How low can you go (remaining range)?

[10Blade]

Tried a number of search queries without luck. On the return leg of a recent (our first) road trip my R1S told me I had 42 miles of range when I was 30 miles from home. As it was my first venture into such a low SOC, I made a quick stop to ‘top off’. My question is in the title of the post: how low can one go? Could I have gotten home and what if anything happens when one gets very, very low on ‘gas’ (PLEASE forgive the metaphor)?

Peace

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[Dark-Fx]

The vehicle starts to pull back power once the battery starts getting low. My experience is that at 4%, my vehicle won't have enough power to maintain 80 mph anymore. Supposedly it will just continue to get worse until you're barely able drive at a crawl anymore.

 

[jjswan33]

I have run mine down to a few miles before. There are enough 'influencers' that have run them to zero if you search Youtube, should give you a pretty good idea of what happens.

 

[TheWoo]

Tried a number of search queries without luck. On the return leg of a recent (our first) road trip my R1S told me I had 42 miles of range when I was 30 miles from home. As it was my first venture into such a low SOC, I made a quick stop to ‘top off’. My question is in the title of the post: how low can one go? Could I have gotten home and what if anything happens when one gets very, very low on ‘gas’ (PLEASE forgive the metaphor)?

Peace

You'd have made it. At that range I'd have monitored my speed and been easy on the accelerator, but would have had no qualms about making it.

We're new to the R1T world, but I've arrived home with single-digit miles left in my Lightning multiple times. The puckering becomes less intense after you've done it a few times.

 

[OUTAGAS]

If I was 30 miles from home with a 12 mile buffer, I would have driven home. 36,000 miles on mine now.

 

[BeanEW]

I had my R1S, not by choice, ran down to 0% 0 mile and still went 4.5 miles down hill. ?

 

[ThumprMN]

There are some videos on YouTube by “OutOfSpec” that take various EV trucks don to 0 to see how far they actually go and whats in the buffer.. Lots to consider with Temp, speed, and elevation..etc… but they show how the Rivian does have some buffer close to 0% and there is a “turtle mode” once you get close enough to “dead”.

 

[madhat]

I’ve seen as low as 24mi remaining and I was still able to drive surface street speeds.
In your case I probably would have been very gentle on throttle and turned off AC.

 

[Wojo]

Tried a number of search queries without luck. On the return leg of a recent (our first) road trip my R1S told me I had 42 miles of range when I was 30 miles from home. As it was my first venture into such a low SOC, I made a quick stop to ‘top off’. My question is in the title of the post: how low can one go? Could I have gotten home and what if anything happens when one gets very, very low on ‘gas’ (PLEASE forgive the metaphor)?

Peace

This past March my wife and I were taking our son to visit a college campus in north central Vermont. From our home in Connecticut it should have been about 500 miles round trip. We left home with about 92% charge on my 2022 R1T quad. Navigation had me stop in Holyoke, Ma. at a Rivian charging facility on the side of a Borders Bookstore. I went from roughly 52% to 85% in about 20 minutes. Very nice chargers but too expensive. Back on I-91 into Vermont traffic was light, so 65-70 mph was a good speed. Gradually climbing in elevation the entire trip north. A 20 mile short trip into New Hampshire to pick up some small piece of tax free equipment, and then back on the road. Navigation was now directing me to a Electrify America charger in West Lebanon, N.H.. I probably had 60% charge on the truck and should have just gone straight to the hotel in Berlin, Vt. It was only about 70 miles N-NW on I-89. Of the 4 EA chargers, only 3 were functional and all occupied. 2 of the vehicles were unoccupied and the third had just started to charge. Screw-it! I got back on the highway and listened to the navigation for at least 20 miles giving me directions to go back to that charger in N.H.. Eventually it gave up and started to direct me to the next charger heading north. It was now about 7:30 pm and the temperature was in the 20's but dropping fast. After changing the filters for the type of charger we wanted, the navigation directed us to a non-existent charger about 3 exits further north. That little excursion wasted easily 10-15 miles. We were now down to about 20% range, and the miles to the hotel were very close to what we had left for range. Back on the highway 2 more exits it was directing us to a Charge-point charger. With 10% charge left we pulled into a gas station that also had 2 chargers. Only 1 DC fast charger, but it was open. I swiped my wallet and plugged in. It started to initiate, but then shut down. I calmly tried this again, 3 more times. Nothing seemed to work. I have not had any issues with Charge-point in the past. Well, back on the highway. From 10% down to zero seemed to go very fast. At 2 or 3% I started to pull to the shoulder and call for roadside assistance. My wife said "No, Keep going". Only three more exits to the hotel, but the college we were going to visit the next day was only 2 exits, and I remember seeing level 2 chargers in one of their parking lots. We drove for at least 15 miles after hitting zero. We turned off everything we could to save juice. We made it to the campus parking lot and plugged in to the level 2 charger. It took what seemed to be a very long time before anything registered as positive % or range. We charged for about an hour and had 15 miles range on the meter. Back out on the highway and north for 1 more exit. We pulled in to the charger at the hotel with 1 mile of range on the meter. This was a Flo brand charger which I had not heard of. Had to go through all of the crap to download the app and register a credit card with them. It was now 19 degrees and 10:30 pm. Right next to the Flo charger were 10 or 12 Tesla superchargers, all available.There has to be a better way. I am looking forward to getting the Tesla adapter because we all know that charging network is superior to anything else out-there. I truly does suck that Elon is charging close to $.50/KWH for non-Tesla vehicles.

 

[NY_Rob]

^ one word my friend... paragraphs!

 

[NY_Rob]

I had my R1S, not by choice, ran down to 0% 0 mile and still went 4.5 miles down hill. ?

A friend tried that with his Bolt... but no downhill in his case. He ended up getting towed less than a mile to his house

 

[Dave Cundiff]

Our 2019 Bolt starts warning us when the battery reaches about 15% of nominal capacity. It gets REALLY obnoxious -- flashing dashboard, throttled-down accelerator -- around 7%. I presume our 2023 Bolt would do the same thing, but I never tried it.

I feel for anyone who takes a Bolt down to 0%. Their situation is different from mine....

 

[electruck]

YMMV. Literally. 30 miles uphill at 80 mph in the rain with a headwind and that 42 miles of range might not get you home.

 

[10Blade]

YMMV. Literally. 30 miles uphill at 80 mph in the rain with a headwind and that 42 miles of range might not get you home.

LOL. It was going 80+ mph headed west toward San Diego (roughly sea level to 4200 feet) that got me into trouble in the 1st place. I neglected to remember that the mileage estimate I got from my charge in Yuma (one that ‘estimated’ I’d be home in San Diego with 60+ miles to spare) did NOT account for pushing the aerodynamic equivalent of a brick at 80 mph uphill. Well…it WAS our first road trip with the beast. Live & learn (and pay close attention to the admonitions on this forum!!)

 

[superfly_snook]

I went as low as 7 miles of remaining range on a trip back to San Diego from Mammoth. Like others here I think you would have been ok. Backing off a few mph also helps in those situations - at least in my case dropping down to something like 73mph makes a pretty noticeable difference.

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