EV discussion - hate or love?

[2kwik4u]

So, the real question is, outside of the crazy lease deal, would you pay $80k or whatever they charge for it?

$82.6k as spec'd. It's not the top of the line build, max pack and quad motor would add some cost. Crazy incentives brought it down to $76.4k, with another $7.5k EV credit going to capital reduction (down payment). I make too much and the vehicle is too expensive to get the EV credit outside of a lease deal. Lease is only financing $25.5k over 36mo, which made the payment absurdly small considering the MSRP.

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On a new buy, I would probably still go with this over the alternatives. It's every bit as capable as a Silverado or F150, and has the trim to match a Denali, or Platinum. Those are in the high $70k to low $80k range well optioned. I think it's a decent market price considering the competition in the market. Similar in price to a Limited or Platinum trim Lightning as well. Not as refined on the road, but likely better off. It's far nicer than the $65k Titan Pro-4X I was looking at in August. Just as nicer or nicer than the AT4 I looked at last year that was $78k-ish.

Lots of personal preference here as well. EV's aren't for everyone. Styling is somewhat polarizing. Range is subjectively good, but not great. I think Rivian is likely the best "all around" package in the EV truck market right now.

 

[BlkGS]

Can confirm, most people in Western NC would not have flood insurance. We didn't, the thought never even crossed my mind.

I dunno what happens in situations like this. I highly doubt they're just like "well, sucks to be you, we know you just lost everything you owned and home but you're not covered and don't forget to make your mortgage payment". I assume they get covered, and FEMA likely covers the insurance companies or something.

 

[adrianp89]

Actually probably a better thing to have your house burn down than deal with flooding! I read (not sure if this is true) that many of the people who lost houses in Western NC have no flood insurance....bet they wish the house had burned down!

Also just saw a fake post on FB complaining about EV fires....which a photo of a burned out F150 with the ice engine clearly visible. There are also AI generated pics of cyber trucks burning. So stupid.

Now cheap Chinese E-bikes burning....that would be shocking (pun intended)

The fake stuff is plain dumb. There are plenty of real videos. There is a video from last week of a Tesla catching fire in the garage as the flood waters are coming in. I’m sure even with flood they will try to deny claims lol

The NC stuff is interesting. A dam failure should be paid out by the government. ….. or (conspiracy theory time) the people that made it fail.

 

[BlkGS]

The fake stuff is plain dumb. There are plenty of real videos. There is a video from last week of a Tesla catching fire in the garage as the flood waters are coming in. I’m sure even with flood they will try to deny claims lol

The NC stuff is interesting. A dam failure should be paid out by the government. ….. or (conspiracy theory time) the people that made it fail.

What makes them fail is lack of funding for rural areas. The major powers only care about big cities, they couldn't give half a crap about rural mountain towns.

The whole thing has been really frustrating for me and my wife, since we lived in that area and went to a lot of those places that were devastated. She was scrolling through old pictures yesterday and happened on one of us on top of Chimney Rock and lost it. The federal government hasn't done crap for these communities and people. They havent even showed up. The idiot government closed I40 like 100 miles west of the really hardest hit areas, so it's forced everyone onto smaller roads to try to get supplies in or to go out for supplies. It looks like some of it is starting to open.

The only thing they have going for them is those are some of the best, kindest, most caring people in the country that love their communities. They're taking care of each other, because nobody else cares.

It's been tough being back down in Florida and not being able to do anything to help really. My folks and friends all are doing ok, but it's just tough not being able to help.

 

[Julian]

Everything I've

What makes them fail is lack of funding for rural areas. The major powers only care about big cities, they couldn't give half a crap about rural mountain towns.

The whole thing has been really frustrating for me and my wife, since we lived in that area and went to a lot of those places that were devastated. She was scrolling through old pictures yesterday and happened on one of us on top of Chimney Rock and lost it. The federal government hasn't done crap for these communities and people. They havent even showed up. The idiot government closed I40 like 100 miles west of the really hardest hit areas, so it's forced everyone onto smaller roads to try to get supplies in or to go out for supplies. It looks like some of it is starting to open.

