Winter prep: How do you keep range loss under control? ❄️

[BTOR]

It is part of the climate scheduling only.

I am not aware of a way to do it independently from the app.

While driving you can do that to prepare for charging on the center screen.

Okay, I thought I may be missing something. Yes, I know one of the more recent OTA updates did give the ability to manually precondition the battery. I haven’t had an opportunity to try it out yet, however

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[lefkonj]

Very Nice . Woolrich? LLBean? C.C. Filsons? Other?

It's the Paul Bunyan line from LL Bean. They have matching underwear, so I don't waste KW on heated seats.

 

[Greg Chick]

Is home charging on a 40 Amp Rivian charger from 85%%n to 90% before going out in freezing weather going to be of range assistance from thermal effect?

 

[Cascadian]

Efficiency is way better when the battery is warm (around 70-80F).

I have found that if my battery is really cold from an overnight cold soak without being plugged in and the nav says I cannot get to my destination, fast charging early in the trip heats the battery up a lot and efficiency jumps up.

I feel like this results in overall trip efficiency that is better than driving most of trip with a cold battery and stopping for a charge near the end.

 

[mkhuffman]

Just understand the loss in efficiency vs temperature and plan accordingly.
I’ve been keeping track for 3 years, my observed percent loss in efficiency vs temperature is shown below. This is for a long trip. Short trips will be worse.

Did you also record battery temp? I am curious if the battery started warm, like in a garage, or if it cold soaked at 10 degrees overnight.

 

[BigSkies]

I don't have a way to measure it, but I believe insulating my garage has a minor effect on efficiency for short trips.

I added R-14 insulation into my garage walls a few years back, and insulated my garage door. This was done for comfort before I owned an EV.

My garage doesn't stay warm, but it also never really drops below freezing anymore.

This keeps the battery a little bit warmer on those super cold mornings.

Remember that the battery in these things consists of big masses of metal. There's a lot of thermal mass in them and they change temperature slowly.

 

[mkhuffman]

This may be a silly question but how do you advertently or proactively warm the battery? Does this automatically happen in parallel when preheating the cabin? I have never seen an option to just “preheat” (or cool for that matter) the battery

Not silly.

There is a precondition button on the Energy/Charging tab. That will warm the battery, or cool it if too hot.

 

[Mathme]

I don't usually pay much attention to it other than turn the heat from 71 in the summer to 68 in the winter. If I'm up in the mountains over night and have access to a charger, I'll plug in, if not I don't. I will also precondition the cabin just so it is more comfortable.

One thing I have learned though is to make sure to scrape all of the ice off the window before driving. I went out on a 5 degree morning around new years and used the wipers to remove a bit of the ice after driving for a few minutes...which made little scratches in that soft windshield.

 

[Budman]

Did you also record battery temp? I am curious if the battery started warm, like in a garage, or if it cold soaked at 10 degrees overnight.

In a garage. Trip would usually start within several hours of completing a level 2 charge so the battery was still warm from that. This data is from a 3 hour trip. 3 hours is long enough that small-ish differences in battery temperatures do not matter too much. But, to your point, the battery was not cold soaked to the frigid ambient conditions.

 

[evlavista]

Cold weather and EVs don’t always mix well.

Do you pre-heat before leaving? Use insulation hacks? Just pack extra layers and minimize climate control?

We’d love to hear what’s worked for your R1 in freezing conditions.

All the above!

 

[kozak79]

Park it in the garage.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Is home charging on a 40 Amp Rivian charger from 85%%n to 90% before going out in freezing weather going to be of range assistance from thermal effect?

The battery pack is so large, and charge rate so low, that I doubt it would have any effect.

What I was doing the other day was manually preconditioning the battery just ahead of a large downhill section. My thought was some of the energy I wasn't fully able to capture due to a cold battery with limited regen, would actually be pulled to heat the battery. So balance out by the bottom, but then have the benefit of a fully conditioned battery the rest of the drive.

Made sense in my head anyway.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Park it in the garage.

I'm fortunate now. I used to park outside all year and in winter, my battery would get to -3C/26F on some mornings. New condo has underground parking, so my battery has been a consistent 14C/57F which is better for my overall efficiency going forward.

 

[hudesigns]

Had a Toyota RAV4 prime with surprisingly good charge for scheduled departure. Hyundai Ioniq 5 has departure setting but charge for departure does not work. I didn’t even check Rivian for this feature before I bought it. I thought Rivian is way ahead of others except for Tesla since it a software defined vehicle and VW bought into it. If Toyota can do with their glug-in, Rivian should be no brainer. What a cruel lesson and winter is coming not even waiting for Rivian to fix it.

 

[mkhuffman]

Had a Toyota RAV4 prime with surprisingly good charge for scheduled departure. Hyundai Ioniq 5 has departure setting but charge for departure does not work. I didn’t even check Rivian for this feature before I bought it. I thought Rivian is way ahead of others except for Tesla since it a software defined vehicle and VW bought into it. If Toyota can do with their glug-in, Rivian should be no brainer. What a cruel lesson and winter is coming not even waiting for Rivian to fix it.

Personally I don't think "charge for departure" is as important as others do. You can schedule a charge to start when you want it to start, which does the same thing.

Or you can just start the charge before going to bed and when you get up use the app to turn on climate control to warm the cabin. If the battery sits at 100% for a few hours it isn't a problem. If it sits for a few days or weeks, maybe, but a few hours? Meh. Or set a charge limit below 100% and then change it to 100% when you get up to minimize how long it sits fully charged. I usually do that, actually.

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