Rivian took over my Tesla Supercharging session and charged me more than double?

[cobo]

Been there, done that. As others have said, this is almost certainly a case where the app had not fully initialize before you started charging. I always double check after it has started charging to make sure it is running through the Tesla account and I have had to stop charging more than once to prevent being overcharged. It is super irritating and common to ALL non-Tesla charging experiences that offer plug-and-charge.

Goes without saying that Tesla intentionally makes this more complicated than it needs to be. The COULD offer member pricing through Rivian and other third party plug-and-charge, but then Rivian would not get its cut and Tesla would have to reimburse the transaction fees. So it is stupidly complex.

Thanks for the confirmation here. The Tesla app had told me to go head and plug in. According to another if you do this too quickly (< 10sec), the charging might not initialize properly. What I just wasn't aware of was that you could even charge a Rivian at all through their billing system a Tesla SCs. I assumed that I would always be billed through and paying Tesla, either at the member or non-member rate. I have charged this Rivian more than 10 times at SCs so far (including this same SC) without an issue, always paying Tesla at the Tesla member rate.

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[SANZC02]

Many SCs are TOU-based pricing for Tesla (and members since its Tesla pricing). It has been that for several years. I am surprised that you have not come crossed that. The non-Tesla flat rate is always higher than the peak TOU rate so that's why it probably doesn't change.

Whenever I've used Tesla app to charge my Rivian, I always wait for the app to tell me that it's ready to plug in, then do so. Obvously, I just plug it imy Tesla.

I agree, TOU has been at some SCs for several years, I just had not seen them where membership was TOU and non-member was not. To be honest, I have not been paying that much attention to the unit pricing when traveling, just keep running totals of what I spend on charging for the trip.

This is what I have seen in the past, this is in Foxborough, MA where it is all TOU.

 

[ndmiller]

I’ve charged many times with my Rivian at an SC, only time Rivian charged me was once when I plugged in before Tesla finished the initialization. I never got a receipt or acknowledgement from Tesla for that session.

^^^^THIS^^^^ Same thing happened to me because I was used to just driving up in our Y and plugging in. I went through the Tesla app chose the cabinet and plugged in before the app activated the cabinet and my R1T defaulted to plug and charge.

 

[cobo]

You actually DID authorize Rivian to bill you. How else do they have your credit card number? Did you read the terms and conditions?

Yes I gave Rivian my credit card number assuming it would be needed to charge at RAN chargers, or for other services Rivian might provide, not for other companies that I already have discounted accounts with. I can see the intended convenience / functionality of Plug and Charge to make it more like using a Tesla at a Tesla SC, but it needs to use your Tesla membership credentials / discount if you have one.

I removed my card from my account so it can't happen again.

 

[cobo]

^^^^THIS^^^^ Same thing happened to me because I was used to just driving up in our Y and plugging in. I went through the Tesla app chose the cabinet and plugged in before the app activated the cabinet and my R1T defaulted to plug and charge.

I'm sure this is exactly what happened to me. I'm used to the convenience of free charging with our Tesla, so I'm trying to get my charging setup time down to the minimum in terms of getting the CCS adapter out, getting it on the SC NACS plug, getting through the Tesla app quickly, setting the charger ID, etc.

I do wonder if even with my credit card info removed the R1S will try negotiate charging and still preempt my membership charging, resulting in the vehicle not starting charging of any kind, and then having to replug and reauthorize via the Tesla app.

 

[VandalSibs]

I'm sure this is exactly what happened to me. I'm used to the convenience of free charging with our Tesla, so I'm trying to get my charging setup time down to the minimum in terms of getting the CCS adapter out, getting it on the SC NACS plug, getting through the Tesla app quickly, setting the charger ID, etc.

I do wonder if even with my credit card info removed the R1S will try negotiate charging and still preempt my membership charging, resulting in the vehicle not starting charging of any kind, and then having to replug and reauthorize via the Tesla app.

Getting things done as fast as possible is always nice, but the trade-off is that something might happen too fast, which is the case here (plugged in too soon, so the charge session was billed via Rivian instead of Tesla at your membership rate).

There's a phrase that I like a bunch that illustrates that sometimes going just a bit slower is better in the long run: "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast". If you slow down just a little bit and make sure that everything is working smoothly & properly, things will end up getting done faster than if you rush through things and end up having to fix problems that come up.

 

[SwaziCAR]

I do wonder if even with my credit card info removed the R1S will try negotiate charging and still preempt my membership charging, resulting in the vehicle not starting charging of any kind, and then having to replug and reauthorize via the Tesla app.

It will not, IF YOU WAIT FOR THE APP TO DO ITS THING, AND ONLY THEN PLUG IN.

 

[strykerwsu]

I think a simple software,On / Off for Plug n Charge would resolve all these issues. Apologies if exists and haven't looked for it. However, if it did / does exist than many would complain Plug N charge doesn’t work

 

[TampaR1T]

Just to add an additional factor that may also occur. It's not just the start of charging, but also how it finishes. My experience-even if starting properly with the Tesla app--is that it also matters how you stop your session. Yes, fully initiate through the Tesla app. Wait until it instructs you that it's ready to plug in. However, at the end of your session, you should also stop it through the Tesla app. Do not end charging through the Rivian controls in the vehicle and do not stop charging by just unplugging. My experience is that I was charged the Rivian rate if I didn't stop the charging through the Tesla app first. So, don't let the vehicle get charged to full and stop itself, either. Hope that helps.

