Rivian R1T Full Charging Curve, Cost, & Analysis - Large Pack 135kWh 

No one else will put this amount of effort into a charging test, so I think I speak for everyone watching this that we appreciate it. Charging is such an important piece of an EV and very few give it enough attention.

The dog is like "that dude is talking to himself again".

I really hope Rivian makes the charging curve a bit more aggressive once they have more fleet data.

Kyle, wow, Rivian needs to write you a big check. Seriously, many of us have been asking Rivian for data like this for years to which we get crickets. So huge Thank you! One question…so if and hopefully some day, do you think Pre-conditioning on road trips will somewhat improve charge times? I can’t believe with all the people they have pillaged from Tesla they still don’t have pre-conditioning in the software.

I cannot believe the comments are mostly about the information and not the dog

This truck is actually pretty well made. It is definitely growing on me coming from a Tesla owner

Kyle, as a battery researcher, I recognize this charge curve as CCCV - constant current/constant voltage. Interestingly, it seems quite simple. Specifically, it looks like the protocol is 450A constant current until you hit ~450V. Then hold at 450V. Of course, if the pack temp exceeds some value, then that will slow down current and siphon power for cooling. In short, it's CCCV 450A, 450V. Not so complicated.

Love the analysis. I disagree that 800V wouldn't help; at the same power delivered you would generate less heat with a potential to deliver much more power to the vehicle. That being said they absolutely need to work on battery thermal management and preconditioning. Also, tiny tidbit, put your units in the column header! Overall, super well done, thank you for posting.

Entertaining and deeply informative as usual, Kyle. Much appreciated!

Love it! Thanks so much for all the 'nerdy' details! Really enjoy all the deep analysis. Keep up the great work!

Thanks Kyle! Great reviews on the R1T.

Dude!!! Data is awesome! Thanks for getting it!

thanks a bunch, Kyle. Very informative!

Awesome, love that detailed test. Again love the graphs.

I was eagerly waiting for this video!

Amazing content! Thanks for what was clearly a ton of work.

Look at the puppy hugging his toyyyyyy 😍😍😍😍😍

Awesome video Kyle! Thanks so much for all the Rivian videos!!!

Simply stated - Kyle has executed the best vehicle review ever (I have been reading car reviews for 40 years). I have never seen this level of effort. Rivian should just include links to these videos when they deliver the vehicles ;-)

Love that Ellie gets to come to work too!

Bravo and thank you for all this data and explanation!! 👏👏👏 For all this work done, liked and subscribed

This was SO HELPFUL. Thank you

Terrific work. Very useful to everyone who cares & is interested. And it's great that you conclude with the "bite sized chunk" to take away for those who don't want to digest all the technical detail: charge your truck to 60% and if that's enough to get to the next charger (with a small buffer of say 5%) then unplug and go. If you've got excess juice then just go faster! 🙂

Thanks. Definitely excited for this.

Love the Details. Great info.

I bet zero to near 100% will be more common in the R1T because of the huge towing consumption and likely high consumption when there is a bulky load in the bed.

Kyle, I know this was a bit geeky but thank you for explaining the processes as well as you have done.

Thanks for doing this!!

Love this video!

Will somebody please pet that dog!!!

Not too nerdy and was great information!

considering the incredibly cute good dog in the back, I am a little disappointed that they did not include dog mode. Hopefully it will be included in an update as well.

Love the pup sleeping with her baby in the back.

Great info Kyle but your puppy behind you stole the show she loves that toy!

Great video. Finally people get a ballpark estimate for how much it will cost to charge. Big batteries will cost a lot when compared Tesla. Also the time it takes to charge the battery is also important as people will need to adjust their life to the time needed to charge. I’m in CA. and pay on average 10 to 12 bucks to charge at home at 19 cents per KWh. I charge on average once a week as I don’t drive a lot. 40 to 60 bucks is up there and if you are doing that twice a week it adds up. Something to really think about.

Great stuff!

I just plug in when battery is low, but this is allot of cool information!

Great info and video. Love your Deep Charging analytics! I'd like for you guys to start getting ODBII data like Bjorn Nyland does so you can really see battery thermals, power readings, etc.

looks awesome

Well the dog cuddling the stuffed animal distracted me. I couldn't be happier!

Someone needs to charge the golden in the background. Looking so L-A-Z-Y! What a nice pup.

Thanks for the in-depth reviews, mate! I’d sign up for one but pricing is up there! But before all that, need to lobby on making “Selling Organs” legal! Love the channel.. Keep rocking! Cheers!

Thanks!

10-80% (220 miles of range added) = 42 minutes ... It's ok. 42 minutes of charging for every 3 hours 8 minutes of driving. Towing long distances in this thing wouldn't be great. At 50% range reduction, you're looking at 42 minutes of charging for every 1 hour 34 minutes of driving at 70 mph.

50% is my lowest daily charging recommendation from Tesla via the app on my 2019 SR+ M3. My battery pack differs from the new cars though, this might've changed recently but 90 is the tipping point where you're getting into travel distances that shouldn't be done regularly.

