OK, I promise I don't intend to spam this thread......but I've got a LOT of new experiences that are, at least somewhat, relevant.
SO, I did a run to Louisville and back this weekend from Buffalo. Had a family emergency to deal with, and it was SUPER last minute notice type trip. Like found out on Friday night, and was in the truck Saturday morning type thing. We took the Rivian instead of the Rogue for space reasons. Wife and I, two kids (13/6) and a 50lb lab mix. All in the truck for the trip. Down on Saturday, back on Tuesday.
We've made this trip about 10 times this year because of the move. Average time alone is ~8.5hrs. Average time with family in a single vehicle is ~9.5hrs. Average time with 2 vehicles is ~10hrs. We made the trip down in the Rivian in 9.5hrs. Made the trip home in 10hrs. That's door to door, soup to nuts all in time. SO, over ~550mi journey, the added time to "deal with the EV" wasn't trivial, but it certainly wasn't an issue either. So, IMO, that mystery is debunked, or rather, no longer a valid argument against getting an EV. NOW, with that said, if I was travelling by myself, it would be a different story. I would have added ~90min to the "normal" journey to "deal with an EV". As it works out with the family, the time it takes to charge is really pretty close to the time it takes to get 4 people and a dog out of the car, use the restroom, find a snack, tell 3/5 of them "NO" 700 times, and get back in the car and ready to go again. Only once did we have to "wait on the charger", and that was on purpose so we could make the final leg home without another stop. Would have saved ~15min had me made another stop instead of charging to 98% on that last stop.
I changed as little as possible about my driving style. Cruise was set to 5-7mph over the limit the whole way there and back. We fought a nasty headwind on the way back that really cut into efficiency, but it ended up still being "in the noise" as we never landed at a charger with less than 50mi of range, and again, never had to wait on a charger to get moving again. The Rivian is a THIRSTY truck in terms of consumption. We covered just over 1,400mi and averaged 2.06mi/kWh (485Wh/mi). Turns out, trucks are inefficient when compared to cars; whole shaped like a brick thing, and all.
I charged at 4 different networks. All worked, pretty flawlessly really. Rivian Action Network, Tesla Superchargers, EVGo, and Electrify America. Of course they all had to have their own apps, with their own logins, and own payment methods, and then you have to start the charge with that chargers app before you plug in. That all SOUNDS like a giant PIA, but in reality, it wasn't that bad. I had most of them setup on Friday night in about 30min in preparation for making the trip on Saturday. Once we were on the road and using them, they all just kind of worked. Say a fast charge speed of 218kW. Rivian is supposedly maxed at 220kW, so that appears to be working as it should. I was usually coming in with 15-20% of range left, and was charging into the 75-80% state of charge. Most charge sessions were 20-30min or so, which was enough to get me to the next station. On the way down that translated into the first leg of 3hrs, then about every 2hrs after that for a charge stop. Only twice it a leg feel "too long" or "too short". It honestly wasn't bad at all.
In terms of planning, I had loaded up ABetterRoutePlanner app, and had it connected to my Rivian account for live vehicle data. Then I never touched it. The route planning in the truck worked great. We put in a destination, told it what networks we wanted to prefer, and it routed us south in a minute or so. We headed out with the mantra "In Rivian we trust", and it didn't let us down. Range estimates were spot on even when the "math" didn't work out. Like on the last leg we left with almost 300mi of range, and it was predicting we would have 50mi when we got home, however GPS was telling us it was only 192mi to get there. I'm guessing the range remaining calculation takes into account temperature as well as elevation, as the math said we would land with 108mi, but we pulled in with 51mi of range. Super weird how it knew ahead of time, but was pretty damn accurate. There were several times when we wanted to "swap out" a charger and that was a little bit of a process, but once we figured out the steps it was fairly easy. Say it routed us to an EA charger. We would zoom in (there is satellite imagery on the maps) and see what was around. Well there might be a Tesla charger 3mi further, but was in a Sheetz parking lot instead of a Meijer parking lot. We could add the Tesla, and the truck would recalculate the whole journey and away we went. Fairly painless after the first one.
Now, the truck did really well. I'm like 98% happy with it (see below for the few things I'm not) It was pretty surprising that we had 4 people and a dog in the cab, and all our "stuff" for a few days away from home in DRY storage and I don't have a bed cover. Suitcases, bags, toys, snack cooler, laptop bags, etc ALL fit in the trunk and gear tunnel. Only thing in the bed was the dog crate we brought along just in case. There was ample room in the back seat for the boys and the dog, and Shelly and I were comfy in the front. The front storage area on the floor ahead of the console was great for keeping all her "stuff" that has to ride in the cab (tablet, cross stitch, 3 books, purse, etc), and the cupholders and console held all the "stuff" we needed. Overall, aside from the tire noise from the absurd A/T tires, it was a fairly pleasant place to spend 8+hrs sitting.
I do miss a few things from the Audi. The Rivian seats are hard and not as comfy as the Audi seats. Took awhile to find a truly "neutral" position for me. Back hurt on the way down, was OK on the way back. Rivians driver+ autonomous lane keep tech is decent, and the adaptive cruise works great. HOWEVER, there is no "resume" function in the cruise control. Who in the exact F&<k decided that was a good idea to remove? Every time you cancelled cruise, you had to reset the speed you wanted. Either get there and engage, or set and then use steering wheel controls to adjust setpoint. Totally asinine setup IMO. Speaking of dumbass decisions, adjusting the vents on the screen is effing terrible. Like, seriously I've never spent so much time fiddle-f&,king around with a setting in any car, ever. It's a change just for the sake of being a change, and it's awful.
Overall, as a "first EV road trip ever" type situation, we're all really happy with how it went down. Zero drama or issues along the way, and no real reason to doubt we can make that trip again. Didn't even really have any "range anxiety" with the level of planning and prep combined with the "what you see is what will happen" nav system in the truck. I don't know if Rivian really nailed that and it's not common with all EV's, of if this is just how stuff works now, but I'll take it either way.