The only thing they have going for them is those are some of the best, kindest, most caring people in the country that love their communities. They're taking care of each other, because nobody else cares.

It's been tough being back down in Florida and not being able to do anything to help really. My folks and friends all are doing ok, but it's just tough not being able to help.

Everything I've read said I40 was impassable, so closing the road was a logical thing to do. We had friends who tried to get through and couldn't and nearly ran out of gas due to power outages. So the "idiot government" was actually preventing getting more people stuck.

https://www.qcnews.com/news/u-s/north-carolina/do-not-travel-to-western-nc-i-40-is-impassable-in-several-locations-i-26-is-closed-at-the-tennessee-state-line/

 

[BlkGS]

Everything I've

Everything I've read said I40 was impassable, so closing the road was a logical thing to do. We had friends who tried to get through and couldn't and nearly ran out of gas due to power outages. So the "idiot government" was actually preventing getting more people stuck.

https://www.qcnews.com/news/u-s/north-carolina/do-not-travel-to-western-nc-i-40-is-impassable-in-several-locations-i-26-is-closed-at-the-tennessee-state-line/

Parts of I40 ABSOLUTELY were impassable. Hell, a whole section of it by TN washed away. The problem is they closed it at I77 in Statesville. Statesville is 30 miles east of where I lived in Hickory. It's 45 miles east of Morganton where my family lives. It's 75 miles east of black mountain, which is on the other side of the ridge from Asheville where things were really bad and I40 was impassable and destroyed.

All this to say, they could have closed I40 much further west so that other areas that weren't as badly affected could have used it to navigate and moved supplies closer. There was no reason for it to be blocked off through Hickory, it was totally fine there.

 

[Julian]

Parts of I40 ABSOLUTELY were impassable. Hell, a whole section of it by TN washed away. The problem is they closed it at I77 in Statesville. Statesville is 30 miles east of where I lived in Hickory. It's 45 miles east of Morganton where my family lives. It's 75 miles east of black mountain, which is on the other side of the ridge from Asheville where things were really bad and I40 was impassable and destroyed.

All this to say, they could have closed I40 much further west so that other areas that weren't as badly affected could have used it to navigate and moved supplies closer. There was no reason for it to be blocked off through Hickory, it was totally fine there.

It's a no win situation. Leave it open and people will be complaining "why did you let all these people drive west/east only to get stuck", or "why did you let gawkers and looters etc in?".

Close it to prevent idiots and gapers/looters etc and you have people complain.

 

[BlkGS]

It's a no win situation. Leave it open and people will be complaining "why did you let all these people drive west/east only to get stuck", or "why did you let gawkers and looters etc in?".

Close it to prevent idiots and gapers/looters etc and you have people complain.

Oh, I don't think you'd have to worry about looters there. People out there don't take kindly to people messing with their community, and the only thing that outweighs the kindness and care for their communities they have is the amount of guns they have. Their guns have guns. There would be no looting there, might be one person that tries but they'd be the last.

That said, I get it. It's hard to put a line in the sand and say "this is where we are gonna close it and everyone on the other side is on their own". But I lived on the other side of where they picked, and it's my friends and family suffering from it, and so I'm pissed off about it.

 

[2kwik4u]

I think this is the only pickup truck with dry golf club storage! Not really EV specific, something like a Ridgeline or Santa Cruz could do this I suppose. Skateboard style chassis sure lends itself to this sort of design shenanigans!

 

[BlkGS]

I think this is the only pickup truck with dry golf club storage! Not really EV specific, something like a Ridgeline or Santa Cruz could do this I suppose. Skateboard style chassis sure lends itself to this sort of design shenanigans!

View attachment 227178

It's like if the Corvette design team built a truck! The key design element is is golf bag storage lol.

 

[Bluewater272]

I think this is the only pickup truck with dry golf club storage! Not really EV specific, something like a Ridgeline or Santa Cruz could do this I suppose. Skateboard style chassis sure lends itself to this sort of design shenanigans!