I think the pack voltage should make a lot of difference in how quickly it charges. Assuming that heat and thermal issues are handled fine, the limitation on charging is the amount of current that flows through each cell. If you have more cells in series then for a given cell current you are getting more power stored in the pack.

Kyle - Charging per kWh is definitely the way to go. Some states do not allow the sale of electricity by the kWh unless the seller is an electric utility. RE odd indicated % charge behavior when unplugging - My observation is that battery capacity is indicated based on battery voltage. When charging is initiated, battery voltage increases some right away. When charging is stopped battery voltage 'settles' rather slowly. So maybe the software has trouble compensating. Or maybe the BMS is counting kWh into the battery to help estimate the state of charge and it lags real time a little for some reason. FWIW I don't recall seeing this on my Teslas.

Hey Kyle, I have a short video of a Rivian charging at 175kw at 62% on Large battery in 15° weather at a Electrify America in Bloomington, IL I was only pulling 78kw in my ID.4.

I've noticed that my Polestar 2 also tends to jump 1% after I unplug it from an EA station. I think it might be the voltage of the battery settling a bit after the charger disconnects

Great video. Will Rivian temperature control the battery better in the future?

I’ve found two ABB cabinets near me that can output 500A to CCS… well, “near” one is 8 minutes away, one is in schroon lake. They seem to be located at Evolve NY charging locations…

So I think it's implied, if not stated, that Rivian (and possibly Hyundai/Kia) have battery cooling issues while charging that will not let them realize their theoretical best charging curves. So my theory is they need larger capacity cooling systems (fan CFM, coolant volume increases). Also, theoretically, a 800V battery could charge at these speeds with less heat generation and thus make their actual charging curves closer to the theoretical max.

Dude here does a really good job. How many weeks to get to Arizona ? so it don't charge good when too hot or too cold ? My kids had a blast with their RC race cars & when those battery's blew talk about fireworks.

Hopefully they'll be able to greatly improve the charging curve through software updates.

At 13:14, it's pretty funny that on EVgo's charger UI screen, it doesn't have enough space to display 100%. It can only display two digits - up to 99% - before cutting off the numbers. I guess they didn't expect anyone would use their DCFCs to charge to 100%. 28:53 - Hopefully the OBD II port being locked was only in the truck Rivian lent out to you for testing.

curious to hear Kyle's take on the max pack. Can't test yet but how would the max pack impact these curves/daily driving.

At home I always charge my bolt to 85%. I only charge past that for road trips and even then I usually don't go past 90-95%. Though I guess my battery health doesn't matter that much now that the recall is gonna replace my battery with a completely new one lol

more nurdy please!

Could you do a detailed analysis on how this compares to other EVs on the market- Tesla, Polestar etc.?

An 800 volt, or higher, architecture designed battery back absolutely will get less hot. Not only during charging but also during discharging. The higher the amperage trying to be forced into them, the hotter they get. Conversely, the higher the voltage, with the larger conductor required for their 800 volts architecture, the lesser the stress that is placed on them during the flow of energy, either in or out. It's why the 800 volt architecture Porsche Taycan can charge faster, and maintain those higher charging rates for longer, than any current Tesla, and keep doing 0-60 runs over and over and over again, when a Tesla has to stop and wait to cool down after a limited number of runs. 800 volts is harder to design on cylindrical cells, which is part of the reason why Tesla has redesigned it's cell with all those extra little tabs.

I'm still waiting for the R1T dog video. That one may be the reason to swap to the R1T from the S

Have you ever gone back to the freewire charger in cold weather to see how it delivers?

Hey Kyle, What does all this mean in relation to charging an EV6? I own an EV6 and it is what I would compare it with. I know that the pack is much bigger but will the R1T charge at a pace close to the EV6? I’m anxiously awaiting my R1T delivery window. I love road tripping with the EV6 and hope to have the same experiences with the Riv!

I would love your ideas/speculation on the charging curve of the Max vs Large pack. In theory if the charging curve is completely percentage dependent then in theory you should be able to get more kWhr faster right? And over a road trip the larger pack would allow you to charger faster stop less. Your thoughts? Sniff

I am a pre-order holder for a Max Pack Rivian R1T. Would you expect to see a similar charging curve regardless of battery size?

How do I know if a charging station (or CHARGER) peaks at 450A without plugging in? Sorry I have a Tesla so I only plug in at home/work and Superchargers, which do not show the 450A or higher.

It seems like the truck doesn't have a good enough thermal management system for charging at high rates. In fact it doesn't even seem to allow the battery to warm up enough while charging either. The whole charging system seems to need improvement

He just explained more reasons I will not go electric. With gasoline I do not need to keep the tank between 30-70% to make the gas tank last.

Does any electric automobile company make a travel charger? I would like to travel with my camper and when I get to the camp ground charge my vehicle at the camp site.

