Rivian and WeaveGrid

[tate16t]

What are some thoughts on this?

Rivian Teams Up with WeaveGrid to Bring Smarter, Cheaper Charging to Your Driveway

In a bold step toward reshaping the EV ownership experience, Rivian has announced a strategic partnership with WeaveGrid, aiming to revolutionize the way R1T and R1S owners charge at home. The collaboration brings intelligent, utility-connected charging solutions designed to save money, lower emissions, and stabilize the power grid—without requiring owners to lift a finger.

Charging That Thinks For You

Over 80% of EV charging takes place at home. But not all electrons are equal—electricity pricing and grid demand fluctuate throughout the day. That’s where WeaveGrid’s smart software comes in. It connects directly with local utility providers to automatically schedule vehicle charging during off-peak, cleaner, and more affordable hours.
The result? Rivian drivers can now opt into “utility-managed” charging programs that align with grid demand while earning financial incentives for charging during optimal windows. It’s a win-win for drivers and the environment.

A Software-Defined EV Future

This new integration isn’t just about lower power bills—it’s about the future of software-defined vehicles. Wassym Bensaid, Chief Software Officer at Rivian, highlights the bigger picture:

“We’re helping customers save money while supporting the grid and cutting emissions. This collaboration is a perfect example of how smart EVs can contribute to a more resilient energy ecosystem.”

WeaveGrid’s CEO, Apoorv Bhargava, echoed the sentiment, noting how partnerships like this can “accelerate the deployment of grid-responsive EV charging across the country,” allowing utilities to better manage demand and transition to cleaner energy.

Privacy First, Always

With data privacy top of mind, both companies stress that drivers remain fully in control. Charging preferences—such as desired battery levels and timing—are customizable, while secure, OEM-approved data connections ensure sensitive information stays protected.

Coming Soon to a Driveway Near You

The rollout is expected later this year, marking another major milestone in Rivian’s mission to deliver a truly connected and intelligent EV ecosystem. For Rivian owners, it’s not just about plugging in—it’s about plugging into the future.

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[LukeNowland]

I'm having a hard time understanding what WeaveGrid really does as a company. It seems like their product is the equivalent of swapping out a home thermostat for a Nest thermostat. Syncs your charge with your utility company. Maybe allowing an opt in to try and prevent charging EV during high energy usage moments for a pay back incentive, or automatically sync ev charging with your Off-Peak time of day rates.

Again, I'm kind of jumping to this conclusion, it's not 100% clear to me that this is actually what they do.

 

[Zoidz]

Like many web sites these days, theirs is big on feel good fluff and short on factual details. Reading between the lines, It appears they offer an interesting benefit to utilities - real-time data regarding EV charging demand and the ability to throttle or shut down individual vehicle charging. For example, a utility could throttle back all serviced EVs to 30% if they had a surge demand, or reached peak capacity at a particular substation, or had a generation failure that caused reduction in capacity.

We can assume the benefit to consumers is a discounted rate...

 

[BigSkies]

My utility uses Weavegrid, and I use it with my Tesla. I like the program.

It's a program you sign for up through your utility, and not directly with Weavegrid. My utility gave a $50 sign-up credit, and a $100/yr annual credit for signing up as long as I use Weavegrid scheduling for 80%+ of my home charging.

In exchange for this bill credit the utility decides when your car charges. I tell Weavegrid that I want my car charged to 70% by 7am. Sometimes my car starts charging at 10pm, other times it's midnight, and other times it's 3am. It's always at 70% by 7am.

It's mostly a program for utilities to help them manage EV charging load and to shift demand to when electricity is cheapest & most available.

 

[JM.]

In the long run, with more EVs out there, we have to prevent them all charging at the same time. The default setup for most of them is to ask you to input your off-peak rate hours, and charge when that starts. That's not good if there are a lot of them. I set mine for 1.5 hours later.

 

[godfodder0901]

In the long run, with more EVs out there, we have to prevent them all charging at the same time. The default setup for most of them is to ask you to input your off-peak rate hours, and charge when that starts. That's not good if there are a lot of them. I set mine for 1.5 hours later.

The average EV charging uses less than the delta between day and night use of a home. Every home in America could charge an EV at the same time at night and the grid wouldn't even notice. We should be mandating nighttime charging.

 

[BigSkies]

The average EV charging uses less than the delta between day and night use of a home. Every home in America could charge an EV at the same time at night and the grid wouldn't even notice. We should be mandating nighttime charging.