View attachment 227178

A friend of ours got the R1T last year - this really is such a cool friggin feature. Great for tailgates to get an extra seat.

 

[2kwik4u]

Tried out the air up/down off road kit last night as well. Kind of neat to have a built in air compressor AND a hose and fittings long enough to reach all 4 tires. Again, not really an EV thing, but a neat inclusion with the truck. My TBSS had a compressor as well, but didn't have the neat kit of hose and fittings. Also has a package of "bead sealer". Guessing that's for when I do the extreme rock crawling. No idea how or when I would use that.


In some more "EV Centric" thoughts as I'm learning the truck;

Fast charging is pretty nice. Went to the local EA station at lunch yesterday. Charged from 13% to 82% in 42min. Parked the truck and walked into WalMart, bought some groceries, a sandwich from the deli and a drink. Sat and ate lunch on the tailgate (It was 68 and sunny with a nice breeze), and by the time I was done shopping/eating I was ready to go again. I can totally see how this will be a way to get some energy out of the kids during rest stops on road trips, or just an easy way to purposefully stop for lunch. Just have to let go of that boomer energy of "We have to make great time" and embrace the journey a little more.

I'm quickly adapting the ABC method of EV life. If I'm near an outlet I'm plugged in. L1 at home currently (working on getting that 220V into the garage), and L1 at the office. I'm not "making up" the commute mileage daily at this point, but I can clearly see the slowing of the need to hit the L3 stations with the slow, but consistent, L1 supplement. I can already see how having the L2 in the garage is going to make this a non-issue for daily driving. Just need to get the boat out of the way and the 220V circuit installed.

I've already turned off/deactivated phone as a key. It was agitating as crap while I was out messing around in the garage/yard yesterday. Locking and unlocking generally being stupid the whole time I was moving around. Turns out the fob is passive, and will do the same thing as the PAAK, except I don't carry it around with me all the time, so the truck isn't on/off constantly. After that experience, and then the phone losing pair with truck a couple times (once in the rain already) where I had to get the phone out, find the app, login, THEN unlock the doors, I'm already over it. We'll see how the fob does and continue to adjust.

There is no "resume" function for the cruise control on this truck. WTF Rivian? I used that all the time in traffic. Now I have to get to the speed I want and reengage cruise. I used to just pull off from a light and hit resume and let the car figure the acceleration, following, etc out. Not so much here. Constant set/adjust/off cycling. Likely just won't use cruise except on long stretches now. Seems short sighted to leave off resume doesn't it?

The stereo sucks. Had Bose systems in the Q7/Sierra/TBSS/A4. Those were the last 13yrs of driving, so I had come accustomed to decent (if not great) sound. The Rivian system is, well, not as good. It functions, it makes sounds that aren't terrible, but it's not very full and just doesn't have the power and clarity I've been used to. I'm looking into upgrades

I miss my sunroof. Non-opening roofs are dumb.

The lack of shifting/driveline drama is VERY nice though. This was somewhat unexpected. Now that the newness is starting to fade off a little bit, I'm really digging the quite and easy manner of driving. I'm finding myself driving slower in general, as well as just more "relaxed" overall. I'm not monitoring shift points, or engine revs, or worrying about what "that sound" was. Could be a function of leaving a 130k mi German car that needed maintenance to something brand new, but I think being an EV has just added to that feeling. It's an interesting development, and I can see why people "just love" these things.

It's a little weird to just "get out" of the truck and walk off. No "on" button, no start button. Just get in, foot on brake, shift and drive away. Getting out and leaving the HVAC running and the stereo playing is just a weird feeling. I'm finding myself pausing the music and turning off the HVAC out of "gotta shut it down" type habits. We'll see if I get used to that or not.

Another non-EV thing.....I now have something with giant tires and decent off road chops. I'm finding myself looking for things to drive over, and places to go explore. Like "oooo, wonder what's down that road into the woods there?". Clearly I'm not giving in as I don't want to trespass, and I have other things I'm supposed to be doing, but I can already see this being a big itch to scratch in the near future.