Hey Kyle, I’m not sure if you guys are done this video already, but have you guys done a charging test using level 2 recharging? I know this sounds boring, but probably the vast majority of Rivian owners will do most of their charging at home. What is interesting is if you drive your R1 T to your remote cabin then plug it into level two recharging, how long would it take to charge the current large pack but even more interestingly, how long would it take to charge the future max pack? I’m waiting for a large pack, but I have three friends who are waiting for max packs because their cabin is a long way from home. Once they arrive at their cabins, how quickly could they get mostly or fully charged again for the return trip home without stopping. I think people are going to be shocked by how long it takes to charge both a large pack and especially a max pack using level 2 charging. Hope to see this test soon or if you could point me to where you have already done this test I would really appreciate it. Cheers Adam.

Let me list a comparison, approximate charge speed between 0 and 80%: Thats not the top speed and not the lowest, its a approximate average! Rivian R1T: 30kWh/100km, 120 kW = 400km/hour Mach-E: 25kWh/100km, 120kW = 480km/hour Kia EV6: 24kWh/100km, 120kW = 500km/hour Ioniq5: 24kWh/100km, 120kW = 500km/hour Model 3, Y: 18kWh/100km, 100 kW = 555km/hour E-Tron 55: 26kWh/100km, 150kW = 576km/hour Taycan: 26kWh/100km, 180kW = 692km/hour Rivian is not "bad" but should get some software updates for more charge speed. I would like to see 450A @ 450V = 202kW.

How long did it take to charge using an extension cord?

Love. Dogs. :) ❤🐶

I think the Rivian charging time leaves it an impractical car. You need charging at speed to 90% for it to be useful. Mercedes do this very well. So do Audi. This will leave this car impractical. You can’t live in your nerves at 5% state of charge because Rivian messed up.

Good info but you don't have lunch on the graph. Seems how most people travel, they start early in the morning and drive 300 miles. Say that's 4-5 hours. Plug in and have a leasurely lunch for at least an hour. That would get you over 80 percent or 250 miles. Drive another 4 hours for an 8 to 9 hour day. Stop for dinner and you could make it a 12-13 hour stretch if DC chargers are common to maximize mileage. That could be Los Angeles to Moab. Honestly, no one wants to stop every hundred miles to charge for half an hour.

@34:40 charging costs, capacity and tests.

Conditioning is not cell balancing?

Have you tried the wall charger?

Just shows how advanced Tesla is for having preconditioning.

Without trying, the f150 hybrid goes 300 miles, for $45 used to be $38 before Putin's war. It also only takes 3min a pump for those miles, compared to how long for the EV. The Ford also costs $30000 less. Lol.

Just watching the dog and it's teddy bear

You look like Jobs and Woz had a baby.

It charges at a really good rate but the battery pack is so large.

Kyle, you can be an engineer if you want. Keep up the correctness and completeness, thank you!

Electric fail. I saw a Rivian towing test just towing a passenger light duty truck/trailer. Range was about 35 miles.

Do you believe them when they say that they’ll have a peak charging of 300 kW? I find it hard to believe they can do that with the current architecture they have for these R1 vehicles.

I prefer gasoline , it pumps a full tank in like 3 minutes no mater what the weather and I can carry a 5 gallon Jerry-can.

That full luscious head of hair!

So I would plug into a 150kwh charger, probably better for long term.. Kyle did you try this?

My thought on the electric trucks/cars it’s a good idea, but they run on a battery and yes they last for awhile but batteries deteriorate over time. I know that gas fueled cars have wear and tear as well, but it doesn’t have its fuel source deteriorate that makes you buy a new car and yes I know you lose gas when you drive.

I am excited for EV future. I stay far away from the EV present. Rivian is an $90K truck that compares to $50K ICE trucks. I won't have 1.5 hours to charge on trips, and, once the government adds road taxes to KW's, then the savings will begin to lessen. I wish the government would have focused on a period of PHEV's for a decade or so to ease us, and the infrastructure, into full EV's.

Not great, 57% battery in 30 minutes or 164 miles of HWY range.

The Achilles heel of the Rivian R1T. Such a shame.

The cars need to be higher voltage.

So inefficient , it comes from mains as AC , converted to DC for storage , then converted back to AC for motor. Every conversion is power lost as heat.

My only question is why do you all want to go electric?Its not even close to being usable

After six minutes of information free blabbering I gave up on the video. How in the world can a person speak for so long without actually saying anything and how long would it have gone on if I had kept watching? I am genuinely interested in the charging performance of the Rivian but I will have to find that information someplace else where folks have at least a little respect for my time.

Great, lots of Magna content to come. Ugh, who cares... These guys need to try and stay alive as manufacturers rapidly try to emulate Tesla vertical integration model and get rid of these drain on margin suppliers.

Didnt watch the video because the $$$ are erroneous for any real value. When you look at cost of using a of a gas vehicle it has all the costs included.. EV's are no where near that point yet.. Government gets tens to hundreds of billions in taxes from gasoline...They wont lose that..So the cost of electricity are charging stations will likely go up significantly once gas revenues decrease.. California taxes .51 cents per gallon alone..By the time EV's are popular in the next several years the cost will be a multiples of today..

How can you charge these vehicles at home with a 200 amp service if they require 350 amps ? there is something wrong here ? One hour and thirty seven minutes ? you could have been there by now ?