[Cactus]

I'm an R1S order holder, but was invited to a First Mile drive in Phx, so I took the opportunity to do a test drive in an R1T. Test drive was good. Several quirks that need OTA updates, but overall feels very solid. Once issue I noticed:
On my 2014 Model S, I can "free-wheel" or Coast easily, feathering the accelerator so I am not using energy or regen braking.
I didn't get the feeling that I could do the same on the R1. It seemed like I was either accelerating or in regen mode. Over the past 8-9 years I have gotten very good at feathering the accelerator so that I can coast. I like to do this bc sometimes you need neither power nor regen braking. Tesla has a visual gauge that helps too: Orange=using power; green=regen, but there's a coasting sweetspot on my model S. I couldn't find this sort of "power-regen" gauge on the R1T I test drove. Are there any Tesla owners that also have a Rivian vehicle who can provide some input on coasting in a Rivian?
Is there a digital gauge that provides this real time info?

 

[KidThunder]

I'm an R1S order holder, but was invited to a First Mile drive in Phx, so I took the opportunity to do a test drive in an R1T. Test drive was good. Several quirks that need OTA updates, but overall feels very solid. Once issue I noticed:
On my 2014 Model S, I can "free-wheel" or Coast easily, feathering the accelerator so I am not using energy or regen braking.
I didn't get the feeling that I could do the same on the R1. It seemed like I was either accelerating or in regen mode. Over the past 8-9 years I have gotten very good at feathering the accelerator so that I can coast. I like to do this bc sometimes you need neither power nor regen braking. Tesla has a visual gauge that helps too: Orange=using power; green=regen, but there's a coasting sweetspot on my model S. I couldn't find this sort of "power-regen" gauge on the R1T I test drove. Are there any Tesla owners that also have a Rivian vehicle who can provide some input on coasting in a Rivian?
Is there a digital gauge that provides this real time info?

I've been driving mine for about a month and it appears there isn't a coast option. I'm hoping they will give that to us in an OTA update. When the battery is fully charged, the car will coast nicely because the regen is lowered but that goes away pretty quickly as you use up the battery the regen turns back on.

 

[Cactus]

Hope they will enable coast in a future OTA update. I bet it would benefit the battery too, so it's not constantly discharging and charging.
Anyone know if other EVs enable coasting? F150 Lightning? VW ID4? Kia EV6? Lucid?

 

[KidThunder]

Hope they will enable coast in a future OTA update. I bet it would benefit the battery too, so it's not constantly discharging and charging.
Anyone know if other EVs enable coasting? F150 Lightning? VW ID4? Kia EV6?

My iMiev has a weaker regen which allows for some coasting. Not as much as an ICE but just enough that it's less annoying

 

[atebit]

The Taycan’s default behavior is to coast. There is a button to turn on Regen while coasting, but it is clearly not what Porsche intended as an “always on” feature.

 

[sciencegeek]

I just totally don't understand coasting in an EV.

Coasting by definition is no energy input, and just letting kinetic energy propel you forward.
When you're going downhill, the potential energy you get back on the downhill is converted to kinetic energy.
Your maximum coasting speed is reached when the forward momentum is balanced with aerodynamic drag.

So you're letting the slope and drag dictate your speed.

I prefer to choose my speed by just holding the pedal to the position where I get that speed. It doesn't matter whether it's uphill or downhill. Sounds like that's what Rivian wants us to do too.

 

[Cactus]

@sciencegeek- There are many situations when one is traveling slightly downhill, for example, when wind/rolling resistance, etc. keeps the vehicle within 5mph of the speed limit and does not require acceleration or regen (coasting-like you mention). It's very natural in a Tesla (I've not driven a Taycan), but in the 20 mins I spent in the R1T, it did not seem natural–or possible. But I hope it's do-able via software?

I am not an electrical engineer or electrochemist, but I bet coasting (not discharging or regen-charging battery) increases its life.

 

[archiboy]

I've been driving a Tesla since 2015. Driving the R1T since March. They are different. The R1T can truly be driven as a one pedal operation. For 7 years I thought I was one pedal driving the Tesla - I was wrong. What's more annoying to me than the lack of "coast" is backing up with zero roll. Especially if you need to back up down a hill. It's counter intuitive to accelerate down a hill in reverse. There is a graphic in the speedometer that shows consumption vs regen. Its not nearly as intuitive as the Tesla energy graph. But you can find the sweet spot where you have the least green on that graphic. But ANY let up on the accelerator translates to immediate regen. Bottom line is my R1T is my daily driver. The Tesla is used for long road trips.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

there’s a pretty sizeable neutral position in the go-pedal where the power meter shows neither regen nor power use.

