Is Charging R1S Overnight Required or Optional?

[VandalSibs]

One thing to look into is if your place of work (if not WFH) has charging available.

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[Oldcarguy]

An Ev would not work for me if I was unable to charge at home. I met one family who charges at work for free. They were making that work for their scenario. I pay about .12 cents per kwh at home. I have been paying .38 cents and up when charging away from home. The convince and savings of charging at home make this vehicle work for me. Best of luck.

 

[akc5247]

Hi,

I am thinking of getting Rivian RS1, but I am renting an apartment — and there is no option to charge overnight, etc.

Is charging overnight (or while not being used) absolutely required or can I just charge as needed without damaging the batteries?

Thanks

Personally, I would suggest to look up how far you from either L2 or L3/DCFC stations nearby. If you can get there fairly frequently, then charging should not be an issue.

It WILL be a hassle, but should not be a deal breaker as long as you are able to slightly plan ahead.

To give some more background, I had my L2 charger installed in my house 3 months *after* I took delivery of my R1S. I had a DCFC about 10 miles from my house, which was convenient and I charged there basically every other day (i drive 100+ miles per day). If you never plan on getting a L2 charger installed, you may want to probably put pause on the purchase of *any* EV.

 

[TollKeeper]

You can absolutely charge as needed. My suggestion, given the high price of public CCS charging, would be to find a free or low-cost level 2 charger that you could use to maintain your battery charge. Take a look at grocery stores, public buildings or even parking ramps (if the cost to park in the ramp + the cost of the charging is less than CCS charging, that might be an option). For instance, my work place has free level 2 charging that I'm planning to use until I can install a charger in my garage. Plugshare and A Better Route Planner are two free phone apps that can help you find chargers near where you live.

Adding to this a bit... Also look at Government centers. I have two L2 chargers near me that are free at the local City hall, and another at the county building, and a third one at the local state park (park pass required). Free is good!

 

[RivAW]

Charge as needed works, so long as your daily driving isn't too many miles. This approach is more difficult if you live somewhere that gets real cold during the winter (for several reasons). It's generally not easy IMO (and doesn't really save money) to drive an EV if you don't have the ability to slow charge at home (or at work).

 

[hammick]

No way in hell I'd buy an R1S if I lived in an apartment. My advice is to grab a cheap lease on an Ioniq 5 or similar. You might be able to get away with level 1 charging on an I5.

 

[jrothman]

I live in Brooklyn and charge at the nearby FLO curbside chargers. It's $1/hr from 9pm - 6am, $2.50 otherwise, so I usually plug in overnight and walk over to get it in the am. I typically spend $9 - $15 to go from ~20 to ~80% (for a Gen 1 R1S). I also owned an EV for 2 years before getting a Rivian and felt comfortable charging one both at home and road-tripping. Given that I don't have to pay to have a level 2 charger installed at home, I'm pretty sure either even or ahead given the low cost of charging overnight here.

If you can find a similar setup near you, I'd say it's worth it. And owning a Rivian is a real joy.

 

[HaveBlue]

If you park next to your unit, you might approach your landlord and ask if you could have an electrician put an outlet off your panel. You would likely recoup the money saved pretty quickly over fast charging. Even a 30A 240V outlet on an apartment panel will make things worry free. Then buy a small charger with adjustable power settings and the correct plug.

 

[ndmiller]

Look around your area for free/subsidized options. For example across the street from work a little strip center has two free chargers. On off weekdays (m-t) I go in early, plug in and get 16 miles per hour of charging.

I do have charging at home, but sometimes I just want to top off 50-100 miles.

 

[Rade]

I have had my R1T since November and though I have an L2 charger at home, find it is easier to just plan a once-a-week visit to a local DC fast charge. I have used the site details to find the least expensive charging stations in the immediate region, and have been routinely waiting until my pack drops into the 30% remaining range before charging. This morning, I recharged from 36% to 85% in 38 minutes. Enough time to have a cup of coffee and a donut.

Use the app, shop around your region. I live on the East Bay in Rhode Island (near Newport). ALL of the DCFC stations raised their rates for the tourist season well north of $.60kW. In Freetown MA (about 15 minutes from my home), there is a truck stop with a bank of Tesla stations (and a Dunkies!) that have an off-peak (before 8AM) rate of $.35kW.

I only use the L2 charger if the R1T is near what I recharged it to and I know the truck will be sitting for several days.

 

[Mathme]

I think those people who are saying "no EV without home charging" are a bit out of line and placing their experience/situation upon you and yours. Here's four scenarios between myself and three friends:

1). I charge on L2 charging at home which is the easiest way to go for simplicity sake. If I'm just running errands and such throughout the week (I WFH) then I charge about once per week so my charging needs aren't that strong.

