Not great. Had to chip off ice around the frunk, gear tunnel, gear tunnel buttons (wish they and tailgate switch weren't on a horizontal surfaces), and charge port in order for them to function with most recent snow and ice storm. Unfortunately don't have garage space to park in. Door handles weren't directly impacted.
Thatās pretty standard on any vehicle after a good freezing rain/ice storm. Iāve had to chip away the entire perimeter of doors and gas caps before. I had to chip the ice off the charge door actuator a few weeks ago in order for it to be able to close. Nothing unusual.
I canāt count the number of times Iāve needed to chip ice off my ICE truck, so fully expect to do the same here, with the added benefit that I can remote-heat the thing until most of it melts off anyway.
Oh no - ha, not you, sorry.
I'm in upstate NY and well versed in these conditions. This winter has been abnormally mild but I typically combat this with copious amounts of deicer washer fluid and occasionally I will kick up the washer fluid a bit by adding an additional 1/2 bottle of 70% rubbing alcohol ( a whole bottle makes the fumes a bit harsh).I will say that the combination out the gate of the OEM wiper blades (utter garbage) and the windshield defrost (often blows cold air) make a combo that renders the driver's side wiper dangerously useless (the ice build up on the left side of the windshield helps to freeze the wiper blade).
We made the trek home over Donner Summit on Friday during the 3 hour window that it was open, most of our driving in white out conditions. The driver's side wiper was so bad that I literally could not see out the windshield and spent most of the trip leaning to the passenger side to see. I continually turned on the defrost and it continually blew cold air. We finally figured out that we needed to leave the defrost off, set the heater to about 75 and only keep the dash vent turned on.
I've driven in these conditions many times, never had an issue with the iced blades like I did on the Rivian. Chatted with someone at the RAN charger who had the same problem as well.
The truck itself handled the snow and ice great and I never felt any loss of traction (20" OEM ATs), but the wiper situation leaves a bundle to be desired.
As for the other questionsāwe parked outside (didn't fit in the garage) and we managed to get all the doors open, but the frunk froze shut and there was no way to get it open. The slats of the tonneau cover are a wonderland for catching water that freezes, so we considered it frozen shut as well.
The parking sitch
Somewhere on I80, I think near Cisco Grove
Just an icy, streaky mess.
I typically roll the driver window down and pull the wiper up off the windshield while still driving if traffic isn't heavy. Something on the Rivian wipers is a little sharp though, wouldn't recommend doing it this way.
Not really a hard problem to wrap one's head around. Nobody materially cared about the energy efficiency of an ICE vehicle's heating system in the context of widely available fueling stations and the capture of heat off of the engine. We started actually caring when EV range became a limiting factor while using a literal toaster oven to heat the cabin.
My "luxury" 2015 eGolf has a heated wiper bay. In fact, the way they designed the Hood overlap, you CAN'T prop up the wipers.
That's german engineering (and the location of the manufacturer of the car), but decidedly 90% of the stuff on the lot in the egolf price range does not have heated wipers. It's a very non-standard feature... although one that is at least becoming more popular.
