Vampire drain competition. Rivian, Lightning and Model 3

[bbonkk]

OK, so here is my back of the napkin or should say paper of my 17 day test between my 2022 Rivian R1S with the old large battery rated 131 kWh, my 2018 Tesla model 3 with a 75 kWh battery and my 2022 Ford lightning Pro with standard 98 kWh battery. So while I was working on my house, I didn’t drive any of these vehicles for 17 days starting on April 6 and ending on April 23. All vehicles were parked in my driveway and sometimes walking by them they would turn on or off. But I think it’s pretty equal settings. Hopefully you can understand my scratching. The Rivian started at 72% and at the end of 17 days was down to 53% so that’s 19% loss which is equivalent of about 52 miles. The Tesla started at 50% and ended up at 44% equaling a 6% loss or about 18 miles of range. Unbelievably the Ford lightning lost only one percent which is about 2.3 miles of range but during the test the range count went from 202 miles to 206 then down to 195. So I’m assuming there were some adjustments to the range looking at the mile o meter. Doing some of the calculations at the cost of my energy which is about $.30 a kilowatt hour in Los Angeles. The Rivian would cost me approximately $144 a year the Tesla model 3 $28 a year and the Ford $12 a year. The only kicker I can add to it is a Rivian would probably have done worse because I was testing out a solar panel connected to the OBD port, which may have added some energy back in. The reason I will not give it too much credence is because it’s behind the windshield and underneath a canopy and we’ve had some cloudy weather so if I didn’t have it on there, i’m assuming it would be even worse. I do plan to try and test it when I leave it outside with the solar panel fully exposed. People have said that helps a lot.

I guess the take away is the Ford barely sips the blood. The Tesla takes a little cup of it every now and then and the Rivian slurps it up like there’s no tomorrow just like my Cathoula dog.

Sponsored

 

[COdogman]

Have you heard of a neat little application called Microsoft Excel?

 

[SSteveEV]

Have you heard of a neat little application called Microsoft Excel?

The Rivian drank his laptop's juice too.

 

[SSteveEV]

Also thanks for pointing out they have released the actual pack sizes. I had been using 133 for my maths

 

[bbonkk]

Have you heard of a neat little application called Microsoft Excel?

Scrap paper is easier when your hands are full of paint and your computer is under a drop cloth....

 

[strykerwsu]

I assume sentry off? My 24 m3 goes through 4% a night., while R1s with gear gourd on are about 1%. At nearly half battery size m3 drinks about twice juice.

Takes after me in double fisting .

Yes, our Mach e is the saint but has only 2 updates in last 18 months. I'll take the 1% with the extra benefits.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Rivian takes the high score. Winning again, suck it losers!

 

[James Worden]

Great to see real data and comparison! Nice job. Amazing that the Ford Lightning did best! With how much my R1-T sits around, I now wish I bought the Ford Lightning. I picked Rivian because it seemed to be more efficient on the road. I never thought that the vampire drain would overshadow the on-road energy use!. I only needed to have the capability to move around and deploy 3000-10,000 boat trailers (which the R1-T does great, but all the GM, Ford, Rivian and Cyber-mad trucks can do) I think my M3 uses less vampire drain than this, I saw about 7-10x less drain than my R1-T. Was the temperature constant throughout the test or at least on the first and last da since some of the vampire drain could be colder battery at end of test period versus beginning of testing, of course of all 3 vehicles were in the same conditions together, they were all treated equally, so your test should be a fair comparison.

 

[NY_Rob]

Outstanding work @bbonkk, I aready used your figures here:
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/no-longer-an-all-rivian-household.43649/post-775041

 

[=0===0=]

I didnt write the numbers down but was gone for 6 days and my 2018 model 3 lost about 50% charge (sentry should have been off at home) and my 25 R1T only lost 4%.

Thats why I never take take the Tesla to the airport for fear the charger will not be available. It’s a juice-a-holic.

 

[bigsky]

Rivians, at least Gen 1s, are one of if not the most inefficient EVs. 2 miles per kWh, drink electricity as if there is no tomorrow. Still far more efficient than your similar ICE SUV or truck.
Sitting in my garage in storage, shipping mode, everything shut off, my R1S burned away 30% SOC in 18 days. I plugged in a battery tender to OBD port, it went through 30% SOC in 81 days.

My 22 Tesla MYP has 0% daily loss most days. My 2020 Tesla MSP, god love it, can lose as much as 2% a day, Tesla-certified normal usage. Neither EV loss bothers me, I keep worthless stats just because.

 

[risingphoenix]

OP it would be a very interesting experiment to put your 12V battery on a tender to charge and condition the battery. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts your vampire drain decreases significantly. The idea is that even though your Rivian is charging the battery it is not conditioning it so that is not maximally efficiently charged. Battery conditioning warms the battery to get the chemical mixture between the folded battery conductors to act like they do closer to their happiest temperatures. So if your 12V battery is closer to a full charge from conditioning it takes longer for the voltage to drop low enough for the Rivian to fire up and charge it again. Ergo, if you condition your 12V batterie(s), you will significantly reduce the frequency that the Rivian will fire up the HV system to charge the 12V battery (which is what vampire drain is). This has been well documented in this forum. I won't comment on the ridiculous nature of needing to do this but there is at least an easy way to reduce this unnecessary and excessive electrical waste.

For my Rivian, I have an OBD adapter and a Battery Tender 3A. About once a month or prior to any road trip or off-roading I plug in the Battery Tender to condition the battery. I figure that will reduce my risk of having a 12V failure at a critical time.

 

[bbonkk]

I assume sentry off? My 24 m3 goes through 4% a night., while R1s with gear gourd on are about 1%. At nearly half battery size m3 drinks about twice juice.

Takes after me in double fisting .

Yes, our Mach e is the saint but has only 2 updates in last 18 months. I'll take the 1% with the extra benefits.

YES, Sentry mode is off at home on both the Rivian and the Ford, I only have my dog as sentry mode but needs treats to keep up her strength.

 

[bbonkk]

OP it would be a very interesting experiment to put your 12V battery on a tender to charge and condition the battery. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts your vampire drain decreases significantly. The idea is that even though your Rivian is charging the battery it is not conditioning it so that is not maximally efficiently charged. Battery conditioning warms the battery to get the chemical mixture between the folded battery conductors to act like they do closer to their happiest temperatures. So if your 12V battery is closer to a full charge from conditioning it takes longer for the voltage to drop low enough for the Rivian to fire up and charge it again. Ergo, if you condition your 12V batterie(s), you will significantly reduce the frequency that the Rivian will fire up the HV system to charge the 12V battery (which is what vampire drain is). This has been well documented in this forum. I won't comment on the ridiculous nature of needing to do this but there is at least an easy way to reduce this unnecessary and excessive electrical waste.

For my Rivian, I have an OBD adapter and a Battery Tender 3A. About once a month or prior to any road trip or off-roading I plug in the Battery Tender to condition the battery. I figure that will reduce my risk of having a 12V failure at a critical time.

I plan to take out the solar panel and replace it with a charge tender because its always under the canopy. My Sprinter van will like using the panel as it always has vampire drain and I usually unplug the battery. Smart of Mercedes to put the disconnect just to the right of the gas pedal.....
I will use a kill a watt meter inline to document how much energy go thru to charge the Rivian 12 volt battery on a daily basis.

 

[Manalishi]

Only one of these three vehicles has a Start/Stop button. Just saying.
My Mach-E also with a Start/Stop button also exhibits negligible vampire drain. I'll take the button.

Sponsored