Fast Road Trips with Max Pack?

[Lamp]

I have a gen 1 R1T with a large pack that I've owned for 2.5 years. We do alot of weekend road trips to go camping that are 3+ hours from home. The longer drive times with charging isn't terrible but is a little annoying. We also struggle with driving to remote places and will be anxious about having enough charge to last the weekend and get back to a charger. I'm considering upgrading to the Gen 2 Max pack R1T for that reason. Part of my logic is that road trips will be a decent amount quicker. On the way there we will probably trim our two charging stops down to one by leaving home with a 100% charge with the max battery. General road trip charging should be alot quicker too since a larger part of the battery will be charging in the faster charging range of 0-75% before the charging speed drops off. For example, I can charge quickly to 315 miles of range with the max pack(75% x 420) as opposed to 214 with the large pack (75% x 285).
Can you guys help check my logic on the faster road trip times?

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[kanundrum]

define quick?

you can probably gain from 10/20% to 75% in an hour

 

[2kwik4u]

Anyone have quick links to the charging curve differences between the G1 large packs and the G2 Max packs?

As best I can remember there is only a 10kWh difference between them (G1 Large = 131kWh, G2 Max = 141kWh). If that's the case I'm not sure how much time would be saved overall, however I can see the added sense of security being a nice benefit.

Plus getting a new vehicle is always fun.

 

[mpshizzle]

As @2kwik4u mentioned, Max pack is only 10 kWh bigger than gen 1 large. Not really enough to move the needle. So if that's your primary reason for wanting you upgrade, don't do it.


If the other improvements to gen 2 are meaningful, then it would make more sense. But the max battery is just too similar to gen 1 large to be the only factor imho


EDIT - Don't get tripped up by the EPA rating of 420.. that is NOT realistic at all.. you'd have to get close to 3mi/kWh to achieve that. In the real world, these trucks get closer to 2.5 on highway (2 if you're going over 80)

 

[Dave Cundiff]

I wouldn't count on charging speed increasing proportionately with battery size, @Lamp.

It seems logical that charging speed would increase at least somewhat, but I wouldn't count on that as a big advantage for the Max Pack.

The other considerations -- fewer charging stops (if you choose) and less range anxiety in remote areas -- appear solid to me. Reasonable justification for buying a Max, if you want one and can afford it.

***

Or you could wait until you get older, and want to make longer stops more frequently.

Our Gen1 Quad Large did fine on a cross-country road trip in 2024.

On virtually every DCFC stop, we received enough charge to get to the next stop by the time we were ready to leave the charging location.

***

Very best wishes!

 

[mudito]

I have a gen 1 R1T with a large pack that I've owned for 2.5 years. We do alot of weekend road trips to go camping that are 3+ hours from home. The longer drive times with charging isn't terrible but is a little annoying. We also struggle with driving to remote places and will be anxious about having enough charge to last the weekend and get back to a charger. I'm considering upgrading to the Gen 2 Max pack R1T for that reason. Part of my logic is that road trips will be a decent amount quicker. On the way there we will probably trim our two charging stops down to one by leaving home with a 100% charge with the max battery. General road trip charging should be alot quicker too since a larger part of the battery will be charging in the faster charging range of 0-75% before the charging speed drops off. For example, I can charge quickly to 315 miles of range with the max pack(75% x 420) as opposed to 214 with the large pack (75% x 285).
Can you guys help check my logic on the faster road trip times?

Seems like the Max Pack actually charges worse (slower) than the Gen1 Large Pack and It's only 10kWh more.

If you go for a Dual Motor Max, then you might get a bit further distance but loose on the power from the Quad. If you go for the tri-motor, I don't know honestly how much longer ACTUALLY you can go in between charges, but if it charges a bit worse as Kyle from OOS stated, then you'd be loosing time in longer road-trips/

 

[PaythePiper]

Charging speed factually sucks on Rivians compared to the competition. I got the max to alleviate more stops like your idea. It works, but your stops are a lot longer. I don’t like to charger hop, so we just bite the bullet.