Anywho, ~300mi in now and it's all still very exciting and new. We'll see how I feel about it after our road trip to Louisville for Thanksgiving. I feel that will be quite telling.

 

[Julian]

Tried out the air up/down off road kit last night as well. Kind of neat to have a built in air compressor AND a hose and fittings long enough to reach all 4 tires. Again, not really an EV thing, but a neat inclusion with the truck. My TBSS had a compressor as well, but didn't have the neat kit of hose and fittings. Also has a package of "bead sealer". Guessing that's for when I do the extreme rock crawling. No idea how or when I would use that.
View attachment 227187View attachment 227188

In some more "EV Centric" thoughts as I'm learning the truck;

Fast charging is pretty nice. Went to the local EA station at lunch yesterday. Charged from 13% to 82% in 42min. Parked the truck and walked into WalMart, bought some groceries, a sandwich from the deli and a drink. Sat and ate lunch on the tailgate (It was 68 and sunny with a nice breeze), and by the time I was done shopping/eating I was ready to go again. I can totally see how this will be a way to get some energy out of the kids during rest stops on road trips, or just an easy way to purposefully stop for lunch. Just have to let go of that boomer energy of "We have to make great time" and embrace the journey a little more.

I'm quickly adapting the ABC method of EV life. If I'm near an outlet I'm plugged in. L1 at home currently (working on getting that 220V into the garage), and L1 at the office. I'm not "making up" the commute mileage daily at this point, but I can clearly see the slowing of the need to hit the L3 stations with the slow, but consistent, L1 supplement. I can already see how having the L2 in the garage is going to make this a non-issue for daily driving. Just need to get the boat out of the way and the 220V circuit installed.

I've already turned off/deactivated phone as a key. It was agitating as crap while I was out messing around in the garage/yard yesterday. Locking and unlocking generally being stupid the whole time I was moving around. Turns out the fob is passive, and will do the same thing as the PAAK, except I don't carry it around with me all the time, so the truck isn't on/off constantly. After that experience, and then the phone losing pair with truck a couple times (once in the rain already) where I had to get the phone out, find the app, login, THEN unlock the doors, I'm already over it. We'll see how the fob does and continue to adjust.

There is no "resume" function for the cruise control on this truck. WTF Rivian? I used that all the time in traffic. Now I have to get to the speed I want and reengage cruise. I used to just pull off from a light and hit resume and let the car figure the acceleration, following, etc out. Not so much here. Constant set/adjust/off cycling. Likely just won't use cruise except on long stretches now. Seems short sighted to leave off resume doesn't it?

The stereo sucks. Had Bose systems in the Q7/Sierra/TBSS/A4. Those were the last 13yrs of driving, so I had come accustomed to decent (if not great) sound. The Rivian system is, well, not as good. It functions, it makes sounds that aren't terrible, but it's not very full and just doesn't have the power and clarity I've been used to. I'm looking into upgrades

I miss my sunroof. Non-opening roofs are dumb.

The lack of shifting/driveline drama is VERY nice though. This was somewhat unexpected. Now that the newness is starting to fade off a little bit, I'm really digging the quite and easy manner of driving. I'm finding myself driving slower in general, as well as just more "relaxed" overall. I'm not monitoring shift points, or engine revs, or worrying about what "that sound" was. Could be a function of leaving a 130k mi German car that needed maintenance to something brand new, but I think being an EV has just added to that feeling. It's an interesting development, and I can see why people "just love" these things.

It's a little weird to just "get out" of the truck and walk off. No "on" button, no start button. Just get in, foot on brake, shift and drive away. Getting out and leaving the HVAC running and the stereo playing is just a weird feeling. I'm finding myself pausing the music and turning off the HVAC out of "gotta shut it down" type habits. We'll see if I get used to that or not.

