Out Of Spec Motoring Recent Video -- numerous issues with charging

[Pacernow]

All,

Saw Kyle's most recent video on YouTube of the trip that Alyssa, Walter and Kyle made in their 22 R1T Launch Edition from Colorado to North Carolina. The video is one 1:28:00 in length. During this video they had numerous issues with charging because of thermal issues with the battery of the R1T, charger or the cord. Is this normal to have these problems with charging a R1T? This could be frustrating to deal with.
My wife suggested that Kyle take all of the snippets and out takes of Walter that occurred on this trip and make a separate video just of Walter.

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[SoCal Rob]

I have a Gen1 QM R1S, not an R1T but should be the same as Kyle’s R1T as far as charging is concerned. I’ve fast charged in the desert at temps between 100°F up to 108°F and in direct sunlight at least a dozen times this year with no thermal issues from the truck. It sounds like there is something wrong with his truck.
edit:clarification

 

[jjswan33]

First off generally if you want to ask something about a video you should add a link.

Secondly Kyle has been complaining about thermals on his truck and DCFC since he got it. It's no where as bad as he claims. At least in my experience.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Watched both part 1 and 2.

Yes and no. I'm hot off a road trip from Vancouver BC to Yosemite and back, temperatures in Yosemite were around 35c/100F charging was decent at all DCFC's with the exception of a few superchargers which derated charge speed due to handle temps.

Personally, I think the Rivians HVAC is good, but not up to the job of dealing with high user demand and high battery demand. I'll explain, Walter is a big fluffy dog, and running the AC full blast the entire trip meant the battery cooling performance was slightly sacrificed enroute to chargers, Then sitting at the DCFC's with pet mode running, batteries getting 500amps dumped on them as well somethings gotta give, and unfortunately it's charging performance.

AC performance has been talked about here often, it's fantastic provided the battery isn't piping hot and trying to cool itself. Those instances are quite rare, but what Kyle did on his trip was exactly what causes this issue.

I noticed during the trip, preconditioning would sometimes cool the battery to 24c from 40c and then slowly raise it to 26-30c upon arrival at a charger. I think that strategy is meant to combat any hot spots within the pack and let them naturally "cold soak" and then bring the pack up to optimal temp at the charger.

I think Rivian needs to be slightly more aggressive in cooling the battery on charging rather than waiting for it to hit its upper limit before turning on the AC turbocharger. But I think the last time they did that via an update, people complained it was too loud, so they dumbed it down.

Long story short, we had little to no issues on our trip with derating and averaged around 10+ hours of driving per day. I will say, canopies would be a good way to reduce thermal load not only on vehicles in California sun, but also the chargers and their black cables/handles as well.

Edit* missed part of a sentence.

 

[DuoRivians]

I haven’t had these issues that Kyle keeps talking about

 

[Pacernow]

All,

Thank you for your responses.

 

[zefram47]

Honestly, watching some of his recent videos and part 1 of this trip, I think there's something off about his truck. Even on a recent trip where I towed about 4700 lbs 1000 miles round-trip I didn't see thermal issues to the degree Kyle has. Is it an issue...yes. But at least on my Feb 2023 built truck with 25k miles it's not nearly as bad as what he's been seeing.

 

[CDC_73]

I have ~35K miles and have fast charged in the CA/AZ desert many times.

I would guess Kyle has some thermal issue in the pack, one of the modules gets too hot. I feel like he actually had proved that at one point.

The only time I have seen a temp derate was on a Tesla charger in San Luis Obispo where I didn't use the wet rag hack.

 

[Pacernow]

zefram47 and cdc_73,

Thank you for your comments.

 

[dleepnw]

All,

Saw Kyle's most recent video on YouTube of the trip that Alyssa, Walter and Kyle made in their 22 R1T Launch Edition from Colorado to North Carolina. The video is one 1:28:00 in length. During this video they had numerous issues with charging because of thermal issues with the battery of the R1T, charger or the cord. Is this normal to have these problems with charging a R1T? This could be frustrating to deal with.
My wife suggested that Kyle take all of the snippets and out takes of Walter that occurred on this trip and make a separate video just of Walter.

did a 2500 mile road trip in my QM R1T and had zero thermal issues with the battery while charging using DCFC the entire time. ive had issues with chargers not working or slowing down probably due to thermal issues but nothing related to the battery.

 

[COdogman]

I feel like Kyle has been whining about this long enough that by now he should have added a 4 hour video about how he scheduled a service visit and had Rivian check it.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Kyle has been complaining about thermals on his truck and DCFC since he got it. It's no where as bad as he claims. At least in my experience.

This is the right answer. All EV batteries get hot and throttle the charging to keep temps in check. I too have towed with mine long distance in hot July heat in the Southeast and thermals are fine...the truck will turn on fans and run AC at max under these conditions but its nothing that I would say affects the performance of the truck at all.

Assuming the charging equipment is in proper working order, the truck may reduce charging speeds temporarily when it gets too hot, then once the temps are back within the correct parameters it will resume charging at the faster speed. My experience when this happens, and it hasn't happened much, has been that it slows to about 70-100kw for a few mins. The affect on the overall charging session time is maybe 5 minutes worst case on say a 10% to 80% charge.

I haven't watched his video but I will say that if he is having issues with slow charging those issues are not inherent to all Rivian R1T or R1S vehicles. Its either a problem with his truck, a problem with the charging equipment (usually always the case), or both (unlikely).

 

[NC-Rivian]

I feel like Kyle has been whining about this long enough that by now he should have added a 4 hour video about how he scheduled a service visit and had Rivian check it.

Kyle has the unique ability to cram 20 minutes of substance into 100 minutes

 

[strykerwsu]

Agree with most of the sentiment. I live in midwest and well over a 100 quite a bit. Was just 92 on Sunday. At Tesla generally get about 33 KW in 10 minutes and 60 KW in 25 min when starting below 35%. That "half tank" feels pretty good to me compared to our Mach e and about same as Model 3.

Now I have had occasionally had to move stations at Tesla, RAN, or EA on crazy hot days. Not sure if truck or station but the new station starts charging quick right away again.

Do I wish we had 800v and Kia down low levels sure, but 3 min isn't that big of a deal to me.

 

[R1Tom]

I have not had any of the issues being reported.

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