Rivian Camping (mis)Adventure — EA disappoints

[Ogre]

Really interesting video from the Now You Know guys about a camping trip in the Rivian. This one really hit home for me because I’ve done a similar trip in my Model Y.



EDIT: As @Crissa points out below, the video starts slowly so maybe skip forward quite a bit. There is a fair chunk of good content in here though.

Big callout to Cybertruck on this one even though it’s a Rivian video.

Seems like charging is still a fairly big problem for non-Teslas.

Also… lots of funny commentary about how YouTubers pander to car makers so they can get access to test vehicles.

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[Crissa]

Skip the first five minutes to get to the adventure.

-Crissa

 

[Zabhawkin]

Saw my first electric truck (Rivian) today 5 miles south of Los Lunas NM heading south. They might have been headed for Belen... or maybe as far as TorC, but between Albuquerque and El Paso TX there are no fast chargers except for a side jaunt to Carrizozo that the Rivian can use. To make matters worse we had a 25-30 mph wind out of the south today.

I had figured I would see the F-150 lightning first and not that far south.

 

[Ogre]

Skip the first five minutes to get to the adventure.

-Crissa

I added a disclaimer to the top post to this effect. It is a slow start. I think they rehashed a bunch of stuff to emphasize the contrast between their experience with the Rivian and their experiences with their Model X. In the end they say outright that if their cross country trip in the Model X had been as frustrating as the Rivian trip, their show wouldn’t exist.

Which suggests non-Tesla charging networks are worse now than the Supercharger Network was 6+ years ago. Which is kind of disappointing.

 

[Crissa]

Which suggests non-Tesla charging networks are worse now than the Supercharger Network was 6+ years ago. Which is kind of disappointing.

They can be:

Tesla learned its lesson with one and two stall charging systems with he Roadster. That's why you never see less that four Supercharger stalls in a public location. They also used shared chargers early on because they realized that much of the overlap was non-charging cars or broken (run over) charging cables.

The other systems either have no incentive to learn these lessons, or failed to learn the lessons from Tesla and tried to do a network on the cheap.

-Crissa

 

[Crissa]

Custom built options are meant as profit centers. They're always expensive.

-Crissa

 

[rr6013]

Skip the first five minutes to get to the adventure.

-Crissa

Credit due Rivian, a cold reboot kept Adventure going, even though it burned some time. Better than VW which simply bricked my 2012 diesel Sportswagon adventure.

This is a win for Rivian, failing gracefully rebooting without a flatbed back to a dealer.

 

[John K]

The energy consumption /loss and plug usage is a little concerning through the outlet.

 

[Crissa]

The energy consumption /loss and plug usage is a little concerning through the outlet.

It's pretty common. I have been building my own solar sets atop my car for uhh... fifteen years now. Even with all the advances. And the weak link is always phantom drain.

-Crissa

 

[HaulingAss]

Rivian is losing a huge amount of money on every RT1 they sell. The camp kitchen is an attempt to mitigate losses.

 

[SwampNut]

The energy consumption /loss and plug usage is a little concerning through the outlet.

It's just simple math. An hour of full power usage, like a griddle or coffee maker, would eat around six miles of range. Any AC, heat, etc used overnight would add to that. Most e-bikes have under 1kW batteries, so charging a dead bike should cost less than four miles each.

 

[Crissa]

Most e-bikes have under 1kW batteries, so charging a dead bike should cost less than four miles each.

...which is why I was a teensy bit confused why they didn't use the bikes while they were charging the truck. They're an advantage to the truck like a car can't be, and why the Rivian Adventure network is so muc level 2 charging. Drop the truck off at a trail head or parking area, and bike or hike and it gets charged without costing your trip any time.

-Crissa

 

[Ogre]

...which is why I was a teensy bit confused why they didn't use the bikes while they were charging the truck. They're an advantage to the truck like a car can't be, and why the Rivian Adventure network is so muc level 2 charging. Drop the truck off at a trail head or parking area, and bike or hike and it gets charged without costing your trip any time.

-Crissa

The Rivian “adventure network” is maybe half a dozen locations? I think they put in one or two high profile locations and called it good.

They are about as dedicated to it as they are to making tank turn work.

 

[Crissa]

They had a list of 10k planned, I know of like a dozen so far. Plugshare doesn't have a separate search for them.

-Crissa

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