Another non-EV thing.....I now have something with giant tires and decent off road chops. I'm finding myself looking for things to drive over, and places to go explore. Like "oooo, wonder what's down that road into the woods there?". Clearly I'm not giving in as I don't want to trespass, and I have other things I'm supposed to be doing, but I can already see this being a big itch to scratch in the near future.

Anywho, ~300mi in now and it's all still very exciting and new. We'll see how I feel about it after our road trip to Louisville for Thanksgiving. I feel that will be quite telling.

Strange it doesn't have a resume button on the cruise control. Does it have full adaptive cruise control? I did find this on a forum:

There is a setting option under Settings > Vehicle > Driver+ that allows you to set Adaptive Cruise to either the currently posted speed limit automatically or to the speed you're going when you activate cruise.

If you set this to Speed Limit and you've tapped the brake to deactivate cruise, when you reactivate it it will automatically accelerate back to the current posted speed limit. This still allows you to manually exceed the cruise speed limit with the right arrow button.

So, it's not exactly a Resume feature in all situations, but it can act as a Resume to posted speed limit. If you're on a road where the truck doesn't know the current speed limit, then I assume it sets it to your current speed when you press the stalk.

 

[2kwik4u]

Strange it doesn't have a resume button on the cruise control. Does it have full adaptive cruise control? I did find this on a forum:

There is a setting option under Settings > Vehicle > Driver+ that allows you to set Adaptive Cruise to either the currently posted speed limit automatically or to the speed you're going when you activate cruise.

If you set this to Speed Limit and you've tapped the brake to deactivate cruise, when you reactivate it it will automatically accelerate back to the current posted speed limit. This still allows you to manually exceed the cruise speed limit with the right arrow button.

So, it's not exactly a Resume feature in all situations, but it can act as a Resume to posted speed limit. If you're on a road where the truck doesn't know the current speed limit, then I assume it sets it to your current speed when you press the stalk.

I found that post as well. I checked the settings last night. Only works on divided highways AND when it has read the latest road sign to know the speed limit. I'll keep testing/playing to see what I can figure out. As of now, it looks like it just doesn't exist

 

[Bluewater272]

There is a setting option under Settings > Vehicle > Driver+ that allows you to set Adaptive Cruise to either the currently posted speed limit automatically or to the speed you're going when you activate cruise.

If you set this to Speed Limit and you've tapped the brake to deactivate cruise, when you reactivate it it will automatically accelerate back to the current posted speed limit. This still allows you to manually exceed the cruise speed limit with the right arrow button.

This is how it works in the Tesla, and the offset can be increased (eg, engage cruise at speed limit + 5mph). I leave mine set to speed limit, double click the stalk to start autopilot and roll the steering wheel thumbwheel up to desired speed. Second nature once you get used to it, but I also missed the old 'cancel/resume' button.

 

[2kwik4u]

This is how it works in the Tesla, and the offset can be increased (eg, engage cruise at speed limit + 5mph). I leave mine set to speed limit, double click the stalk to start autopilot and roll the steering wheel thumbwheel up to desired speed. Second nature once you get used to it, but I also missed the old 'cancel/resume' button.

Rivian needs to take a note from that functionality.

The scroll wheel adjusts the follow distance and the buttons on either side control the speed. Backwards from what would work best.

Also, I tested at lunch. The scroll wheel on the right side has a "press" to it as if it's a button. It does nothing. That could easily be mapped to a "resume last set speed" function.

 

[2kwik4u]

Well, this just came in from Rivian as I was typing the last response. I saw it on the invoice while doing the paperwork, but didn't expect it this fast.

 

[2kwik4u]

Dropped the truck at the Service Center this morning. Addressing some vibration and suspension "clunk" issues. Gave me a quad motor R1S as a loaner.

HOLEEE BALLS it's fast. Like my dual motor pulls strong and is fast, but this is absurd. The power hit is instant and almost violent.

With that said, the chassis on the R1S isn't nearly as polished. It's bouncey and pitchy.

 

[2kwik4u]

Am I doing this right?!?

 

[Ribs77]

I hope so, lol. Compatibility with T chargers feels like a key benefit.