I believe that the Rivian will come with its own cable (think it's on the website) but you can ask customer support for a more definitive answer.

It sounds like you have a NEMA 14-50 outlet already in place (4-pole 240v/50 amp receptacle, with 2 hots, a neutral and a dedicated ground). That should be all you need to charge the Rivian, assuming that cable that will come with it has a matching 4-pole male end. I'm not an expert in EV charging systems however, just someone familiar with wiring electric ranges. Hopefully someone with EV experience will confirm or failing that, set me straight.

 

It sounds like you have a NEMA 14-50 outlet already in place (4-pole 240v/50 amp receptacle, with 2 hots, a neutral and a dedicated ground).

To be clear, NEMA 14 and 14L devices are 3-pole / 4-wire devices. Poles denote the number of current carrying wires and in this case the 3 poles are hot-hot-neutral. The safety ground should not be carrying any current.

NEMA Connectors

 

Yes, Rivian includes a 32A portable charger with the vehicle — similar to Tesla. If you’ve got a NEMA 14-50 outlet you can use it and get about 16 miles of range gained, per hour.

 

 

It appears the Rivian R1T is delivered with a 7.5 kW “charger”.

 

I was just at the testdrive at Sonoma Raceway today, they had a really nice little display/booth about charging with knowledgeable folks (nice work Simon). The truck comes with a "base" level charger, that can plug into either a 110 or 240v plug for charging - I think you'll want a 50-amp circuit, and you'll get something around 16mi/hour. The wall charger is more like 25mi/hour, and requires a 60-amp circuit. The base charger goes nicely in a compartment at the bottom of the frunk.

 

See How do I charge my Rivian vehicle at home?

For the quickest and most convenient way to charge at home, we recommend using the Rivian Wall Charger — capable of providing up to 25 miles of range per hour at a 11.5 kW charging speed. The Wall Charger is weatherproof for indoor or outdoor use, has Wi-Fi connectivity for OTA updates and is covered by a 5-year warranty.

Rivian vehicles also come standard with our Portable Charger which can be easily stowed in your garage or front trunk. The Portable Charger is capable of providing up to 16 miles of range per hour with a 240V outlet — and can be used with standard 120V outlets for a slower charge.

Learn more about charging at home and on the road.

 

I'm leaning towards just using the portable charger, but some states do have incentives and rebates from the power utility to get a Level 2 charger installed (brands and rules vary by state). In GA where I live, the Rivian wall charger would qualify for a $250 rebate from the power utility (if installed by Dec 31st....). Maybe the GA program will get renewed again in 2022.

 

Rivian charger is hardwire only, keep that in mind. I have a NEMA14-50 outlet with a JuiceBox charger just waiting.

 

Right, if I switch over to the Rivian, I can disconnect and remove my NEMA 14-50 and hardwire the Rivian charger. But I also have to upgrade my breaker to 60A to get the max out of the Rivian charger. So maybe just chill with the portable cord and possibly add a juice box 40 down the line. My panel is maxed out but I'm really trying to find a way to free up some room to switch from a gas water heater to electric hybrid heat pump water heater. Oh, sorry, thought this forum was for Rivian and water heaters....

 

Welcome to the home wiring forum! I think you've reached the point @DSK_SOBU that it may be wise to consult an electrician to be sure that you have sufficient capacity.

If you have say, 200 amp service, and are already using most of that current for other devices, it won't matter if you have plenty of room in your box to add additional breakers; adding another circuit that will draw 60 amps will overload things. Should you need more capacity, you will have to upgrade your service sufficiently. This almost surely means running new higher capacity lines from the service head to the meter, then new higher capacity service entry cables to a new higher capacity box. Not a particularly difficult endeavor, but a fairly expensive one.

 

These Rivian's have large batteries and will take serious amperage to charge them in an acceptable amount of time. IMHO, wall chargers are the only way to go with an EV. I have a 40 amp level 2 charger at home to charge my Kia Soul EV. My home charger is noticeably faster than public 30 amp level 2 chargers. If you return home from a road trip with 25% left on your max pack, it's 18.75 hours to return it to full charge with the included charger, and 12 hours with a 60 amp wall charger. That seems worth the investment to me!

I think having a decent wall charger and paying an electrician to install is just part of owning an EV. I guarantee you will be happier with a faster charge rate.

