Should Be Excited, But Feeling Nervous

[mikehmb]

Personally, I’d be way more concerned about getting frisky with the Go Pedal and putting your new magic space truck into a wall at speed.

Of course, I could just be projecting …

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[COdogman]

Well, tomorrow is the big day. After a three year wait, two Guides, and a handful of configuration changes, my Compass Yellow LE R1S will be in my garage tomorrow night (I hope it fits. I better get to cleaning)

I should be super excited and I am, but I am also feeling a bit nervous.

I woke up at 2:30 this morning and spent the next three hours reading every CCS NACS thread on this forum and others.

Am I literally dropping $88k on a car that will be obsolete when it comes to charging? I know, theoretically there will be an adapter and that I will use my home charger 98% of the time, but it still kind of bums me out.

What if Elon opens the SC network only to vehicles with the charger in the right location?

Or doesn’t open the SC’s to Rivian at all?

What if Rivian looses so much business because of this that it’s the final nail?

I should be thinking of all the adventures we will have in our Rivian. Vacations and road trips. Camping in the back with wife, kid, … or dog. Showing it off to friends and helping people see the fun and function of EV’s. Instead, I am nervous about a F’ing plug.

Talk some sense into me! Please!

You're going to be fine! This charging situation is a mess but it will work itself out one way or another over the next couple years. Just enjoy your fancy new electric truck.

 

[VSG]

I should be super excited and I am, but I am also feeling a bit nervous.

And that, frankly is part of the intent of Tesla's "NACS" announcement - to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt as a way to hurt their competition. Which incidentally hurts the adoption of EVs in general.

I have taken several multi-thousand mile road trips in my R1T since I got it. The CCS charging network is not outstanding, but it's adequate for everything I've tried (which includes going halfway across the country, and back by a different route).

It would be great if we could ALSO have access to Tesla's supercharger network. But they're only selling that to automobile manufacturers, evidently, and only for a very high price. If you have an "NACS" outlet on your vehicle, that does NOT give you access to the supercharger network. I'd gladly pay Tesla for an adapter and pay Tesla their high kWh charging fee in order to use some of the superchargers in areas not well-covered by the CCS network, but Tesla doesn't want my money because it can get more (both in the short term and the long run) by squeezing it out of manufacturers.

I have no fear that my R1T is going to be obsolete any time soon. I plan to keep it forever.

 

[ElCapiTan]

CHAdeMO is still damn near at every charger location I visit. How many cars were built last year with CHAdeMO connectors? Two maybe three.

You'll be fine. Enjoy the Rivian.

 

[mikehmb]

And that, frankly is part of the intent of Tesla's "NACS" announcement - to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt as a way to hurt their competition. Which incidentally hurts the adoption of EVs in general.

I have taken several multi-thousand mile road trips in my R1T since I got it. The CCS charging network is not outstanding, but it's adequate for everything I've tried (which includes going halfway across the country, and back by a different route).

It would be great if we could ALSO have access to Tesla's supercharger network. But they're only selling that to automobile manufacturers, evidently, and only for a very high price. If you have an "NACS" outlet on your vehicle, that does NOT give you access to the supercharger network. I'd gladly pay Tesla for an adapter and pay Tesla their high kWh charging fee in order to use some of the superchargers in areas not well-covered by the CCS network, but Tesla doesn't want my money because it can get more (both in the short term and the long run) by squeezing it out of manufacturers.

I have no fear that my R1T is going to be obsolete any time soon. I plan to keep it forever.

This - a million times this.

I’ve never gotten stranded in my EVs, and I don’t own a Tesla. There are always options. I’m sure you can go out of your way to get hosed if you try hard enough (like I’m planning to do in remote Nevada and Utah this summer).

 

[SoCal Rob]

And that, frankly is part of the intent of Tesla's "NACS" announcement - to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt as a way to hurt their competition. Which incidentally hurts the adoption of EVs in general.

I have taken several multi-thousand mile road trips in my R1T since I got it. The CCS charging network is not outstanding, but it's adequate for everything I've tried (which includes going halfway across the country, and back by a different route).

It would be great if we could ALSO have access to Tesla's supercharger network. But they're only selling that to automobile manufacturers, evidently, and only for a very high price. If you have an "NACS" outlet on your vehicle, that does NOT give you access to the supercharger network. I'd gladly pay Tesla for an adapter and pay Tesla their high kWh charging fee in order to use some of the superchargers in areas not well-covered by the CCS network, but Tesla doesn't want my money because it can get more (both in the short term and the long run) by squeezing it out of manufacturers.

I have no fear that my R1T is going to be obsolete any time soon. I plan to keep it forever.

Coincidentally, the Ford and GM announcements also spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt as a way to hurt their competition. I’m still curious to see if/when/how they follow through, but I’m not in anything close to a panic over it.

 

[Milermore]

There's also Toyota's announcement that they'll go mainstream with solid-state batteries with 600 mile range in 2027.
There's always some improvement coming with technology.
Rivian is simply the best EV currently available for anything other than city driving, and then it's fanboy's choice.
Enjoy it!

 

[diurnate]

This is all FUD that you have been fed!