 

[Trinculo73]

It's not the "wrong price". The Tesla membership price I *would* have paid is $0.34/kWh. The Rivian price I did pay is $0.72. Honestly I wasn't even aware that Rivian-billed charging was possible at SCs - I thought you always have to pay Tesla for this.

To be clear though, that's not Rivian's price - it's Tesla's price that Rivian is passing thru. That's what non-Tesla owners pay regularly.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Before you get defensive, for your own sake, retrace your steps. Between you initiating the session with the Tesla app and charging commencing… IF you did anything to break and re-establish electrical connection, that will register as separate attempts to initiate session. The second/final time would be without interaction with Tesla app, thus default to plug and charge, and the higher non-member rate—a price set by Tesla, not Rivian.

I did this once myself. Pending condition (looser tolerance of plug due to wear and cleanliness), it can take only a wiggle.

To avoid this, you have to be mindful about inserting that Supercharger plug. Do nothing until app tells you to. Then insert plug like you mean it, to ensure solid contact of the pins from the get-go. No second guessing.

I’ve seen folks do the second guess wiggle or double insert, or inserting prematurely (due to muscle memory and assumption) before communication between Tesla app and dispenser is complete… then come online to make same mistaken accusations as you. It’s user error.

Understand how things work before pointing fingers and demanding to "see the manager!” And Rivian is not getting a cut from this relationship with Tesla. It is only facilitating payment via your Rivian account., so convenience of plug-and-charge is possible (a popular consumer demand).

 

[crow979]

I'm sure this is exactly what happened to me. I'm used to the convenience of free charging with our Tesla, so I'm trying to get my charging setup time down to the minimum in terms of getting the CCS adapter out, getting it on the SC NACS plug, getting through the Tesla app quickly, setting the charger ID, etc.

I do wonder if even with my credit card info removed the R1S will try negotiate charging and still preempt my membership charging, resulting in the vehicle not starting charging of any kind, and then having to replug and reauthorize via the Tesla app.

Yes it will reject the session.

By default, if the Tesla charger doesn't detect a session started through the Tesla app, it will reach out to Rivian to authorize the charge through their system in accordane with the Plug&Charge agreement between Rivian and Tesla. This is by design and how Tesla and Rivian presumably elected to implement the system. Tesla could theoretically share information about Tesla membership to alleviate these concerns, but I would guess Tesla doesn't want to share information about Tesla memberships or charging sessions that are initiated within the Tesla app. This is valuable proprietary data that Tesla is collecting and using to measure demand and build their network. While Rivian may be able to collect this information from the vehicle after the charge, I highly doubt Tesla automatically shares any information directly with Rivian except for Plug&Charge session.

An opt-out for Plug&Charge would help prevent this situation in your case, but most drivers would prefer the convenience.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I'm reposting an email I just sent to Rivian about a charging session I had yesterday at a Tesla SC where I was using the Tesla app. I have only had my used 2025 R1S for about a month so I am new to chargin the Rivian, or even paying for charging for that matter, but what happened here seems very strange and even a bit shady. Have a read and let me know if any of you have experienced this?

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Hi-

Something very wrong happened here. I am a Tesla owner as well (free lifetime charging for a Model X) and have a Tesla account setup for charging my Rivian. I arrived at this charger with my Rivian, went into my Tesla app, selected charging a non-Tesla Vehicle, selected the charger (1D in this case), and then plugged in the vehicle, verified it was charging and then went to a store and came back when it was charged and drove away. My Tesla app even indicated that this was a discounted charging time, $0.3x/kWh at the time I was charging.

Somehow you (Rivian) took over this charging session (how is this even possible?) and instead charged me more than double the kWh price? I don’t understand how this even happened, but I need to get refunded for this as I never authorized you to bill me or control my charging at Tesla Superchargers. I have charged at many SCs before with this Rivian and never had this happen. If I’m not able to prevent this in the future I would like to remove my charging account with you for this vehicle. I don’t use Rivian chargers (except once to just try it) and don’t want you to interfere with my Tesla-based charging like this.

Thanks,
Colby

This happens to me all the time. It's an annoyance that Rivian doesn't give us the membership discount and then it becomes a juggling act of trying to prevent the truck from overriding the Tesla app initialization. I found the best way to do this is to simply remove the payment method from the Rivian app. That itself is an annoyance as well, as then I have to put the payment info back in when I want to use a RAN, but its' the only consistent way I've found to prevent excessive charges from Rivian as I don't think there's a toggle to disable Plug and Charge.

99% of the time it doesn't matter, because I'm not really using the DCFC much. But the times I am, I'm doing road trips, often accumulating a dozen charge stops within the week. That discount adds up fast in those cases and there's always 1-2 where I can't get the Tesla to initialize before the Rivian if I leave the payment info in.

 

[SANZC02]

This happens to me all the time. It's an annoyance that Rivian doesn't give us the membership discount and then it becomes a juggling act of trying to prevent the truck from overriding the Tesla app initialization. I found the best way to do this is to simply remove the payment method from the Rivian app. That itself is an annoyance as well, as then I have to put the payment info back in when I want to use a RAN, but its' the only consistent way I've found to prevent excessive charges from Rivian as I don't think there's a toggle to disable Plug and Charge.

99% of the time it doesn't matter, because I'm not really using the DCFC much. But the times I am, I'm doing road trips, often accumulating a dozen charge stops within the week. That discount adds up fast in those cases and there's always 1-2 where I can't get the Tesla to initialize before the Rivian if I leave the payment info in.

I don’t think it is as big an issue as people may think. I’ve used well over 75 Superchargers around the country on my various trips. Only 1 time has this happened to me and it was because I was rushed to get to the boys room and plugged in too early.

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