Let's remove the Conserve Mode stigma

[CruxOp]

Rivian said that the dual motor will switch to one motor automatically on highway. From testing others have done on this forum is a large part of the difference between dual and quad EPA numbers.

Therefore for everybody who is avoiding use of conserve because of tire wear, I don't see why there would be any difference between a dual motor automatically disengaging the rears versus a quad motor in conserve **if** set at standard right height.

I've started using conserve on hwy trips over 20 mi once the car is up to speed but have conserve set for standard ride height. Anyone else doing the same?

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[Redline]

This is an interesting thought.

I will be getting my R1S any week now, and I've decided to just use all-purpose after seeing all the tire issues. I will do longer trips to the cabin and back, and conserve in standard height might be the ticket. I'd be curious to see people test this and what the efficiency might be vs all-purpose.

 

[diehlryan]

I think it only matters if conserve gets you to destination without charging. If you have to stop at a DCFC no matter what than staying in all purpose and driving faster makes for a quicker trip. DCFC jamming in 200miles an hour charging is faster than you can drive.

If the idea is to just conserve energy and have to charge less I think the difference is negligible. Especially with home charging and kwh rates in the 10-15c range.

 

[CruxOp]

I think it only matters if conserve gets you to destination without charging. If you have to stop at a DCFC no matter what than staying in all purpose and driving faster makes for a quicker trip. DCFC jamming in 200miles an hour charging is faster than you can drive.

If the idea is to just conserve energy and have to charge less I think the difference is negligible. Especially with home charging and kwh rates in the 10-15c range.

Something to consider is battery cycles. If you do a large number of long trips, you are accumulating additional battery wear and additional charging costs, which cumulatively does add up

 

[CruxOp]

This is an interesting thought.

I will be getting my R1S any week now, and I've decided to just use all-purpose after seeing all the tire issues. I will do longer trips to the cabin and back, and conserve in standard height might be the ticket. I'd be curious to see people test this and what the efficiency might be vs all-purpose.

Agreed, I've noticed ancedotally it's not as efficient at high speed (80mph) as low ride height but would be interesting to quantify how much

 

[Redline]

I'd be curious to see someone test all these settings on a highway and find out which setting and speed is most efficient, and then figure out what the loss might be in standard height, to save your tires.

 

[supernu8]

The key is that the dual-motor will only drop out the rear motor when it is not needed. It's similar to if you're in a quad-motor and only switch to conserve once you get up to speed on the highway.
The tire wear multiplies if you use conserve for daily stop-and-go driving.

Maybe Rivian will one day update conserve mode to use the rear motors (in addition to the fronts) at low speed

 

[moosetags]

The key is that the dual-motor will only drop out the rear motor when it is not needed. It's similar to if you're in a quad-motor and only switch to conserve once you get up to speed on the highway.
The tire wear multiplies if you use conserve for daily stop-and-go driving.

Maybe Rivian will one day update conserve mode to use the rear motors at low speed

That sounds like an excellent idea. We have used conserve mode only once. That was on the trip home from the Factory in Illinois. As we live 40 miles from the nearest Interstate highway, we just about always drive the Rivian in 'all purpose' mode at 'standard' ride height.

Brian

 

[txtravwill]

My take, I'd probably use it on a road trip only where i REALLY need to stretch arriving at that next charger or destination. Otherwise it isn't worth it to save a few cents of electricity over time, tires are not really a big deal but why go through them faster, and i don't/wouldn't like driving on freeways/roads in the very lowest setting as it seems more rough and you have less road hazard clearance. Also feel like people fuss a bit too much about tire cost/savings but bought an expensive vehicle.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

I don't sense a stigma against conserve mode in totality, only against using it for every day driving.

Conserve is a great idea for highway driving, especially if it makes the difference between having to stop and charge or not. That's essentially the entire use case for Conserve though, and outside of that use case it causes more problems than it solves and is generally an inferior driving experience when compared to all purpose.

If you need the extra 30 or so miles to make your trip go as planned, use conserve. Otherwise, use All Purpose or Sport.

 

[Sbraab]

When using the board guess-o-meter, I haven't found the gains from using conserve mode to be very significant. If you're on a straight flat piece of highway it does seem to help, but as soon as you add hills in the mix conserve can actually give you less range. I assume that's less regen?

That and the early rumors of switching to conserve at speed causing drive unit failure* plus tire wear and other long term wear and tear just don't make it worth the slight gain in mileage.

* Is this still a thing?

 

[Ecupip]

Rivian needs to put an automatic slight drop in suspension height when at highway speeds like Jeep does. The low and lowest settings have too much negative camber causing unnecessary tire wear. I'm too lazy to place it in conserve mode and raise the height every time I enter highway speeds lol.

 

[SDH]

I'm sure I heard somewhere that engaging/disengaging Conserve mode whilst on the move is bad for the (I was going to say transmission) motors? I thought it had to be done at standstill??

I've used conserve mode for about 3% of my total mileage ... just feel that not having all 4 motors hauling such a heavy truck is bound to put stress somewhere it shouldn't, especially if you're not driving at a steady speed on a nice smooth highway.

 

[brancky3]

Therefore for everybody who is avoiding use of conserve because of tire wear, I don't see why there would be any difference between a dual motor automatically disengaging the rears versus a quad motor in conserve **if** set at standard right height.

The point is that if you're accelerating or braking at all, you shouldn't be in conserve mode. THAT is what is contributing 90% to tire wear. If the automatic switching between FWD and AWD on the dual motor is working correctly, it's not going to put 100% of acceleration and 100% of braking on 2 tires like it would if you manually select conserve in a quad motor vehicle.

 

[Riviot]

Rivian said that the dual motor will switch to one motor automatically on highway.

I bolded the key caveat to dual motor in your original statement. No one shames using conserve in quad the way dual will engage, only other use cases in which the dual motor would engage rear motors. As others said, here's to Rivian updating quad conserve mode ?

Rivian needs to put an automatic slight drop in suspension height when at highway speeds like Jeep does. The low and lowest settings have too much negative camber causing unnecessary tire wear. I'm too lazy to place it in conserve mode and raise the height every time I enter highway speeds lol.

Auto-ride height exists, and with it off the truck still tilts forward a little for aero. Watch your hood next time you stop coming off a highway.

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