First, if a Rivian R1S can't park get into a Tesla stall, what's a F150 Lightning going to do? The reality is *most* existing non-Tesla EVs will struggle to get into a Tesla stall without taking an extra space. This has nothing to do with NACS. This is going to be on Tesla to fix, and GM and Ford are the ones forcing it - which is good for Rivian owners.

In the meantime Tesla is opening their network to CCS charging where it's underused - in other words, the places you can take 2 spaces and no one cares. In the summers I use a 2 stall 50kw ChargePoint DCFC in mid-Maine. It's in the same parking lot as a 12 stall Tesla supercharger that is never used - my guess is that I'll see this with "Magic Dock" before we see busy superchargers rewired with longer cables. Tesla really wants that federal funding.

More importantly, the whole NACS vs CCS "fight" is complete garbage. The next two years are going to be Tesla adding CCS, EvGO/EA etc adding NACS and most new vehicles shipping with an adapter for the other style plug. The networks have experience supporting both CCS and CHAdeMO on the same charger, they will be able to do the same with NACS and CCS (which EVGo does someplace already). The *real* question is what Rivian is going to have to give Tesla in order to get them to open up their network to their own vehicles. Rivian is a bit different that a) it's involved in active litigation with Tesla, b) it owns its own charging network. Eventually Tesla will open up, but they are going to want something from Rivian in exchange. It's in Rivian's interest to slow walk this until there is more pressure on Tesla to simply open their network to everyone.

Last point - the Rivian plan to build its charging network was a bit suspect from a business standpoint until the Federal government announced all the subsidy money. They are now going to be able to expand in ways that weren't realistic 6 months ago. Tesla has made a big point that they won't favor their own vehicles over GM/Ford. Hopefully Rivian can avoid that commitment and being able to preferentially charge at Rivian stations will be a differentiator.

Short version - even if Rivian shipped a NACS port truck and signed an agreement with Tesla today you'd still struggle to do anything except charge at the same CCS locations we do today. Things will get better over the next couple of years and it will still be all CCS vehicles shipping, and by the time NACS ports are on Ford/GM vehicles what kind of plug you have will probably be essentially irrelevant to where you charge.

 

[Dark-Fx]

We're still early in EV development. Don't worry about your R1 being obsolete because of the charging connector. It'll become obsolete for other reasons first.

 

[LL75]

Charging standard isn’t changing any time soon. It’ll take years to play out and there will be adapters, regardless.

In 5 years of owning Teslas, I’ve used superchargers maybe 15-20 times total. And I would have had non-Tesla alternatives in nearly all of those cases

yeap same here. Have my model 3 for 4 years now and I used the super chargers about 10x

 

[Tahoe Man]

I don't understand the, "you charge at home most of the time, don't worry about it". If this was really the case GM and Ford wouldn't be making these huge Hail Mary announcements with Tesla.

 

[Chinna]

My only concern after owning 6 months of R1S is long road trip because of CCS network reliability and Charging Times for big battery(inefficient EV as well) are longer.

 

[Rainman]

We have a Taycan and an R1T and I'm not concerned about this NACS / CCS BS. As many others have said, there are so many CCS automobiles out there that there will be solutions - if for no other reason, pure economics. The R1s are incredible rigs - enjoy it.

 

[Ripped]

I hear you, in the sense, I am about to replace my F150 with an E-Pickup truck.

It's very weird the way one's own logic works, in this mental exercise.

So we have a Kona EV which other than the operating system being a little clunky has 16+ K and the fact that it's an economy EV and has a little cabin noise, has been bulletproof so far. We can plug it in at home, charges overnight twice per month and gets an average of 13kWh/100km. Just get in and go. A really good vehicle.

The vehicle I am replacing has been, for lack of a better description, problematic over the years. And that is a very kind description.

I've driven a Rivian, yet yes, still feel some apprehension.

I don't know why that is exactly. The Rivian team has been very responsive in OTA updates and addressing issues in an ongoing way, and for a start-up has produced a remarkable vehicle, with a really good (and updatable) OS.

Would I feel the same apprehension if I bought the Ford Lightning that I could have had a couple of weeks ago, if I did not cancel?

To be completely honest, I'd feel less apprehension buying the Ford, other than the range issue. And that is despite the major issues I've had with the current truck, and the major reported battery issues that a large percentage of Lightning owners are reporting on the forum.

So maybe it's more of a brand anxiety, wondering if Rivian will be a supported platform and vehicle for the long term.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

When I got my first EV back in 2015 it was my second attempt at going through with it.

I bailed the first time out of nervousness and delayed the purchase by about 6-9 months.

When I finally did receive the EV all my doubt and nervousness went out the window, and I don't foresee ever not having an EV again.

As to the charging infrastructure its really just uncertainty of where things will go from now. I don't think CCS is going anywhere. The federal funding not only ensures that, but part of the federal funding is contingent on reliability/uptime. So I have hopes that overall reliability of the CCS charging infrastructure will improve.

The big question for Rivian owners is when we'll get access to the Supercharger network? It's not absolutely necessary at least in my use case, but it would be a nice fallback.

No one has the answer to that question.

My feeling is you'll be fine, and the R1S will be a very in-demand vehicle.

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