rividiculous]

I’ll commonly break out the induction cooktop to make a nice lunch while doing a longer charging stop. It’s superior to relying on fast food.

Hey, that’s interesting! What induction cook top do you have an how does your set up work? With a Rivian in my future and 2 little fellow travelers, I’d love to know more about how you roll.

 

[Cycliste]

https://blackstoneproducts.com/collections/griddles/products/17-electric-tabletop-griddle

https://23zero.com/product/dual-swag-1100-king-single/

https://ignik.com/products/topside-heated-blanket
with a 1 kWh external battery bank

and my backpacking equipment

 

[SANZC02]

Thanks for the helpful responses. I'll have a home charger so no worries there. I drive from Ohio to CA and FL quite often, camping in between. I think I'll probably go ahead and just plan on reading more books while charging. Retired and not in a hurry. I'll hand on to that RAV 4 with 180K. I feel more comfortable after your comments.

You may be surprised how little reading time you will have while charging. In my road trips, by the time I use the restroom, grab a snack or meal and check the next leg of my trip usually only end up waiting around 5ish minutes or so.

If you plan the trip to stay in the 20% to 75% range of the battery most of the time charging is not bad.

Once the Superchargers are open to other vehicles that will be pretty easy to do.

 

[BigSkies]

Hey, that’s interesting! What induction cook top do you have an how does your set up work? With a Rivian in my future and 2 little fellow travelers, I’d love to know more about how you roll.

I went with the Cooktron 2-burner cooktop with griddle. It's rated at 1,800W vs Rivian's capacity of 1,500W. But I've used it multiple times without issue. Dual-burner is a tradeoff vs. single burner, as you're splitting a limited amount of power between two burners. It doesn't get as hot as a single burner would. But it gives you more flexibility.

I prefer dual burner because my impatient self is less likely to burn something. You'll want some type of mat/splatter guard if you're cooking something greasy like hamburgers.

Here's lunch in Salina Utah on my Christmas road trip between Denver and Los Angeles. No more paying $6 for a "cheap" kids grilled cheese!

 

[defcon888]

I was notified that it is time to start the purchase process. I have mixed feelings. I currently share a Volvo XC40 with my wife. On my long range travel for volunteer work and adventure travel I currently use my RAV4 hybrid and am very happy with it. Do a lot of camping. I'm 66yrs old and a bit intimidated with the learning curve with all the technology. I did two test drives and felt comfortable. I have the options I want but am disappointed in the range expectations and speed of charge. Mainly I'm disappointed that I have only been able to talk to a guide one time and only got two emails responded to. Is this a hint that service or future advice will be difficult? Should I just stick with my hybrid? I'm not craving the "best SUV EV". Just care about the environmental benefits of EVs.

You sound exactly like my wife and I about a year ago.

We had a Volvo XC40 Recharge for about 10 months....it was a nightmare of an experience. Within 2 months of having it, they had to replace the tCAM twice. One time the car died on me...luckily I was at work. The dealer closest to me couldn't work on it for a week or so. I contact our dealer and they said to bring it in. I was able to drive it in SOS mode. We actually sold it back to the dealer before we got our R1T.

We also have a RAV4 Prime and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I use to drive that to work before we got the Volvo and now we have the R1T, my wife drives the RAV4 Prime. She only goes into town a few days a week and we get 45 miles on battery. Driving in hybrid mode, we get about 55mpg.....we only fill it up about 1 time a month.

I would recommend going on youtube and watching "Out of Spec. Reviews" or "State of Charge". Those are my go-to EV channels. I am going to be 60 this year and at first I was intimidated but the more you drive it and the more you learn about it, those fears will go away.

There is this forum that will answer questions as well as a few Rivian Facebook groups. I get the range anxiety but at 90% charge, I can get about a good 250 miles (at 70mph) in all-purpose mode. In CONSERVE mode I can get 300 miles. We have the QUAD motor and the dual motor gets better mileage from what I see. Download the ABRP (A Better Route Planner......Rivian bought them a year ago and has integrated a lot into the nav system) and an absolute MUST is the PLUG-SHARE app. I use the webpage version and that has helped me plan the road trip we took to Disneyland (from Northern California). It was about 600 miles one way and made 3 charging stops. We could have gotten away with 2, but since it was our first trip like that, we decided to charge 1 more time since the R1T was going to sit for a few days.

We charge at home 90% of the time, the other 10% is at my work (for free).

We had issues with our guide as well. Call them up and ask to talk with the supervisor or manager. If you know your service center, call and talk with that manager.....they will be able to help.

 

[dleepnw]

Huh? All three of our EVs are super easy and fast to road trip with. Of course, they are all Model 3s with Supercharger access. It makes all the difference in the world, my typical charge stop is between 10 and 17 minutes, the car is almost always ready to hit the road before I am (and I tend to skip every other Supercharger, sometimes hitting only every third Supercharger.

The only questions for a potential Rivian buyer is how many Superchargers (and which ones) will Tesla open up to non-Tesla? And how fast will they charge through the adapter for Superchargers?

have you road-tripped with the R1? yes, the hope is it'll improve with SC access but its still not an easy trip. i recently did a round trip from Seattle to LA in my R1T. 8 stops each way, anywhere from 20-60min per stop (some of it charging time, some of it trying to find a fast or available charger). some with RAN, some with 3rd party chargers. not easy.

 

[dleepnw]

I think for people who are afraid of EV the PHEV makes sense, but once you have owned an EV don't get one. We just traded my wife's RX 450h for a BMW X5 50e because she can almost make it to work and back every day on electric. Big mistake. Even if dcfc was readily available the plug won't take it, and every time she goes somewhere she uses at least half the battery. Then 3 hrs to recharge so you can go another 35 miles. I told her let's just get a model X. We should have done that or just stayed regular hybrid?.

yeah, depends on your use case and battery size. PHEV is awesome if you drive less than 35-40 miles a day. but to counter your use case, its not like she would have been DOA, she could have just used gas to keep driving, no? im a bit confused why she had to stop to charge for 3 hours.

 

[Golfer04]

yeah, depends on your use case and battery size. PHEV is awesome if you drive less than 35-40 miles a day. but to counter your use case, its not like she would have been DOA, she could have just used gas to keep driving, no? im a bit confused why she had to stop to charge for 3 hours.

You don't know my wife. She doesn't want to use gas. Hence my original thought on buying the Tesla.?.

PHEVs are the worst of both worlds. They are inefficient EVs because you are carrying around ICE equipment and they are inefficient ICE vehicles because you are carrying the EV battery & motor. When in "hybrid" mode the X5 burns the battery to zero then recharges the battery to one percent, and runs as a traditional hybrid. Problem is you only get around 25 mpg doing so compared to the 30 the Lexus pure hybrid got. To each his own on it. My buddies Grand Cherokee phev only goes 20 miles. Not sure I would bother at that point.

 

[Hillbilly]

TBH I enjoy the breaks when I have to stop and charge on a trip. I’m not 21 anymore, trying to get to Vegas without spending money on a hotel. I will read, or check my work messages or stream a show while I’m waiting. Or sometimes I just sit on the tailgate and get some fresh air. And you will meet some cool people who also love EVs

Or meet assholes like me. It's a mixed bag really.

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