Changing Tires?

[Utah-Jay]

So the plan is to order the R2 with the 20” wheels and AT tires, but when it is time for snow tires in the winter do you need to do anything in particular to the “computer” to let it know you changed tires and likely need to compute efficiency differently?

Thanks in advance

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[CharonPDX]

In R1, there are options to do that. For example, mine shipped with the 275/65R20 all-terrain tires. But I have put 275/60R20 all season tires on, so I told the system that's what I have, and it recalculates appropriately.

I haven't seen any R2 reviews that go over this option, but presumably it will be there.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

So the plan is to order the R2 with the 20” wheels and AT tires, but when it is time for snow tires in the winter do you need to do anything in particular to the “computer” to let it know you changed tires and likely need to compute efficiency differently?

Thanks in advance

As long as you stay with same tire size as delivered from Rivian, you don't need to do anything to the operating system. Unless, Rivian happen to have decided to offer a software profile for that specific winter tire (unlikely). Without a specific tire profile, based on hours of testing and verification by engineers... the existing software would simply take trip computer data and amount of energy consumed during each mile/trip to calculate range estimates (just like any trip computer in any modern day ICE car). So the more you drive on that tire, the more data the software has to work with to make better guesses. It won't be as accurate as a bespoke profile, but it should get more accurate as the miles pile on.

But if you change to a different tire size (i.e. overall diameter) but is offered by Rivian, then you'd pick the software profile that is the closest match, knowing there still will be inaccuracies. If you choose a size that is not offered at all by Rivian, then you accept consequences, venture into the unknown and take range estimates as "definitely just an estimate".

Speaking of unknowns... Tire manufacturers don't publish rolling resistance data. So that is always a variable that can't be defined without extensive testing. Fundamentally, all trip computers (and range estimates) work the same way—based on known parameters like tire size, distance traveled per revolution, average speed, distance traveled per each unit of energy/fuel consumed. Circumference can be derived from known diameter. And circumference define distance traveled per revolution. Number of revolutions over a unit of time yields average speed for that span of time (miles per hour). Distance traveled per 1 kWh of consumed energy (or 1 gallon of fuel for ICE) gives you efficiency (miles per kWh, or mpg for ICE).

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