 

These Rivian's have large batteries and will take serious amperage to charge them in an acceptable amount of time. IMHO, wall chargers are the only way to go with an EV. I have a 40 amp level 2 charger at home to charge my Kia Soul EV. My home charger is noticeably faster than public 30 amp level 2 chargers. If you return home from a road trip with 25% left on your max pack, it's 18.75 hours to return it to full charge with the included charger, and 12 hours with a 60 amp wall charger. That seems worth the investment to me!

I think having a decent wall charger and paying an electrician to install is just part of owning an EV. I guarantee you will be happier with a faster charge rate.

Good points. Also the convenience of keeping the included charger in the truck in case you need it in a pinch, is worth the $500 to me.

 

Yes, i'm one week in on my Rivian and i now am starting to "get" charging. definitely get a Level 2 charger of in your garage. But to the initial question, yes, your Travel Charger will work, you just need a 240V receptical.

The higher the amperage the better of course, but even a 30A, 240V would do fairly nicely unless you expect to do back to back long-haul driving. For me personally, my long hauls are usually weekends away so coming home on a Monday i would have more than the normal 10 hour evening charge timeslot.

And then in a pinch, EVGO is starting to build out quite a few fast chargers in shopping malls, etc. They are VERY expensive to use however, so careful on that. And be sure to not make the same mistake i did...get their basic $4.99 package, otherwise you'll pay a $5 "session fee"...which i did when i was trying it out for the first time.

 

Stupid question and I am not an electrician so my understanding / comprehension on this subject is minimal, but if I have a 50AMP NEMA 14-50R receptacle in my garage already (used previously to charge our RV), would changing out the circuit breakers in the fuse panel to a higher amperage allow me to run the Rivian charger directly from this NEMA plug into the vehicle now such that I can get the 25 mi/hr charge rate?

 

Hi,

It "Depends". If your RV 50 amp receptacle was installed with #6 wire, then upgrading to a 60 amp circuit breaker is legal. IF they used a minimal size wire such as #8 wire, then upgrading to 60 amps would not be legal. My guess is they installed using #6 wire, but that is just a guess.

If you use a portable EV charger rated at 32 amps, that is the max that you can plug into a 40 amp receptacle, but a little smaller than the 40 amp max for your RV 50 amp plug. It is the same configuration as a 50 amp stove, so if you are visiting friends, you could unplug the stove and plug in there to do a quick charge. Or if you bought a 32 amp charger that is adjustable (in steps usually between 8 and 32 amps) you could get a adapter so that you could plug into a dryer receptacle when visiting friends. Usually the dryer is much closer to the garage.

 

NEMA 14-50 outlets are rated for a maximum of 40 amps, which would give you 9.6kW at 240V.
If you want more you need to hardwire the charging unit.
And the panel has to support the bigger circuit breaker.

 

Another reason you should not just blindly change out the breaker is the wiring between your panel and the outlet. A 50 amp circuit is likely wired with 6 gauge wire. For a 60 amp circuit you would probably want 4 gauge wire.

 

The rivian EVSE is physically sized for 6AWG, iirc.

 

Hmmm, OK, so if the electrician installed the wiring back to the fuse panel that is at least 6 gauge wire, it should be do-able right? After all the wiring is rated correctly, just need the circuit breakers updated, right?

 

Are you asking if you can keep the NEMA 14-50 outlet, install a pigtail on the Rivian Wall EVSE, and swap the breaker in the load center to run the EVSE at 48A? No. That is not okay. The would be several code violations.

Now if you wanted to ditch the NEMA 14-50 and simply repurpose the wiring to hardwire the Rivian Wall EVSE and swap the breaker to support 48A continuous load (60A breaker).... that may be okay... So long as the load center has the capacity and your wiring is rated appropriately.

 

Or switch out the recep to a 60A rated and put a 60A rated pigtail on the charger (load center capacity assumed). Honestly, I would always hardwire anyway. For an item that 90% of the time will be used when you are sleeping or not around, one less potential hazard to consider. If you need to use the same charger in two places, buy another charger. Not that expensive and you'll enjoy not having the hassle of lugging it around.

 

Is there an easy way to determine if the wiring is 6-AWG or 4-AWG?

