Gen 2 R1S battery expectations

[Etrain91]

I’m a new 2nd gen R1S owner. It’s great mostly minutes a few glitches but when I just drive 36 miles and it takes 70 miles off the charge is this normal? Granted I’m in Mn and it’s cold today but still. Almost double the actual mileage. So my 380 on a full charge is 200 in winter? I’d love to hear others on this. Seems like a battery issue.

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[krb1183]

Welcome! I also have a Gen2 R1S, i have the A/T package w/max pack for an EPA estimated 370 mile range. I'm in Huntsville but we've had a few colder snaps, where i have noticed a dramatic decrease in range. Last weekend i drove to family over by atlanta in 33-35 degree temps, and averaged 2mi/kwh, essentially what was a 146 mile journey took 200 miles off my range (left with 370 estimated, arrived with 169 estimated). It seems the battery likes to be above 60F, so i'm assuming the colder it is outside below that temp, the more the vehicle needs to use electricity to keep it above 60F. My trip back it was 55-58F the whole way, and i averaged 2.5mi/kwh, hitting close to my EPA range. Take that for what it's worth, I don't think it's your battery, think it depends how cold it was outside! All the best!

 

[mpshizzle]

I’m a new 2nd gen R1S owner. It’s great mostly minutes a few glitches but when I just drive 36 miles and it takes 70 miles off the charge is this normal? Granted I’m in Mn and it’s cold today but still. Almost double the actual mileage. So my 380 on a full charge is 200 in winter? I’d love to hear others on this. Seems like a battery issue.

Welcome! Hope you enjoy your new vehicle! I sure enjoy mine!!

So a couple of tips - do not rely on the estimated range shown on the driver's display. That's an overly-optimistic EPA number that is impossible to achieve. You'd have to average close to 3 mi/kwh to get that. For a more realistic range estimate, plug a destination into the nav. That will give you a better idea of how much you'll consume for a given trip

Range definitely IS affected by winter temps. I find that anything below 50 will start to cut into range. A great way to mitigate the effects of this is to warm up the vehicle while it's still plugged in. The heater consumes MUCH less energy once everything is warmed. up. You'll feel the range hit the most if you're taking many short trips, as you'll constantly be in that initial "warming up" phase.

Speed can also affect range in a big way. If you're going 40-50 MPH, you're more likely to get closer to 3 mi/kwh (EPA rated range). If you're going 80 mph you'll see 2.3-2.5 mi/kwh in warm weather. For me, driving in Utah (30ish degree weather, 80MPH freeway speeds, and lots of elevation changes) it's pretty much a worse case scenario for range. In these conditions I'm getting around 2ish mi/kwh (about 2/3 of the EPA rated range). Hope this helps!

 

[mpshizzle]

I would expect 1.6 to no more than 2.2 mi/kWh in freezing temperature. The Rivian is especially inefficient in the cold and inclement weather.

Woof - 1.6!??? I've never seen lower than 1.8 on mine, and I've been driving 80mph in 25 degree weather with elevation changes. Usually it's closer to 1.9 - 2 in those conditions. What wheels do you have?

 

[Taco Corp]

Woof - 1.6!??? I've never seen lower than 1.8 on mine, and I've been driving 80mph in 25 degree weather with elevation changes. Usually it's closer to 1.9 - 2 in those conditions. What wheels do you have?

The worst I've seen with the 2022 R1T was just above 1.0 miles/KWh but that was on a very cold morning ~20 degrees in Ashland and driving up and over Mt. Ashland/Siskiyous where it was even colder and down into California.

Curious to see how that compares with the Gen2 next week, I've been seeing 2.0 or better so far on the freeway, but that's been in 40-50-degree weather.

 

[mpshizzle]

The worst I've seen with the 2022 R1T was just above 1.0 miles/KWh but that was on a very cold morning ~20 degrees in Ashland and driving up and over Mt. Ashland/Siskiyous where it was even colder and down into California.

Curious to see how that compares with the Gen2 next week, I've been seeing 2.0 or better so far on the freeway, but that's been in 40-50-degree weather.

Yeah I have been pretty happy with the heat pump's effeciency. Cold is till cold, but not bad given the temps. But I also don't really have a point of comparison with Gen 1. I. have a buddy with a gen 1 I wanna do some comparison testing with.

 

[Taco Corp]

Yeah I have been pretty happy with the heat pump's effeciency. Cold is till cold, but not bad given the temps. But I also don't really have a point of comparison with Gen 1. I. have a buddy with a gen 1 I wanna do some comparison testing with.

I'm a month in on the Gen2 R1S, and so far, the heat pump definitely seems to be better than the Gen1 heater. Now if only they would get the climate schedule working so I don't freeze when I forget to pre-heat in the mornings.

 

[mpshizzle]

I'm a month in on the Gen2 R1S, and so far, the heat pump definitely seems to be better than the Gen1 heater. Now if only they would get the climate schedule working so I don't freeze when I forget to pre-heat in the mornings.

