RAN Survival and Sustainability

[MountainBikeDude]

I don't think people are as picky about the DCFC station prices as they are with gas stations. Most of us have found a way to charge at home and don't use DCFC regularly. For the occasional use and road trips, I will pay the higher RAN price if it is available. I want to support RIvian and the RANs are very reliable. If I used DCFC all the time, I would treat it like a gas station: find the lowest price.

Agreed.

I charge almost exclusively DCFC, It's unfortunate there aren't any RAN's operating in Canada, but when I do road trip through the states, its almost exclusively RAN charging for me.

In Vancouver BC, because I DCFC, it's exactly as you stated, cheap reliability is my go to. Fortunately the one Petro Canada EV charger near me is actually reliable, rarely used in the early morning, and is $0.50cdn per minute, not kWh delivered. So provided you rock up at a relatively low SOC and stop charging at 70%, you can onboard at speeds around 160kW and pay around $10.00cdn for 20 minutes of charging, with around 50kWh delivered into the pack.

All other DCFC's in the province have moved to kWh pricing unfortunately. I'll enjoy life on borrowed time

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[mkg3]

The best thing Rivian can do with their RAN is to sell it to one of the DCFC businesses (e.g. EA, Chargepoint, ...)

There isn't enough RAN DCFC to matter across the country (i.e., Tesla SC), and its not really a revenue generator if the price is so uncompetitive that utilization is very low.

Scale matters when one is competing in a commodity, like electricity, to be profitable. Otherwise, get out and recoup some of the investments.

 

[ndmiller]

Sorry almost never DCFC, charge at home. On trips I go where the rates are lowest, just like a gas station. It's almost always subsidized by the anchors in the mall/strip center/gas station. I do sometimes join Tesla for a month if I'm going to charge 3 times each way on a road trip as that drops the price by a dime or so per KWH.

 

[gordonrands]

I haven't road tripped where RAN was an option since last summer, but as much as I don't like Elon I'll probably go wherever is available/cheapest in the future.

I think new RAN locations should be focused near adventure sites where there isn't adequate charging, like Joshua Tree NP. Last summer, before we had our NACS adapter, we went to Sequoia NP on our way up to Oregon from SoCal. Drove to and through the park fine but didn't have enough charge left to drive in and out the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway and still make it to the first fast charger near Fresno. A RAN charger in Grant Grove Village would have solved that. Not enough traffic for an EA to be interested but it would reinforce Rivian's brand identity and show loyalty to adventurous owners. Spots along the Alcan highway in the Yukon and Alaska would be other examples.

 

[NC-Rivian]

Personally, I chose to support RAN, the jobs it created, and Rivian as a whole. And this sign only speaks to the manufacturing team. All of the engineering, software, network support, and field service is all in-house Rivian, in the US.

Tesla makes their vehicles in TX and CA. Supercharger are made in NY. I own an S and a T both and I support RAN when pricing isn’t double the SC not 150 feet away. I was a big fan of Pilot installing chargers at their truck stops also … until I saw that Pilot was charging an absurd amount of money per kW.

 

[stormbreaker]

I am sitting at a RAN charger contemplating economics. Currently there are RANs and Tesla SC in the same parking lot. Pricing is as follows

Lot 1
RAN-.55
SC-.38

Lot 2
RAN- .55
SC-.30

Electrify America .56 but reduced to .42 with a $7 subscription.

Yes I know RIVN is young and trying to grow. Just curious on the future of RAN and its ability to survive and be competitive.

Yea, I could give a ......If I need a DCFC, I'll hit the RAN.

 

[TexasBob]

The best thing Rivian can do with their RAN is to sell it to one of the DCFC businesses (e.g. EA, Chargepoint, ...)

There isn't enough RAN DCFC to matter across the country (i.e., Tesla SC), and its not really a revenue generator if the price is so uncompetitive that utilization is very low.

Scale matters when one is competing in a commodity, like electricity, to be profitable. Otherwise, get out and recoup some of the investments.

When I saw the big price bump I assumed that Rivian was polishing this up for a sale. Build out to a reasonable size, tidy up the development pipeline, show positive EBIT (price rise) and sell to another network. That is my guess.

(OTOH - don't hate me - when we bought the Dune R1S lat month, we got 1 year of free RAN on the R1T for referring ourselves to ourselves. I think the promotion is now gone, but it was six months free for the refer-er and refer-ee and Rivian insisted on putting both on the same vehicle so we are road-tripping free RAN through next March on the R1T.)

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