Super excessive vampire battery drain on R1T

[James Worden]

I love my R1T, except for one really big issue: it has an excessive vampire battery drain while parked, locked, app closed! It is about 1kWh every day....doing nothing whereas Tesla M3 is about 10x less drain! Why, when Tesla has all the same connectivity? There was an easy competitor to copy...or do it better, but 10x worse?!? Its why I recomnmend friends do NOT buy the truck or any Rivian product as I'm sure its the same tech platform on all the products. Ise hacks out there and some sound OK but I really don't want to do them, I expected an OTA update long before now, its been 10 months since I bought the R1T and not luck. I did put it in "shipping mode" (in settings, service) and that cut the loss down slightly, like 0.7 kWh/day, but still excessive and unacceptable - my house is 100% solar powered and I've always had EVs. Now Rivian is wasting more power than anything I own by a huge margin and providing no benefit (parked and off)
***** All of a sudden, this week, it started loosing 5% per day!!!! A pump or fan is humming from the front end of the truck all the time (when its parked, locked and app is off!) I can barely keep up with it. I wish I could return the truck! Does lemon law apply to massive energy loss? Imagine if your gas car has a fuel leak dripping 5% of your tank out every day!!! I called service and got cut off after a while. They wanted to schedule a 12V battery replacement well into Sept. Thats not going to work, its too far away. Any ideas what I can do? I want to disconnect the 12V or HV battery to stop the massive drain. I don't have time for this. I don't know why Rivian didn't fix this issue a long time ago. What could they have done so wrong in the design and way can't they fix it quickly....go to sleep for real and not use energy!!! It's really too bad given how amazing the truck is in nearly every other way. I'm so discouraged and wish I had the Ford Lightning or one of GM EV pickups. James

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[DaveA]

I love my R1T, except for one really big issue: it has an excessive vampire battery drain while parked, locked, app closed! It is about 1kWh every day....doing nothing whereas Tesla M3 is about 10x less drain! Why, when Tesla has all the same connectivity? There was an easy competitor to copy...or do it better, but 10x worse?!? Its why I recomnmend friends do NOT buy the truck or any Rivian product as I'm sure its the same tech platform on all the products. Ise hacks out there and some sound OK but I really don't want to do them, I expected an OTA update long before now, its been 10 months since I bought the R1T and not luck. I did put it in "shipping mode" (in settings, service) and that cut the loss down slightly, like 0.7 kWh/day, but still excessive and unacceptable - my house is 100% solar powered and I've always had EVs. Now Rivian is wasting more power than anything I own by a huge margin and providing no benefit (parked and off)
***** All of a sudden, this week, it started loosing 5% per day!!!! A pump or fan is humming from the front end of the truck all the time (when its parked, locked and app is off!) I can barely keep up with it. I wish I could return the truck! Does lemon law apply to massive energy loss? Imagine if your gas car has a fuel leak dripping 5% of your tank out every day!!! I called service and got cut off after a while. They wanted to schedule a 12V battery replacement well into Sept. Thats not going to work, its too far away. Any ideas what I can do? I want to disconnect the 12V or HV battery to stop the massive drain. I don't have time for this. I don't know why Rivian didn't fix this issue a long time ago. What could they have done so wrong in the design and way can't they fix it quickly....go to sleep for real and not use energy!!! It's really too bad given how amazing the truck is in nearly every other way. I'm so discouraged and wish I had the Ford Lightning or one of GM EV pickups. James

Might I suggest a service visit? Your drain is not normal.

 

[Audiotek]

@DaveA This is a great suggestion!

@James Worden I would also suggest checking that no seat belts are buckled when a passenger is not seated in them. Also your occupation list engineer therefore I would also suggest no heavy work bags or items be left in the seat which can simulate a passengers' weight.

Also, if R1T is parked outside the climate system will heat or cool cabin to protect electronics.

Also, if proximity unlock is enabled and your distance from R1T is constantly activating system or gear guard gary is enabled and constantly being triggered this will keep your R1T systems active.

My very very long ownership (almost 3 years) show very very little vampire drain when parked at home in an enclosed attached garage which can be due to my turning off headlights, turning off AC, turning off radio, turning off cooling/heated seats, turning off gear guard Gary, turning off proximity unlock. Then turning on camp courtesy and enabling manage power "stay off." I would see maybe (1kw) energy loss after 4 days maybe 5 if I wasn't checking so often. My dream is for Rivian to create an "OFF" or "PARKED" button that turn off all the items that I would check are off when parking at night.