I was all excited to use the home assistant integration to take care of this for me.... until I found that it won't pair with gen 2

 

[krb1183]

I was all excited to use the home assistant integration to take care of this for me.... until I found that it won't pair with gen 2

Bummer!

 

[diggy]

I’m a new 2nd gen R1S owner. It’s great mostly minutes a few glitches but when I just drive 36 miles and it takes 70 miles off the charge is this normal? Granted I’m in Mn and it’s cold today but still. Almost double the actual mileage. So my 380 on a full charge is 200 in winter? I’d love to hear others on this. Seems like a battery issue.

Fellow Minnesotan here. I got 1.37 mi/kwh on my drive home tonight (0 degrees out). Only disappointment I have with the truck so far. 2025 R1s, 22 inch wheels, Dual Performance Max.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

I’m a new 2nd gen R1S owner. It’s great mostly minutes a few glitches but when I just drive 36 miles and it takes 70 miles off the charge is this normal? Granted I’m in Mn and it’s cold today but still. Almost double the actual mileage. So my 380 on a full charge is 200 in winter? I’d love to hear others on this. Seems like a battery issue.

EPA's range figures are theoretical maximums based on testing done at particular operating conditions, i.e. not reflective of vastly varied real world conditions (climate, elevation, terrain, weather, road surface/condition, etc.).

If you have standard pack, the battery chemistry LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate). If you have large or max pack, the battery chemistry is NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt, another type of Lithium-Ion battery). Cold temps can affect battery capacity and performance, it's normal—recall your high school chemistry class, and lesson on chemical reactions and ideal temperatures.

If you have LFP, Rivian recommends that you charge to 100% from time to time, to aid with calibration and calculation of range estimates. Additional things to know and keep in mind:

If you have NMC, things to know and keep in mind:

 

[DayTripping]

I’m a new 2nd gen R1S owner. It’s great mostly minutes a few glitches but when I just drive 36 miles and it takes 70 miles off the charge is this normal? Granted I’m in Mn and it’s cold today but still. Almost double the actual mileage. So my 380 on a full charge is 200 in winter? I’d love to hear others on this. Seems like a battery issue.

Not a battery issues. I lived in MPLS and the cold just kills the efficiency of EVs. Pre condition the truck as much as you can. While you have a heat pump, they aren't much more efficient in very cold weather like Minneapolis has than the alternatives. Their sweet spot is about 20-80F. Below about 20F, they are marginally more efficient and above about 80F, the are actually less efficient than traditional AC. See a good article linked below.

As others have said, you can't trust the range display except for when you see what it says when you have a destination plugged in and it shows you the estimated range at arrival. Reset your trip meter and see what it is reading.

If charging, set up your charging to continue right up until you leave. This will help warm the pack up the most. It's the same thing for preconditioning the cockpit before departure, even if you can just start it 10 minutes before leaving. Try and do all the heating while you can on shore power (i.e. plugged in). Once the vehicle cold soaks, you are SOL. It is going to take a lot of energy getting everything back up to temp.

I had a Prius that in MPLS summers would get me 50+ mpg. In the winter, I was in the 25-30 range. At least until I got a good oil pan heater. That helped out a lot. Obviously park in garages as much as possible. Even in Texas now, my first few miles even in the fall, are at a much lower efficiency until everything comes up to temp such as the batteries and motors. The batteries tend to be happy at 70-90F.

In the meantime, make sure to keep a higher charge level to be safe but not over 80% unless you need the range. Assuming you don't have a std. size battery pack. High charge levels are hard on the battery pack. In the extreme cold they are more tolerant of it. I keep my EVs at 50-55% SoC (state of charge) in the summer and run at 65% when close to freezing. I've had minimal degradation across 5 Teslas so far. High temps and high SoC is the kiss of death for lithium ion battery packs.

Also keep in mind that the LED headlight of the Rivian don't have much heat so easy to frost over the lenses.

Enjoy your new truck and welcome to the forum!


https://www.itbgroup.com/blog/2023/02-battery-electric-vehicle-heat-pump-system-value

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I've never seen lower than 1.8 on mine

Haha. Just sharing again because I had the pictures handy. You guys must not spend a lot of time in traffic. An example of a typical road near my house. It'll hit 1.0 and keep dropping, if I sit long enough. ??

And again, I hate all of you who get to do fun things like go camping and off-roading while I sit in this hellscape of Northern Virginia traffic. ?

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Haha. Just sharing again because I had the pictures handy. You guys must not spend a lot of time in traffic. An example of a typical road near my house. It'll hit 1.0 and keep dropping, if I sit long enough. ??

And again, I hate all of you who get to do fun things like go camping and off-roading while I sit in this hellscape of Northern Virginia traffic. ?

SoCal isn’t much better. Routinely take 45 minutes to cover 15 miles. Strange to think this, I miss the open roads during lockdown.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I miss the open roads during lockdown.

Oh, absolutely. Same.

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