Gear Shifting

[JustJared]

I'm on day 7 of my 2025 Rivian R1S, and so far, I love it. No major issues.

As this is my first EV, I didn't know the answer to this.

If you are backup out of your driveway, should you get to 0 mph and use the break peddle, before shifting to drive, or does it not matter? Say the car is backing up and I'm at 2mph, can I switch to drive immediately, or should I get to a point of full stoppage? In a gas powered car, you generally don't want to shift gears while in movement, but is it the same in an EV?

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[mpshizzle]

There's no transmission ??
So shift away. It's just changing the direction the motors spin

 

[MountainBikeDude]

The vehicle will come up with a warning if you shift while your speed in a given direction is too great. I'll sometimes get the warning to "slow down to shift" while I'm trying to quickly reverse into my parking while getting out of the way of traffic. The driveline stresses from the magnetic field changing direction should be fairly low.

 

[CharonPDX]

Shift away. With no transmission physically changing, all you're doing is telling the motor controller computer "I'd prefer to go the other direction" - the computer will decide when to cut power to the motors and start running them the other way. It won't allow you to break anything.

 

[COdogman]

It will give you a warning on the driver display if you are going over a certain speed and shift from reverse to Drive, but I've never seen it as long as I do that at low speeds.

 

[electruck]

Well, technically, there is a single speed transmission (reduction gear). So even though the motor isn't an issue, you still don't want to shock load the mechanical gears.

 

[Chrisy]

I'm on day 7 of my 2025 Rivian R1S, and so far, I love it. No major issues.

As this is my first EV, I didn't know the answer to this.

If you are backup out of your driveway, should you get to 0 mph and use the break peddle, before shifting to drive, or does it not matter? Say the car is backing up and I'm at 2mph, can I switch to drive immediately, or should I get to a point of full stoppage? In a gas powered car, you generally don't want to shift gears while in movement, but is it the same in an EV?

It is a good practice to wait until vehicle is basically stand still but no need to press the brakes.
But as the others said you can shift any time you want, vehicle will tell you if it is unhappy about it.

I shift while my R1 is still rolling very very low speed and it does not feel to make much stress (no jerking or anything), smooth as usual in a Rivian

 

[Dark-Fx]

If you did it too rapidly on my Bolt EV while not moving the throttle, it would brick the car. Only way to reset it was with dealer tools. Rivian seems to enforce not accepting the task unless you're only traveling at 2-3 mph tops.

 

[tylerdurden03]

I don’t really bother letting the truck come to a complete stop myself
:

I'm on day 7 of my 2025 Rivian R1S, and so far, I love it. No major issues.

As this is my first EV, I didn't know the answer to this.

If you are backup out of your driveway, should you get to 0 mph and use the break peddle, before shifting to drive, or does it not matter? Say the car is backing up and I'm at 2mph, can I switch to drive immediately, or should I get to a point of full stoppage? In a gas powered car, you generally don't want to shift gears while in movement, but is it the same in an EV?

 

[JustJared]

Thanks all!

 

[cbrcanuck]

I'm on day 7 of my 2025 Rivian R1S, and so far, I love it. No major issues.

As this is my first EV, I didn't know the answer to this.

If you are backup out of your driveway, should you get to 0 mph and use the break peddle, before shifting to drive, or does it not matter? Say the car is backing up and I'm at 2mph, can I switch to drive immediately, or should I get to a point of full stoppage? In a gas powered car, you generally don't want to shift gears while in movement, but is it the same in an EV?

Great question. It's been almost a year and a half and I've wondered this myself and just come to an almost stop when switching. I'd have a hard time unlearning this habit

 

[SwampNut]

I’ve never cared about doing it to an auto transmission either, since it won’t harm them either. And out DCT car’s computer won’t actually apply the forward gear until you stop.

 

[KBabione]

Like always putting it in park when you stop (the Rivian will put it in park automatically when you open the driver's door), it's probably a good habit to come to a complete stop like you would in an ICE. You never know when you're going to be back in an ICE and you don't want to trash someone's transmission by throwing it into drive while you're going backwards at a couple MPH.

A friend of mine had a Mercedes that put itself into park when the door opened so he never bothered. Multiple times, when driving his wife's Subaru, the car started rolling away from him when he climbed out while it was still in drive!

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