Rivan truck tow vehicle

I'm sure the Rivian is a phenomenal vehicle, but after dropping 80K+ on a tow vehicle, I certainly don't want the ability to find charging stations to become 'a bit of a challenge'.

Yup, I'm old fashioned, and prefer to pull up to a pump at the station of my choice, pretty much regardless of where I am.

Some day (but who knows how soon) the challenge of finding charging facilities for any electric vehicle will be but a memory.

For local commuting (20-60miles/day), charging is not a big issue. Even with a 15amp household outlet, you can let it trickle charge for 10-16hr at night and should work.

For long distance travel, it's an issue. To some degree it's a question of building more but a high speed charging stall (one stall not the entire station) can run $75-150k. Even with fast charging, you will need 3-4 times as many stalls to service the same number of vehicles due to the time it takes to charge...so the EV equivalent of a small 10 gas pump station, might be $3-4million just for the chargers (the minimarket, drives, etc... are all extra).

If you get into larger stations or remote non-urban stations, the prices can increase exponentially as the power grid feeding them needs to be upgraded up stream.

Also, expect high speed charging station costs to increase dramatically once the govt gets out of the subsidy business.

Towing with an EV is mostly a demonstration project.

Just a heads up re charging stations. No one actually has to “look for a charge station”. The truck knows where they are and all the driver does is select the station he wants to go to and it will navigate there. The driver will know things like,

Wether the station is occupied or not,
What the power is
What the vehicles battery level will be when he/she arrives
What amenities are in the area etc etc.
What the reviews are.
What method of payment will be required.

In the case of some manufacturers the driver just selects the final destination of the trip and the vehicle figures out all the stops along the way. It will compensate for wind, temperature, elevation change etc. it’s pretty accurate. It will also compensate for trailer load, but at least with our EV it takes 10 or 15 minutes of travelling with the trailer load to come up with a more accurate estimate.

As well there are about a half dozen apps that will do most of the above.

Hope that was informative.

Safe travels all.

At least Rivian has put some out there. The Cybertruck is still the magical mystical unicorn.

Even at the quick charge stations, don't you still need a couple of hours to charge the thing?

I don't know if all the ones that are out there now are "free"? I'd think you would have to pay for the electric you use? Or am I wrong on that? I've never looked into it, or cared for that matter..

I did just "borrow" my mom's 2014 Ford Escort "Titanium" to help with my gas bill for my daily commute (about 40 miles round trip). It's got the 2.0 "EcoBoost" in it and only has 44,000 miles on it.

The deal is to try to sell it or I can buy it for a nice 'family discount' if it comes to that..

With gas going to $6/gallon soon, the F150 will just be the tow vehicle for now!

Mitch

Exclusive of weight, is the Rivian's size and wheelbase somewhere between a Honda Ridgeline and an F-150? Haven't yet seen one in the wild around here.......

I give the man credit for being leading edge with his truck, not so much with the trailer. There is one driving around where I live. I presume they would be all over the place if Rivian could get them out the door in sufficient numbers.

Thomas, a few are cruising the Los Angeles area. When you couple the self-powered Airstream is planning with a Rivian...but then you need two charges when you stop.

thomasmnile wrote:
Exclusive of weight, is the Rivian's size and wheelbase somewhere between a Honda Ridgeline and an F-150? Haven't yet seen one in the wild around here.......

They're running around all over here now.
They're surprisingly smaller than I thought. I thought they were full size, but physically, they are mid-size. Ridgeline/Ranger/Colorado size.

I would have asked their mileage.

I'lll be getting a Cybertruck or F150 Lightning to either pull my RV or a camper truck if mileage will be an issue. Having to stop every 150 to 200 miles to charge will not be an issue for us since this is our normal and one-stop for us anyways between campsites.