Failure to charge

[Jack]

Third charge on my R1S failed. Rivian service had me try a second city owned charger which also failed. Then they reset the Rivian and with reboot, same failure on both chargers. They are sending a tow to take it back to service in Franklin TN and renting me an enterprise vehicle. I have to initially pay for the tow and said they would reimburse if they prove it is warranty related. With 350 miles I can’t believe it wouldn’t be warranty.
I am curious if anyone else has had similar troubles.

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[madgrey]

Rivian offered to tow, no questions asked, for my suspension and various other issues which I saved up and reported. At the time, I had 3-400 miles on the odometer. I had public charging issues also, but I think that was my own newbee-ness having not owned an EV before.

 

[Christopher]

What type of chargers was it failing on? Do you have a home charger you can try, or what about the portable charger the vehicle comes with?

You may be out the cost of the Tow if Rivian doesn't find any issues, and since public chargers are known to have issues it may just be that. Not to mention, this is a city managed charger and you know how well they maintain their infrastructure.

 

[Jack]

What type of chargers was it failing on? Do you have a home charger you can try, or what about the portable charger the vehicle comes with?

You may be out the cost of the Tow if Rivian doesn't find any issues, and since public chargers are known to have issues it may just be that. Not to mention, this is a city managed charger and you know how well they maintain their infrastructure.

The main charger I used for the first three charges was a 240 circuit in our garage in the condo building. I used it for the Rivian and another tenant's Tesla. He has had no problem charging. The city charger which I attempted the charge ClipperCreek charger. Other vehicles have been using it without any issues.

 

[Greg Chick]

My first time charging was a disaster. It was at a Denny's and the charger that was listed online as working had a broken cable. The other charger said it only accepted pre paid charging. The only other charger in the town was a very low power charger and it took a while to get enough charge to make to the next closest place. It was snowing and cold.
Then the next place did not accept our credit cards, we were not a member, so we joined but the wait was frustrating. Charging panic, it can feel like you're going to be stranded.
One fantastic thing is I went to 2 different Rivian charging stations and they are EASY. Pull up, plug in, fast charge, and go!

 

[Jack]

The main charger I used for the first three charges was a 240 circuit in our garage in the condo building. I used it for the Rivian and another tenant's Tesla. He has had no problem charging. The city charger which I attempted the charge ClipperCreek charger. Other vehicles have been using it without any issues.

The city charger was a direct connection. The 240 in the garage uses the adapter provided with the Rivian.

 

[VSG]

I personally would do a little legwork to narrow down the problem before you let them tow it.

First, is this problem with AC charging (Level 1 or Level 2) or with DC fast charging (Level 3)?

A small number of Rivians have had early failure of the DC fast charging electronics. If Level 1/2 charging works but Level 3 consistently fails, this might be your problem.

Your R1S comes with a portable charger. Try that at home, or wherever you can find a working 110V outlet. Verify the outlet is working by plugging something else in. Then try your portable charger to see if Level 1 charging works.

Next, search out a Level 2 charger in your area and try it. Check with PlugShare to see if others have reported it functional, and try to see if any other vehicle is successfully charging there. A charging failure with your Rivian may be because of the charger or because of the Rivian - you have to rule out charger failure and the best way to do that is to watch someone else try to charge there.

Then try a Level 3 charger. Again, it's important to see whether this is a charger issue or a vehicle issue, so see if someone else is having success using that charger before you conclude that it's a vehicle issue. If Level 3 charging is failing then I'd also get on the phone with the charging company and ask them to reset the charger while you're there. You can do a hard reset of your vehicle as well. The point it to try to eliminate the charger as the source of the problem.

Once you've ruled out the chargers as a cause of the problem, and once you have determined whether it's a problem with AC charging or DC charging or both, then you can be confident that it's a problem with your vehicle and that Rivian will cover the towing cost.

 

[Jack]

My first time charging was a disaster. It was at a Denny's and the charger that was listed online as working had a broken cable. The other charger said it only accepted pre paid charging. The only other charger in the town was a very low power charger and it took a while to get enough charge to make to the next closest place. It was snowing and cold.
Then the next place did not accept our credit cards, we were not a member, so we joined but the wait was frustrating. Charging panic, it can feel like you're going to be stranded.
One fantastic thing is I went to 2 different Rivian charging stations and they are EASY. Pull up, plug in, fast charge, and go!