Drive well!

 

[James Worden]

Audiotek, Thanks for your thoughts. There is never anything in the truck, seatbelts are never left buckled, gear guard has never once been on.
- To de-activate proximity sensing, is this in the truck settings to app settings? Is this for the phone key or the white RFID card key? Tesla has the phone key and RFID card key and drains 10x less. I think something is designed much less efficiently than Tesla. James

 

[James Worden]

Might I suggest a service visit? Your drain is not normal.

Dave, Yes, I am trying that as well. They were saying late Sept! Ill go through many 100's of kWh by then!

 

[DaveA]

Dave, Yes, I am trying that as well. They were saying late Sept! Ill go through many 100's of kWh by then!

Yes, that does sound draining. Do a full reset and turn off phone as a key. See if that helps.

 

[electruck]

losing 5% overnight means something is preventing the vehicle from sleeping or there is a problem with the vehicle. In the early days, I believe there may have been problems with seat and hood sensors that would keep the vehicle from sleeping. you probably don't have those exact problems but something isn't functioning correctly.

losing ~ 1% overnight is what it is. Either get over it or go back to Tesla.

 

[Mathme]

My gen 1 averages about 1% per day in vampire drain. 5% is too much and likely indicates something is not working that's keeping the truck awake.

If you haven't turned off proximity lock at Home (available in the Setting app in the truck), you may try this as if you have a room directly above/adjacent to your garage every time you walk in there, the truck will wake up. This likely isn't a generic Rivian vs. Tesla problem as you suggested and it's likely a lot more productive to open a ticket and get your truck looked at to determine what the underlying issue is. That's what a warranty is for.

As others have said, 1% is about what these vehicles go through per day while sleeping, if this is upsetting to you and Tesla is that much better, then maybe it's time to switch back to a Tesla.

 

[NY_Rob]

If you were always seeing 1% loss per day and you didn't change any settings or move the vehicle closer to the house, etc.. and now you're seeing 5% loss/day.. something broke. As others have pointed out, something is preventing the vehicle from sleeping. It could be a seat sensor, a seatbelt latch contact, door sensor, etc..

As someone who also has solar, that kind of drain would also really bother me. I'd press the issue with Service, of course being decent about it as that always seems to get you better results.

 

[Dave Cundiff]

Dave [@DaveA, not me], Yes, I am trying that as well. They were saying late Sept! I'll go through many 100's of kWh by then!

OK, now call (855) RIVIAN-5 again, preferably at a time when your Service Center will be well-staffed by high-seniority people (best may be 9-4 local time on weekdays). Politely ask to be transferred to the Service Center to discuss the problem. Tell them how you think an earlier service visit will help you.

Expect a humane response and you will probably get it. Portland (OR) SC has some of the most caring auto-repair representatives I know -- as excellent as the independent garage in Olympia where I used to take other cars before buying our Rivians.

***

Rivian's MaxPack has about 142 kWh of capacity. Five percent of 142 is 7.1 kWh/day. Most of us pay much less than $0.50/kWh for power. 7.1 kw at $0.50 is $3.55/day, based on multiple high-end estimates.

Rivian generally gives the highest priority to stranded vehicles; safety problems; and situations with a risk of disabling the truck. A few extra dollars a day of electricity cost is annoying, but not usually in one of those three categories EXCEPT if you need to leave the truck for many days where you can't charge it.

Explain any special situations to the SC staff, when you reach them, and see how it goes.

Very best wishes!

 

[CANCERDOC]

If the excessive drain it to keep charging a dying 12V I actually recommend against a hard reset as it could brick the vehicle. Best thing you can do is show up at the service center to request an urgent 12V replacement. They can do it in 30 minutes.

 

[Oldcarguy]

I set a charging schedule for our R1T while we were traveling and noticed it was charging just over 1 kwh per day. This was with the vehicle locked in a closed, non climate controlled garage in SE Texas this summer.
I'm thinking this is my normal for long term parking with all systems operational (gear guard, climate, what ever else is running).
I remember I read somewhere to always be charging if possible. I have not experienced a 12 v battery failure, and know some day this will happen. Please let us know how this turns out.

 

[TigerWuxia]

Losing ~1% battery per day is normal but 5% is abnormal.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

1% is par for the course. If that’s too much you are going to want to go back to Tesla.

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