Rivian Solar Charging

[Rivtony]

Wouldn't it make more sense to crowd fund a Solar Charging Station in Baja?

That would be great.
I believe there are a lot of us looking to go down there on our Rivians.

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[Marchin_MTB]

A contractor we used to work with made this product I always wanted to get my hands on. These guys specialize in composites and packaged the arrays on pretty flat substrates. I suppose you could move this around in a truck and set it up while boondocking. Cost and availability may be an issue though…also not sure how many of these you would need to make the 4-6kW you’d want to charge at.

https://ctd-materials.com/portfolio/custom-composites/tactical-mobile-solar/

 

[KBabione]

Not that I'm in the market, but I'd be concerned about the security of the panels if I'm not there. Can you imagine going out for a day of touring and then coming back to home base to plug into the battery that's been topped off by solar while you were gone only to find that the panels, controller, and battery have all disappeared? You'd almost have to hire security to watch your property when you're gone! If it's portable for you, it's portable for anyone.

 

[Mathme]

Here's a quick update to my note on Page 1 of this discussion. Yesterday was overcast here in the Bay Area and we produced approximately half of the solar power in our system. The first screen picture attached is from two days ago (when it was a cloudless day) and the second is from yesterday. Note that the difference in consumed kWh yesterday is because the truck was charging.

For reference, my solar system is about two years old now so it's using recent Enphase Technology. My main point here is that a complete home system won't provide enough energy to charge a vehicle, so there's really no way to get any impactful solar energy into a vehicle using a portable solar set up. As others have said, the best solution at this point is to likely carry a generator and use it to charge off the grid.

 

[R.I.P.]

I live in Mexico, and travel the length of Baja and bounce around the mainland quite a bit. The Rivian is definitely more of a challenge than my Teslas are, but traveling in Mexico in a Rivien is fine.

Addressing the thread's tooic; trying to power your Rivian with carry-along solar is an absolute non-starter. You are going to get more juice per day from The ubiquitous 110 volt outlet then you will from any solar panels you could possibly stack into/onto a Rivian. Add the heavy equipment needed to even use such an array (inverters etc) and you are taking two steps backwards trying to go one step forward. The Rivian just uses too much power for this to ever work.

To run any reasonable distance on a small solar array, you need a far more efficient vehicle, such as the Aptera.

That said, tips for Mexico travel. Never leave home without your Tesla mobile evse and companion nema kit. It will save your bacon. Likewise, your NACS to j1772 adapter is a must.

Sadly, Tesla has not opened up Mexican superchargers to Rivian. I don't know if it's in the works, but it would be a game changer if they did.

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

I live in Mexico, and travel the length of Baja and bounce around the mainland quite a bit. The Rivian is definitely more of a challenge than my Teslas are, but traveling in Mexico in a Rivien is fine.

Addressing the thread's tooic; trying to power your Rivian with carry-along solar is an absolute non-starter. You are going to get more juice per day from The ubiquitous 110 volt outlet then you will from any solar panels you could possibly stack into/onto a Rivian. Add the heavy equipment needed to even use such an array (inverters etc) and you are taking two steps backwards trying to go one step forward. The Rivian just uses too much power for this to ever work.

To run any reasonable distance on a small solar array, you need a far more efficient vehicle, such as the Aptera.

That said, tips for Mexico travel. Never leave home without your Tesla mobile evse and companion nema kit. It will save your bacon. Likewise, your NACS to j1772 adapter is a must.

Sadly, Tesla has not opened up Mexican superchargers to Rivian. I don't know if it's in the works, but it would be a game changer if they did.

Would you mind starting a new thread on traveling in Baja in particular related to all things charging? I've been to Ensenada twice for the Baja 500 and 1000 with my Rivian. That is simple. I think people would find a dedicated post by someone like you helpful.

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