Maine Rivian Club

Hello fellow Rivian owners, Colorado 2023 R1S owner here and our family with 2 young kids and a new puppy is contemplating a move to Maine (Portland metro area - Falmouth / Yarmouth / Scarborough) and would love any feedback about living there with EV (public charging limitations), raising family, education, and general lifestyle change. Thank you.

I moved from Durango, Colorado to Albuquerque, to Cumberland, Maine, and now live in Santa Fe.

EV infrastructure is good. We wanted to raise our kids in Maine, but ended up coming back west for a few reasons:

1) Sunshine. There’s just not enough of it in New England
2) Public Lands. We love to explore and camp off-grid. The options are very limited back east. You can go into the north maine woods, but it’s far from anything, range is an issue, and the bugs are AGGRESSIVE.
3) Weather, in general. Aside from the sunshine issue, the weather is just not super conducive to spending lots of time outside. Spring goes from being cold and raining to hot and humid pretty quickly. You’ll end up with a total of 3-6 weeks of fantastic weather at some point between June and September, but you’ll be fighting the mosquitos and ticks. Fall is nice. Then it starts snowing, and, unlike Colorado, that snow doesn’t melt until April.
4) EV-specific— electricity costs are HIGH. Our power bill averaged $1,300/mo to heat/cool our 3,500sqft house (mini-splits) and charge my R1T and wife’s Model Y

We’re not skiers, but have many friends who are. They all buy condos at Sugarloaf and drive the three hours up there for mediocre (compared to CO) skiing every weekend all winter.

Things we love about Maine:
1) Boating in the summer. We’re keeping our house in Maine to be able to go back for June and July and spend time on the water.
2) The food scene in Portland is great. (although it’s just as good here in Santa Fe)
3) Schools are strong. Yarmouth, Cumberland, Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth all have strong public schools. Our kids went to Waynflete and Breakwater— both were good.

Happy to answer any follow up questions if you have them. For us, though, we’re really happy to be back west.

@swhme

@swhme Hello; we life in Santa Fe and are contemplating an R1T. However, my partner needs to test drive it and, as you know, there are no dealers nearby. Is there any chance we might drive yours around the block?

Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I spent quite a bit of time in Durango on business previously and it’s beautiful down there.

You hit all the major things both pros and cons that we were thinking of. My wife who’s an architect is from upstate New York originally and understands what a slower pace of lifestyle is like and misses it. We were there this summer with kids and all of us absolutely loved it and seeing them be more free accelerated the timeline for us. We are planning to visit in the winter again and want to truly get a feel of living there before we decide.

I am surprised by the high cost of heating and electricity costs. Is it mainly from propane heating as non metro places are typically not connected to city’s natural gas lines or evenly split between gas and electricity? Would love to install solar and battery storage to offset some costs

@RIVN80210

@RIVN80210 we liked the idea of a slower pace, as well, but found that was only really the case when we vacationed there, not when we lived there. I think your pace follows you around ?

Most houses are heated with oil (which is just diesel). There are some newer subdivisions that are optimizing energy use, Solar Way in Yarmouth comes to mind. Electricity works out to about 23c/kwh

How did you transport Rivian from ME to Durango? Or did you make the mega-drive?

@swhme

We live in Portland metro area.
We have a gas furnace and gas backup generator (and grill hooked up too) that are connected to supply in the street. Our monthly prices on our setup are much lower then @swhme had. Combined Electric and Gas is about 300 in summer 800 in winter, including R1S that I drive about 2k miles per month.
We must use a lot less electricity. The rates are similar for us - last month @ 0.21/Kw.

Easy drives up to the mtns. I think you can round trip on a charge from this area if you are careful - never tried it. To much fun to drive less efficiently ? and easy to charge places. I haven't had an issue finding chargers. But I have had issues finding Fast Chargers. Have to plan a bit is all. Out west is a lot better charging infrastructure then here in Maine. We aren't there yet. Maybe sOOn?

Winters can be tougher if you don't like to play outside. It would be a lot of time to stay inside. As mentioned, many people will go off to play on the weekend - year round, not just winter. If that is not you, you should be able to find people though... may just take a while?

Weather changes often. If you don't like it, wait a little bit (or just get better gear). Variety options for each season is the norm.
Bugs can be persistent ?. But worse other places I've been. Also, nothing venomous here is a nice bonus for playing outside.

I have lived in a couple places in the south and I prefer the weather here. There i felt like I had to escape from AC to AC. Hard for me to adjust gear for hot and humid. Everyone has their preferences. Find yours.

Your pace can definitely follow you where you go. Sometimes a move gives you a chance to reset. Sometimes it's just you.

Not as much open space as some areas out west. But good places to escape to if you want. Not just North Maine Woods (a fun place to explore for sure). A few hours here can get you to other states, or a little longer gets you to Canada.

Pros and Cons to all places. This areas works for me. Good luck in your search and hope you find a good spot for you and the family.

Maine Rivian Club

Maine Rivian Club

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