 

[Andystroh]

Honestly I think it’s unlikely it will make a difference. I did so many calculations of trips I often take and which ones the max pack could do without charging but require charging on the large, and even at the original battery specs it was nowhere near helpful enough to be worth the time. Also keeping in mind that charger placement is a big component - if you need to charge at 25% battery because that’s where charging is available, that larger pack is not going to make a significant difference.

with how similar the pack sizes are now, I can not imagine it being worth the cost to upgrade for this reason.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I'd wait till Rivian starts selling 800V vehicles if charging speed is your only real complaint.

 

[mudito]

Charging speed factually sucks on Rivians compared to the competition. I got the max to alleviate more stops like your idea. It works, but your stops are a lot longer. I don’t like to charger hop, so we just bite the bullet.

In my last Road-trip (993 miles one way), I did a 5 to 60% charging stops strategy (I should admit that it was a 2 to 60% once, heavy right foot syndrome here) and I was really pleased with that.

It was a great mid-point of short(er) stops and good running times (~150miles per stint). 6 Stops total in those 993 miles with

Here are some of the charging sessions:

Basically ~25 mins average and I'm off for about 2:30hrs of driving. I found this to be the perfect balance


(edit: fixed the attachment)

 

[DayTripping]

Here is all the charging curve data you could ask for.

https://evkx.net/models/rivian/r1

Don't believe the range numbers as others have said. It isn't worth the upgrade for 99% of the use cases. I'd rather slap a 4kW generator on the back with a couple fuel cans and charge my large pack truck if I needed to, almost anywhere I can get some gas. I'm joking but a little serious too. It could be equivalent of a Rivian range extender when parked.

I actually had a friend in Russia carry one in the trunk of his Tesla (a smaller one) that was just enough for him to get through a bad section where they had limited power.

The whopping 7% larger pack likely isn't worth the upgrade. If you want a new truck, just buy the new truck. If I need an extra 7% of range, I'll just slow down 5 mph.

 

[iamnid]

As others have said, it's a 10kwh difference.

I'd plan the routes you plan to take in A Better Route Planner. Plan the routes both with your G1 Large battery and the G2 Max Pack. I think you'll see that you'll have more or less the same stops and very similar charging times.

I did something similar when buying my G2 R1S. I was comparing standard pack and the new (smaller) large pack. For most of my planned road trips there was little to no difference in number of stops and times at each stop -- so I saved myself a lot of money and got the standard pack.

The advantage of having a larger battery benefits you the most for the initial leg of your trip.

I've found ABRP to be very accurate in its estimates.

 

[Great Gatsby]

Not a Rivian, but perhaps look into the Lucid Gravity if that's an option? 800V and 200 miles+ advertised range in 12 minutes or so would be a game changer for roadtrips, not to mention 450 miles estimated range, that even if on the unrealistic end, would still mean 380ish in the real world.

 

[PaythePiper]

In my last Road-trip (993 miles one way), I did a 5 to 60% charging stops strategy (I should admit that it was a 2 to 60% once, heavy right foot syndrome here) and I was really pleased with that.

It was a great mid-point of short(er) stops and good running times (~150miles per stint). 6 Stops total in those 993 miles with

Here are some of the charging sessions:

Basically ~25 mins average and I'm off for about 2:30hrs of driving. I found this to be the perfect balance


(edit: fixed the attachment)

Excellent insight and I’m going to try this. On my Phx-SD trip I avoided one Tesla SC stop because it’s always a shit show there. I made it to Dateland with 10%. Not quite your balls of steel with 2% lol

 

[Lamp]

That really helps. I didn't realize the batteries were that close in size. Doesn't really seem worth it. After looking in to it more though it seems like the better efficiency of the gen 2 dual motor might make it worth it over the gen 1 quad motor. It seems like the dual motor gets a decent better efficiency.

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