2). Friend #1: he found some level 2 chargers at a nearby community college that allowed four hours of free charging any time. He charged for over two years there until they implemented a low-cost price.

3). Friend #2: Rents a room in a townhouse and parks on the public streets however, his work provides free charging and he does most of his charging through this option.

4). Friend #3: lives across the street from a very large company in the area and has learned that they offer free charging for their visitors. He's charged his car for going on three years there and no one has said anything to him about it. He does have to watch out for hours that said parking garage is open and plan accordingly.

5). Added bonus: there's a city park about 1/4 mile from my house where I walk my dog every day. One of the park maintenance people charges his ID.4 over there several days per week at the Chargepoint Chargers that the city installed.

My point: do some research and you may find options rather than a home Level 2 charger that may work in your own circumstance. Is a home system more convenient and won't change the rules on you yes, but there are options out there that may be low/no cost but you have to be willing to look for them and be flexible.

 

[hammick]

I have had my R1T since November and though I have an L2 charger at home, find it is easier to just plan a once-a-week visit to a local DC fast charge. I have used the site details to find the least expensive charging stations in the immediate region, and have been routinely waiting until my pack drops into the 30% remaining range before charging. This morning, I recharged from 36% to 85% in 38 minutes. Enough time to have a cup of coffee and a donut.

Use the app, shop around your region. I live on the East Bay in Rhode Island (near Newport). ALL of the DCFC stations raised their rates for the tourist season well north of $.60kW. In Freetown MA (about 15 minutes from my home), there is a truck stop with a bank of Tesla stations (and a Dunkies!) that have an off-peak (before 8AM) rate of $.35kW.

I only use the L2 charger if the R1T is near what I recharged it to and I know the truck will be sitting for several days.

Different strokes as they say but is there something about your home L2 charger that makes it inconvenient? Currently have 3 EVs and we charge them from midnight to 6am for almost free (.02 from Oct. to June and .03 from June to Sept.). DCFC will degrade the battery quicker so we don't use them unless on a road trip which is pretty often.

 

[Rade]

Different strokes as they say but is there something about your home L2 charger that makes it inconvenient? Currently have 3 EVs and we charge them from midnight to 6am for almost free (.02 from Oct. to June and .03 from June to Sept.).

Oh! I wish we had that! We get no such breaks with our local POCO. At best, we get charged $.17kW, and that goes up to "Winter Rates" from Sept - April to the mid/upper-$.20's. I even have solar on the house that I use to generate the Net Credits and offset the winters.

This has been a learning curve to get into the balancing act for me. This past January, I had a couple panic attacks and did some 32-amp / hours-long full charges (from around 30% battery to 85%) anticipating emergency road trips (that never materialized ). Those two sessions blew though our Net Credit bank in short order giving me one horrendous electric bill come February(nothing left to offset). So I have become very judicious with L2 charging; I keep the home charging set for specific hours (daytime when the solar is pumping), and I keep the charger set to under 12 amps. I can see the power draw on my solar app. The L2 pulls around 1.8kW at 8amps, around 4.5kW for 12amps. Much above that and the charger starts pulling more than the panels are generating, grabbing the balance from the grid.

For now, I don't mind the weekly drive to the DCFC to top off the battery.

 

[ndmiller]

My point: do some research and you may find options rather than a home Level 2 charger that may work in your own circumstance.

100% on the money.

There are lots of apps and websites to see what available and unavailable charging infrastructure there is around you. Worse case it can help inform you if you decide to rent somewhere else, they might have charging on site as some complexes do. You also can lobby your complex to put some chargers in.......

 

[Kaiju]

Sometimes I wonder if I've been spoiled by having L2 at home. In these parts there's no such thing as L2 at work and the nearest DCFC is 30 miles ish away. I've had to DCFC once so far in my ownership when I was on the road and couldn't quite make it home. Some people make it work just charging off of an extension cord.

Stopping to get gas was some 10 minute thing I did once a week, because I had my card number stolen a couple times at the pumps and started going up inside to pay cash and during rush hour there would usually be a line. I'd kinda forgotten that was just one of my weekly errands that sorta disappeared.

I could get away with charging once a week in similar fashion and sure, if I had to do that at a DCFC it takes longer than getting gas, but one thing about charging is that you can just plug in and go away to do something else. What you can do depends on what's around the charger though. In built up areas it can be low impact if there's Stuff nearby. If you're like me and the DCFC is a long ways away without anything in walking distance, it'd be a PITA and there's no sense sugar coating that.

The one bonus if you're renting though is that even if you're not in the market to buy a place, you could still shop around when your lease was up to see if you could find something that was more accomodating. Even if you only had a 120V outlet you could stretch out the need to go somewhere to DCFC.

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