Use real world fleet efficiency for advertised range?

[BrianB]

The Rivian advertised range assumes 2.8-2.9 miles/kW of efficiency. It seems most owners don’t achieve that level of efficiency.

Rivian has all the data on the real world efficiency of the fleet to calculate this. Should that be the source of data for the advertised range?

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[usulio]

I would not use the fleet numbers.

What really matters is that range is highly dependent on several factors that vary person to person and day to day. There is no one correct range number that will apply to everyone and we shouldn't try.

The main point of advertised range is to compare two models to each other to see which one can go farther under the same conditions, so a standardized testing environment is good for that.

If it was up to me, companies should advertise 3 numbers: EPA range, highway range at 75mph / 75 degrees, and highway range at 75mph/ 15 degrees.

 

[mkhuffman]

I would not use the fleet numbers.

What really matters is that range is highly dependent on several factors that vary person to person and day to day. There is no one correct range number that will apply to everyone and we shouldn't try.

The main point of advertised range is to compare two models to each other to see which one can go farther under the same conditions, so a standardized testing environment is good for that.

If it was up to me, companies should advertise 3 numbers: EPA range, highway range at 75mph / 75 degrees, and highway range at 75mph/ 15 degrees.

100%.

Highway range is the only range that matters to me. When I can charge at home, driving around town range is irrelevant. But when I have to leave home, I need to know how far I can go before I have to charge.

And as we all know, highway range is definitely not EPA range. A range at 75 mph would be a great yardstick to use to compare vehicles. And a cold version of that is great also, because some cars are more efficient in the cold than others.

Car and Driver does a 75 mph test, which I find very useful. The challenge is they don't test every variation of every vehicle. For example, when will they be testing the R1T Dual Max with range wheels?

Another big thing for me is rolling resistance. In the EU, they rate rolling resistance. Not here. So we have no idea which tire is more efficient than another, except that we know Rivian is picking the most efficient ones they can, to maximize range. But if you want to replace the rims and tires, good luck trying to decide if rolling resistance matters to you.

 

[mpshizzle]

One could argue that City range is completely irrelevant. Almost nobody is going to drive 200+ miles. In the city in a single day without any charging

 

[BCondrey]

After 10K miles my truck still estimates "miles" based on 2.8 miles/kwh, which is 360 miles for my DM large. I would love to reset that to the average for the life of the truck, which is 2.3. Or, just set the number. That would make the "miles" meaningful. Any advice on how to do that?

 

[Dark-Fx]

EPA tests are supposed to make a level playing field even if they don't reflect everyone's real world mileage. I could exceed EPA in my truck, and have, but my foot is way heavier than the machine they use to do the testing.

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