 

It's printed on the jacket of the wire. If you can't access the jacket you can use a micrometer to measure the diameter of the bare wire.

https://www.solaris-shop.com/content/American Wire Gauge Conductor Size Table.pdf

 

From Rivian

I have a Wallbox Pulsar Plus 48A hardwired charger that I had installed by an electrician, and that also specifies 6AWG on a 60A breaker.

I think it is incorrect to say the Rivian Wall Charger requires 4AWG for a hardwired installation.

 

I think it is incorrect to say the Rivian Wall Charger requires 4AWG for a hardwired installation.

Please read the note at the bottom of the table:

* These typical wire sizes are based on the 90°C column in the National Electrical Code.

The 90º C column is for THHN and similar wire. The OP has existing, in-wall, wiring which is likely NM-B which means you need to read down the 60º C column. Since the OP simply wants to replace the existing 14-50 receptacle with the Rivian Wall Connector he needs to set the amperage to 40 amps.

 

Regardless, to address the original question:

If you have a NEMA 14-50 and want to replace it with a hardwired Rivian charger, this is possible. You have to consider panel capacity, breaker size, and wire size. If you don't have the right wire size you will have to either rewire or use the existing wire and turn down the current on the Rivian charger. IMO the best thing to do is get some quotes. From multiple electricians, because they will be all over the place.

I would not do it yourself based on advice from the internet.

 

WOW!!! All this info just blew my head up! Dip switches, wire diameters, NM-Bs, phalanges (Friends), uggg. My biggest problems are the orientation of the interior garage wall and the ability to "drill" into the wall and the foundation to hit the basement entry point, then run wiring across the entire length of the basement (about 60 ft) to the fuse panel. Now that the basement is finished, I'd hate to have to do that AGAIN. So the 50 AMP NEMA was installed before the basement was sealed up. I'll have to pull the plug off and see if there is enough wiring in the box to see what the wire is rated at. I am hoping that it was "upsized" to protect for future power needs.

 

You’ll want a minimum (that means a gauge value of 6 or less) of 6 gauge wire for the Rivian Home Charger. 6/3 Romex is a common wire for NEMA 14-50 outlets, so there’s a good chance you’re OK. 6/3 Romex has 4 wires (which is what you need for the NEMA14-50 outlet), but you’ll only use 3 of them if connecting directly to the Home Charger. Use either the white wire or bare wire for the ground, and the black and red wires for the two hot wires. Whichever wire you don’t connect to the charger should also be disconnected in your breaker panel.

 

Wow. Sooooo out of my league here. I have not recent post of new people taking delivery of their R1Ts, but is Rivian still offering the program to help people get set up with the wall charger? GM is offering an incentive program which is nice to get people to get a Level 2 charger properly installed in their residences.

 

is Rivian still offering the program to help people get set up with the wall charger

See Rivian

Rivian "partners" with QMerit. So does GM. So does Chevy, Subaru, Ford, etc. Supposedly this gives you a discount on the installation, but I have not heard of anyone who got a bargain price with QMerit - they seems to be on the high end of prices. I believe they contract out to local electricians, so essentially you're paying QMerit a finders fee on top of what you would pay the electrician.

 

Ah this is good to know. I got my home builder's electrician programmed into my phone, I'll just reach out to him!

 

Installed mine myself. Added a 60 amp breaker to my existing main panel (had to move a single pole breaker to another slot to make room for it). Fed about 10’ of 6/3 Romex straight up the wall from the panel in my basement and out into my garage, then into conduit up into the charger. It was about $100 in parts - most of that consumed by $85 for a 15’ spool of 6/3 Romex 😳). Easy-peasy and works like a champ.

 

So a pulled about the housing on my NEMA 15-50 housing in my garage to expose the wires and see what gauge they are. Perhaps you all are better at this than me, but I could not see any gauge wire rating on the sheet of the Red, Black or White wires. However, they look and feel, very very thick to me. Can you glean any info from these pics? I really couldn't even pull the whole wire bundle from the wall as I was met with a lot of resistance to do that.

 

Any thoughts on if these wires are "up-gauged" enough to handle a 60 AMP breaker?

 

Hard to tell from the pic. Need to be AWG 6 or lower. You might want to pull the front panel off of your breaker box where you’ll have longer lengths of wire to see if they are labeled.

 

Thank you. I'll try that this weekend and report back.

 

If they aren’t marked, you can get a wire gauge too and measure it. That will require you get to the bare wire though, so you’d likely need to pull one from its socket to measure it.