 

[atebit]

IMHO the R1T’s implementation of OPD plus lack of creep makes fine manoeuvring at low speeds challenging.
But it did give me an opportunity to spell that word that way.

 

[thebishman]

Isn’t there an option to completely turn off any form of Regen in the Rivian? In that way you’d have a defacto ‘coasting’ situation as your baseline.
I really like the coasting feature in my ‘19 etron along with the fact that by pulling on the left side steering wheel mounted paddle I can add back regen when I want to.

That being said when I did my 1st mile test drive I very quickly adapted to the OPD on the R1T and enjoyed it also.

 

[BlueHorizon]

@thebishman Currently you either have the hard or regular regen options, you can't disable it. Like others I'm assuming they may add that in a future update.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Isn’t there an option to completely turn off any form of Regen in the Rivian? In that way you’d have a defacto ‘coasting’ situation as your baseline.
I really like the coasting feature in my ‘19 etron along with the fact that by pulling on the left side steering wheel mounted paddle I can add back regen when I want to.

There is no option to disable regen fully in any of the normal road modes.

Personally, I hope they don't add it. People should accept that EVs are a little different and open their mind to driving them efficiently. Too many people shut down, mentally, and won't try anything outside of their narrow view/expectations.

You don't hear of many people who dislike regen after they live with it long enough to get used to it (usually just a few days).

Rivian originally teased paddles in the R1T, but they were removed at some point. Without paddles, it's better to leave regen on/mandatory.

 

[atebit]

I’m ok with regen/not advocating coasting. It’s the choice between REGEN!!! and REGEN! that I have the problem with. That & no creep. If Rivian adds options for these, individuals can select their driving style or have a way to try out & transition to a new style without having to look like Captain Kirk trying to drive that Caddy in A Piece of the Action.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

I’m ok with regen/not advocating coasting. It’s the choice between REGEN!!! and REGEN! that I have the problem with. That & no creep. If Rivian adds options for these, individuals can select their driving style or have a way to try out & transition to a new style without having to look like Captain Kirk trying to drive that Caddy in A Piece of the Action.

Creep only exists in EVs because manufacturers decided to bend to ICE drivers who refuse to open their mind. It's a band-aid to replicate an unfortunate side effect of torque converters used by old-school automatic transmissions.

 

[jmbach]

Put me in the camp of loving the OPD and not seeing a need for coasting. Last weekend I ran the Alpine Loop in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado with my R1T. Engineer Pass is a moderately difficult 4x4 trail with some good obstacles. I'd run it previously in my Xterra (lifted and armored) and similar trails in my diesel Grand Cherokee. The OPD and aggressive regen of the R1T made things almost too easy. The ability to very precisely control speed/momentum without having to switch quickly between pedals or drive with both feet was amazing. Speed never got away from me on downhills, and I didn't have to touch the brake pedal.

 

[atebit]

Creep only exists in EVs because manufacturers decided to bend to ICE drivers who refuse to open their mind. It's a band-aid to replicate an unfortunate side effect of torque converters used by old-school automatic transmissions.

Absolutely agree, and someone who’s grown up driving manual (or EVs, at some point soon ) will indeed look at such features as anachronisms. But in the meantime IMHO offering these as options will help adoption and UX for many transitioning from ICE. It would seem like doing so would be low-hanging fruit in terms of development effort, and therefore hopefully wouldn’t sink too much time away from other features/improvements.

 

[Bgrable]

Having never driven an EV let alone an R1 I have a question for you all. When you begin to depress the accelerator are you immediately supplying power to the electric motors? Seems like it would make sense that the initial depress would decrease and then cancel regen prior to powering up motors?? But maybe that’s not how it works?

 

[Livinginkaos]

IDK, I've been able to "feather" as you say to stay in the median between regen and power - but I wouldn't want to try to drive like that for any distance as it requires constantly watching the gauge. You can help that if you want to lower the regen all the way down, but then you'd want to kick it back up again once you needed to slow. Honestly, I think it's best to do like a few others mention and just focus on maintaining a speed anyway. I would think you'd actually lose less energy by allowing the regen to take up than to allow your vehicle to increase in speed only to lose energy in the increased wind drag (if efficiency is your goal).

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Having never driven an EV let alone an R1 I have a question for you all. When you begin to depress the accelerator are you immediately supplying power to the electric motors? Seems like it would make sense that the initial depress would decrease and then cancel regen prior to powering up motors?? But maybe that’s not how it works?

From a stop, pressing the pedal applies power. When pulling off the accelerator you decrease power until you reach a break-even point, then if you continue to release you get increasing regen. Foot off the pedal is max regen.

It's one of those "hard to describe, but once you try it then it all makes sense" things.