Any place with TOU rates has a pretty strong incentive to do that anyways. Although there’s a study I’ve seen that predicts sometime in the mid-2030’s that the best time to charge an EV will switch to mid-day based on solar making up a larger part of the energy mix.

Weavegrid still has a pretty good value proposition for utilities. Giving the utility some level of control within the TOU window can allow them to spread charging throughout the night, and to match demand to the absolute cheapest wholesale power rates.

 

[CharonPDX]

The average EV charging uses less than the delta between day and night use of a home. Every home in America could charge an EV at the same time at night and the grid wouldn't even notice. We should be mandating nighttime charging.

My utility has a program where if you have certain models of "smart" EVSE, you can give them permission to adjust your charging time by a few hours during peak hours, and they give a kickback each month (I forget, $25 or $50.)

Mine are all set to overnight off-peak hours anyway, so I rarely had this impact me, but there were a couple times that apparently they had some high power usage happening right at the beginning of what should have been off-peak hours, so it delayed my charging by one hour. Usually it just made the utility do the "don't charge during peak price time" at the EVSE level instead of needing to do it in the vehicle level.

You can override it if you truly NEED the charge.

 

[thrill]

My utility uses Weavegrid, and I use it with my Tesla. I like the program.

It's a program you sign for up through your utility, and not directly with Weavegrid. My utility gave a $50 sign-up credit, and a $100/yr annual credit for signing up as long as I use Weavegrid scheduling for 80%+ of my home charging.

In exchange for this bill credit the utility decides when your car charges. I tell Weavegrid that I want my car charged to 70% by 7am. Sometimes my car starts charging at 10pm, other times it's midnight, and other times it's 3am. It's always at 70% by 7am.

It's mostly a program for utilities to help them manage EV charging load and to shift demand to when electricity is cheapest & most available.

This description shows to me the value of the partnership because if the utility company is able to plan its power demands, and it seems WeaveGrid is aiding in that, then they can save a lot of money. I worked for a while (as a contractor in cybersecurity) for General Electric Power Systems, who makes the huge turbines that are so large that they use dedicated trains to move them (the bigger they are, the more efficient they are once they get up to speed), and came to understand that while the turbines work well, they are definitely a use-only-if-needed power source due to cost. If a utility can now estimate when to keep the main producer online for extra hours and be correct about that, then everybody wins.

 

[JM.]

Every home in America could charge an EV at the same time at night and the grid wouldn't even notice.

The experts at my local power company said otherwise. I think you're assuming too much, not sure what. Maybe what you mean is that it wouldn't necessarily cause a huge problem, but they'd certainly "notice" and they need to plan around it. Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the problems of adjusting nuclear plant output/demand, which is most of my power.

 

[godfodder0901]

The experts at my local power company said otherwise. I think you're assuming too much, not sure what. Maybe what you mean is that it wouldn't necessarily cause a huge problem, but they'd certainly "notice" and they need to plan around it. Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the problems of adjusting nuclear plant output/demand, which is most of my power.

I spent 20 years Haze gray and underway on nuclear power, so I know more than the average person.

You are right, they would absolutely notice but it wouldn't cause the grid to implode as some imply.

 

[JM.]

Right so what our plant managers want to do is smooth out the power usage to optimize it, since they can't just turn down the nuke. There are even some crazy things like a "water battery" where excess power is used to move water up to a high lake at night, and then used to make power in the day. There's excess nuke power every night.

 

[godfodder0901]

Right so what our plant managers want to do is smooth out the power usage to optimize it, since they can't just turn down the nuke. There are even some crazy things like a "water battery" where excess power is used to move water up to a high lake at night, and then used to make power in the day. There's excess nuke power every night.

Yep, 100%. Hydro power has excess at night as well. Instead of the other measures you mentioned, the charging EVs could be that load.

 

[Manalishi]

My utility, ComEd in Illinois is using Optiwatt.com which works with Ford and other manufacturers.
I hope these two programs can somehow interoperate because I can't change my utility.

 

[scottf200]

The experts at my local power company said otherwise. I think you're assuming too much, not sure what. Maybe what you mean is that it wouldn't necessarily cause a huge problem, but they'd certainly "notice" and they need to plan around it. Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the problems of adjusting nuclear plant output/demand, which is most of my power.

Is it any worse than A/C and many homes in an area when it is very hot out? That seems like a good analogy, except I do realize that A/C can cycle and charging is steady.

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