2,800 mile road trip - surprisingly easy

[KvonBCO]

We drove our daughter to Knoxville and UT from Fort Collins, CO a couple of weeks ago. Planned things out using ABRP and PlugShare along the way and really didn't have any issues with charging. Used EA at a lot of Walmarts through Kansas and Missouri, a couple of ChargePoints and level 2's at a couple of airbnb's. Pretty much took the expected time charging, though we never got any where near the 350 kw at an EA station. R1T performed like a champ. Super comfortable, Driver + was awesome on those boring stretches through the plains. Averaged right around 2 mi/kwh on the highway stretches and the mileage estimates were consistently underestimated by 20-30 miles between charging stops, which I'll take. We debated driving the Subaru company car due to a little uneasiness with charging along the way, but it was a complete non-issue. Gained a whole lot of confidence on this trip.

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[VSG]

Your road trip sounds just like the ones I've taken.

we never got any where near the 350 kw at an EA station

And you never will, because a Rivian can't charge faster than about 215kW.

Your maximum charge rate depends on how full your battery is, and your maximum rate occurs between about 10% and 40% full. It doesn't matter how "fast" the charger is, the maximum rate is limited by your vehicle. By the time you're at about 70% full the maximum rate will have dropped to about 100kW.

Look up "Rivian charging curve" to see the details. Note that Rivian has worked on improving the charging rate over the past year so a lot of the exact numbers out there are old and outdated, but the basics are still true.

 

[Bassface]

R1T owner here. We did that same trip a few months ago. Only had three problems:

• EA station at West Knoxville Wal-Mart had a long wait, and slow charging time, both afternoons we tried it. In the morning, the station was empty and fast, though.
• Westbound, somewhere in Kansas, the Rivian Range Estimator told us we didn't have enough charge to reach the next charging destination. This turned out to be a false alarm. I think we may have lost cell service at some point out there in the boonies, and when we got it back, the Range Estimator reset itself to an erroneous value.
• Couldn't find a hotel with working chargers in southern Illinois/northern Kentucky. Tried the Hampton Inn in Kuttawa KY and the Home2 Suites in Carbondale IL. Chargers existed, but were occupied all night by other guests; or were metered Tesla chargers, and wouldn't work even with my adapter.

@KvonBCO May I ask which AirBnB's you charged at, on this route? EDIT: Or just what towns you spent the night at, if you don't want to specify the AirBnB's

 

[HokieBird7980]

Which route did it take you? Did you go St Louis and then drop down through Paducah KY and into Nashville and across? I'm debating on coming to CO end of the month from Charlotte and i will be driving through Knoxville and then ABRP takes me through Nashville up to Paducah and across. Route planner state 31 hours! I'm 5-6 from Knoxville, so interested in how long it took you to get the Knoxville form Ft Collins.

 

[el_scorcho]

We drove our daughter to Knoxville and UT from Fort Collins, CO a couple of weeks ago. Planned things out using ABRP and PlugShare along the way and really didn't have any issues with charging. Used EA at a lot of Walmarts through Kansas and Missouri, a couple of ChargePoints and level 2's at a couple of airbnb's. Pretty much took the expected time charging, though we never got any where near the 350 kw at an EA station. R1T performed like a champ. Super comfortable, Driver + was awesome on those boring stretches through the plains. Averaged right around 2 mi/kwh on the highway stretches and the mileage estimates were consistently underestimated by 20-30 miles between charging stops, which I'll take. We debated driving the Subaru company car due to a little uneasiness with charging along the way, but it was a complete non-issue. Gained a whole lot of confidence on this trip.

Nice to hear a happy road trip story. Assume you kept it at or under the speed limits?

 

[KvonBCO]

R1T owner here. We did that same trip a few months ago. Only had three problems:

• EA station at West Knoxville Wal-Mart had a long wait, and slow charging time, both afternoons we tried it. In the morning, the station was empty and fast, though.
• Westbound, somewhere in Kansas, the Rivian Range Estimator told us we didn't have enough charge to reach the next charging destination. This turned out to be a false alarm. I think we may have lost cell service at some point out there in the boonies, and when we got it back, the Range Estimator reset itself to an erroneous value.
• Couldn't find a hotel with working chargers in southern Illinois/northern Kentucky. Tried the Hampton Inn in Kuttawa KY and the Home2 Suites in Carbondale IL. Chargers existed, but were occupied all night by other guests; or were metered Tesla chargers, and wouldn't work even with my adapter.

@KvonBCO May I ask which AirBnB's you charged at, on this route? EDIT: Or just what towns you spent the night at, if you don't want to specify the AirBnB's

We were able to find one in Nashville (stopped there for a night to check It out) and one in Knoxville. You can filter in the airbnb app to include an EV charger. No luck finding any in Kansas

 

[KvonBCO]

Which route did it take you? Did you go St Louis and then drop down through Paducah KY and into Nashville and across? I'm debating on coming to CO end of the month from Charlotte and i will be driving through Knoxville and then ABRP takes me through Nashville up to Paducah and across. Route planner state 31 hours! I'm 5-6 from Knoxville, so interested in how long it took you to get the Knoxville form Ft Collins.

Yes- St Louis Through Paducah, Nashville to Knoxville. We didn't rush it, took 3 days each way and charged 2-3 times per day. Quite honestly the charging stops were refreshing (even though many of them were at Walmarts) and I wasn't nearly as fatigued as I usually am after a road trip in an ICE vehicle where I'm tempted to just keep pushing through.

 

[KvonBCO]

Nice to hear a happy road trip story. Assume you kept it at or under the speed limits?

Yeah, more or less.

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