Sacramento Area Rivian Club

Hi Everyone,

I just put a deposit on a 2025 R1T. I'm doing some research into the home charging situation and I have a few questions if anyone has a moment to share their thoughts:

1. Has anyone used the SMUD credits to install a home charger?

2. If so, how did it go? Any charger and/or installer recommendations?

3. The chargers on SMUD's approved list (for the credit) are max 32A, so the Rivian charger does not qualify... of course, these chargers will be slower than the 48A Rivian charger- does anyone have thoughts on this in general? I think 32A will still be fast enough for my purposes (overnight charging), but would love to get other opinions (I know this is covered in other threads, and I've read most of those too).

TIA for any input!

You really want more than a 32A charger for your Rivian. The batteries are huge and that's just too slow. I don't know why SMUD limits it to such a low rate for the chargers they will rebate, but frankly, you should just go out and buy a decent charger if your electrical system can handle it. I don't know, maybe you can sell the one that SMUD will give you.

Not sure if you're new to owning EVs but I've had five from small(BMW i3) to huge (R1T) over seven years. There have been many occasions over the years where I wanted or needed a faster charging rate and I'm running a 40A charger (I'd upgrade to faster if my circuit could handle it.) Maybe I got home late after a long drive and had to leave early in the morning or something similar. You will likely have this EV for years and probably more in the future. It's a massive, expensive rolling battery and you'll be better off with the fastest charger your electrical supply can handle. That's my $0.02 anyway. And congratulations on your R1T. You're going to love it.

Thanks very much for the valuable feedback. This is my first EV and I wondered about exactly that scenario (home late and leaving again early). Plus, I believe the SMUD “discounted” rate for EV charging only applies between midnight and 6am, so faster charging would get me farther during that window.

Appreciate the insight.

You're right, the more charging you can do between 12-6am, the cheaper it will be. There are fast chargers everywhere around here so you're never going to get stuck but it's just so much more convenient to charge at home and not worry about stopping. Enjoy never going back to a gas station. You won't miss it.

I am going to disagree with the consensus here. Whether you can live with a 32A charger depends on how much you drive. A 32A charger will provide about 60Kwh in 8 hours. Unless I am taking a trip, I normally charge when below 50%. I take it to 70% or 80%. Easily done with a 32A charger on a Gen1 standard pack. In a pinch, twelve hours of charging provides about 90Kwh.

How often do you drive more than 200 miles for two days in a row? That is about where a 32A charger hits it's limit. 32A happens to be the rating of the portable charger that Rivian provides. I've used the portable charger when staying at an AirBNB. It has been fine.

Someday soon our vehicles may be capable of doing V2H or V2G. You might wish you had saved your money for a state of the art charger with this advanced capability.

Thanks for commenting- I appreciate your thoughts on this. It is a bit of a tough call, although as sacromentoelectric noted, the decision may be made for me when the electrician takes a look at our panel. If the house electrical system needs updating, I'm not sure I'm willing to add that cost (yet) to install a faster charger. Maybe that comes in the future to support advanced capabilities.

Going EV feels like a paradigm shift- as much internet research as I've done, there is always more to consider/learn/understand.

I think we're going to be in for a long wait before V2H and you can pick up a nice refurbished 40A charger for under $400 which you can sell later on if you upgrade to V2H down the line. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the $90k you're spending on the vehicle. But it's not a must have, just a nice to have. But 140 degrees makes a good point that V2H is on the way and I wouldn't spend money installing a 50A or 60A circuit just for faster speeds. Stick with what your system can handle now and wait until V2H is a reality before doing any upgrades to your home's electrical system.

Thanks for following up. I appreciate the help here! Buying the truck feels like the easy part.

I purchased an R1S a couple of months ago. I am also new to the EV world and I went through the SMUD rebate program to get a charger installed at home. As you mentioned the chagers in the rebate program are only 32A which is what I installed. Personally I have not been impacted by the lower amperage in my day to day use but maybe I'm just coming from a lack of experience. The overall $1000 rebate ($500 for the purchase and $500 for the install) went a long way in getting my household setup for EV charging. Getting the EV charging rate from midnight to 6:00AM is a great bonus as well

I can charge overnight and get ~55 kWh on my vehicle which is more than enough. I'm not communting anymore and my daily driving is just around town so YMMV. I take several extended road trips each quarter (between 400 - 700 miles) and will top off at a local DCFC prior to those excursions.

I may upgrade my charger at some point but so far I don't have a need.

Thanks for the response. It's really helpful to hear about other owners' experiences. I think I'm leaning toward the SMUD route, but may wait to decide until I get the electrician's quote.

Sacramento Area Rivian Club

Sacramento Area Rivian Club

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