Hail Rivian!

[doremi]

A few months ago I was agonizing over my R2 reservation. My purchase preference has always been as a car buyer, not lessee. As such I really needed to depend on the tax credit, which will likely disappear this year. Long story short, for a host of reasons I decided to get into a 2025 Cadillac Lyriq. My wife and I are thrilled with the car, very comfortable and smooth ride, good range, no hiccups so far, which brings me back to how so impressed I am with Rivian.

I just returned from a weekend trip to a cabin in a state park in Tennessee, Tim's Ford State park. Lovely place, lots of trails, fishing, boating, biking, camping, etc. It is however a bit in the middle of nowhere (no Internet, slow cell service only outside at the higher elevations in the park, nearest DC fast charger is about 30 miles away.

When we arrived at the visitor center to check in to my surprise prominently in the front row of parking places were 2 Rivian (probably level 2) chargers. Upon further inspection (was very difficult to see the screens due to sun glare) I noticed the word "Free" on each screen. This was verified by the Ranger on duty and he also verified that several state parks in Tennessee are similarly equipped. What a great thing for Rivian to do. Sadly I did not think to take a picture, but be assured that if you are ever at Tim's Ford State Park you will be able to get some electrons free of charge courtesy of Rivian.

Hail Rivian!!

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[Great Gatsby]

One of the reasons I used to justify the purchase of my Rivian was the free charging at the state parks! I saw that while doing my research and thought it was a nice gesture and a company standing behind its ethics. My wife is not much of an outdoorsy type, but I have persuaded her with the excuse of free Rivian charging to take a day trip to nearby state parks. Really cool to go on a hike and then come back to a decently charged vehicle!

 

[DeafPug]

You came across the Rivian "Waypoints Network". You can see the locations of these by filtering the map on either the main display in the vehicle or on the smartphone app to show just stations that have a speed of 1-50 kW and are on the Rivian network. Placing these L2 stations at trailheads for state parks really matches with the ethos for Rivian to get out and enjoy nature. By installing a handful of slower L2 stations at trailheads, the load on the grid (especially at these remote locations) is minimal and you can enjoy a several hour hike without needing to run back to your vehicle to unplug.

 

[Patrick87]

I've charged at that very state park before! Every TN state park has two of them. And we have a ton of state parks, to boot. There's 5-6 parks within an hour drive of my house.

I have to say, though, the campgrounds in Georgia's state parks are nicer than ours. I've stayed in GA twice and came home thinking that TN needs to hire whoever is in charge of GA's campgrounds...

 

[doremi]

I've charged at that very state park before! Every TN state park has two of them. And we have a ton of state parks, to boot. There's 5-6 parks within an hour drive of my house.

I have to say, though, the campgrounds in Georgia's state parks are nicer than ours. I've stayed in GA twice and came home thinking that TN needs to hire whoever is in charge of GA's campgrounds...

Indeed some of the north Georgia state park campgrounds are very nice. Unfortunately for us, a waterfall accident near one of those state parks in 2021 forced us to make a difficult decision about our travel adventures so we ended up selling our RV. State park trips are now done in cabins and we are there mostly to interact with kids and grandkids. We went electric from a fully loaded Buick Enclave, a very comfortable ride but we found we no longer needed three rows and the extra storage.

We wanted something as or more comfortable than the Enclave, and once we drove the Lyriq we were sold. We will check out the R2 once it arrives at showrooms. We have a pretty good one in Atlanta.

 

[doremi]

No expectations here, I think the ethos is different. Our road trips are nearly always between Nashville, Atlanta (home), and south Florida. So far the overall charging network has been stellar. I can charge at most Tesla Superchargers and so far the EvGo (GM) and Mercedes networks are in just the right places for us. Plug and Charge is amazing1 So far so good.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Yosemite is a prime example, Rivian supplied the chargers and I believe the installation, while the Yosemite Conservancy picks up the energy costs (Assuming). Regardless when I was there a year ago, I had other random owners of other EV brands, Tesla, Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, all giving me the thumbs up like I had some involvement. I laughed at a couple and said "I didn't do anything" They came up and just thought it was so cool that not only was a company genuinely supporting these stations, but they weren't locked to their brand. Several walked away genuinely considering purchasing a Rivian just because of that, which I thought was pretty cool.

 

[COdogman]

I thought this was going to be a thread about hail damage

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