What is the charging rate on the Rivian charging stations ? The closest Rivian charger to me is 150 miles away.

 

[Greg Chick]

Free, fast & easy.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Only issues I have is occasionally the truck doesn't pick up the charger being enabled after my TOU changes. As long as I think to check it, has been okay, but started off one day with 31% and I was pretty annoyed.

 

[Greg Chick]

I'm not going to use any TOU settings. Only charge when I am there to start & stop. I am tired of being used as a Beta worker for the DOS Geeks and fine tuning what they do wrong.

 

[RTChiro]

Third charge on my R1S failed. Rivian service had me try a second city owned charger which also failed. Then they reset the Rivian and with reboot, same failure on both chargers. They are sending a tow to take it back to service in Franklin TN and renting me an enterprise vehicle. I have to initially pay for the tow and said they would reimburse if they prove it is warranty related. With 350 miles I can’t believe it wouldn’t be warranty.
I am curious if anyone else has had similar troubles.

Third charge on my R1S failed. Rivian service had me try a second city owned charger which also failed. Then they reset the Rivian and with reboot, same failure on both chargers. They are sending a tow to take it back to service in Franklin TN and renting me an enterprise vehicle. I have to initially pay for the tow and said they would reimburse if they prove it is warranty related. With 350 miles I can’t believe it wouldn’t be warranty.
I am curious if anyone else has had similar troubles.

This happened to me in Dec but got sorted with a hard reset. I too, went to a number of chargers. The key thing is to see if anyone else was successful to charge at the same charger which failed to charge your R1S .. seeing other being able to charge gave me the clue the issue was with the truck. It is highly unlikely to have all chargers faulty. I think it is most likely a car issue ..

 

[Rexbo]

My Rivian is definitely defective and have an appointment to have my DC charging unit fixed, but here's what it looks like from my last 3 road trips (extremely frustrating btw), #successful/total attempts:

Charger	Home	ChargePoint	Electrify America	EVGo	Rivian
Level 1	15A (Rivian) - Always works 48A (Rivian) - Always works	6.7kW - 6/6	-	-	-
Level 2	-	50kW - 2/3 62kW - 0/2	50kW - 0/2	50kW - 1/2	-
Level 3	-	100kW - 0/1	150kW -8/10 350kW - 1/8	125kW - 1/1 150kW - 2/4 250kW - 0/4	200kW - 0/6

It always fails at the "communicating with charger" step when connecting with the DC station and I thought it was always just EA or EVGo being shitty... until I tried all 6 Rivian Charging stations in Bishop, CA and realized it was my truck that's broken.

Makes road trips really frustrating

 

[VSG]

@Rexbo: I would find it very odd if Level 1 AC charging always works but Level 2 AC charging only works sometimes. I believe all the entries you have listed under "Level 2" are actually Level 3 DC chargers. For sure the ChargePoint stations ... if they had a CCS connector plug, they were Level 3. With Level 2 chargers you will have a J1772. You table also makes more sense if this is the case, because then it's saying that you had trouble only with DC chargers, not with AC chargers.

 

[Jack]

My Rivian is definitely defective and have an appointment to have my DC charging unit fixed, but here's what it looks like from my last 3 road trips (extremely frustrating btw), #successful/total attempts:

Charger	Home	ChargePoint	Electrify America	EVGo	Rivian
Level 1	15A (Rivian) - Always works 48A (Rivian) - Always works	6.7kW - 6/6	-	-	-
Level 2	-	50kW - 2/3 62kW - 0/2	50kW - 0/2	50kW - 1/2	-
Level 3	-	100kW - 0/1	150kW -8/10 350kW - 1/8	125kW - 1/1 150kW - 2/4 250kW - 0/4	200kW - 0/6

It always fails at the "communicating with charger" step when connecting with the DC station and I thought it was always just EA or EVGo being shitty... until I tried all 6 Rivian Charging stations in Bishop, CA and realized it was my truck that's broken.

Makes road trips really frustrating

Extremely frustrating. I tried one more time this evening with no success. Mine has said vehicle error every time.

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