Maintenance requirements

Edr · Oct 24, 2023

I think I am in the process of getting a RS1. I was asked to confirm my reservation in late September. I am interested to find out about vehicle maintenance. I saw a reference somewhere to an oil change and thought that peculiar. Then I saw a Rivian clip that referred to “oil and the electric motors”, which seem logical. Do you have to be concerned about oil maintenance in the electric motors and if so, how are they serviced. Do electric motors require other long term maintenance, bearings,etc.? Do electric motors last for 100,000, 200,000, x000,000 miles? What is the replacement cost? If you replace one, do you have to replace them all?
I got to thinking about selling concerns in battery and battery replacement costs after 8 or 10 years. Would one have to spend $10,000.00 +/-, to get the car sellable.
I imagine most folks wouldn’t plan on keeping the car for that long but sometimes it might be of necessity to keep a car longer than planned.

Are there other costs besides insurance,brake replacement, tires, etc. that are not obvious that would require Service Center maintenance. With the limited access to Service Centers ,return trips do not bode well.

I realize there similar concerns with ICE cars as well, but I am pretty cognizant about them and understand them. I have an electric golf cart and have to charge and replace batteries. Had to replace a shifting switch once. That’s all I know about electric vehicles.
Perhaps you can put up with an older guy’s concerns.
Ed Redman

Kewlasu · Oct 24, 2023

So far, my only maintenance I have done for my R1T is refilling my windshield washer, tire rotation, tire pressure check, air filter change, and spray using dry lube the tonneau tracks.
The oil in the drive motors are non-user replaceable. Unless you started seeing fluid leaks under the vehicle, there are no fluid changes u need to maintain that I know of. Hope sometime in the future Rivian will update the manual for user schedule maintenance guide.

camaroz1985 · Oct 24, 2023

Kewlasu said:
So far, my only maintenance I have done for my R1T is refilling my windshield washer, tire rotation, tire pressure check, air filter change, and spray using dry lube the tonneau tracks.
The oil in the drive motors are non-user replaceable. Unless you started seeing fluid leaks under the vehicle, there are no fluid changes u need to maintain that I know of. Hope sometime in the future Rivian will update the manual for user schedule maintenance guide.

The only fluid changes you are likely to need is a coolant flush/replace (4-5 years most likely), and brake fluid flush/replace (2-3 years). It will be nice for Rivian to publish a maintenance guide though.

As far as the HV battery is concerned, you should not plan on needing to replace it at any interval. Your charging habits might have some impact on the long term health, but even with lots of fast charging Tesla's are showing relatively little degradation. That is basically all we have to go on for now as they are the only ones that have been around long enough to have data.

marchkang · Oct 25, 2023

Rivian should be similar to Tesla and I have model 3, 2018 and over 100K driven.
Motor is not like ICE - it should last forever.
My battery is still at 290 down from 310miles.
The regular items that I replaced was air-filters, washer-fluid, tires and haven't done any brake maintenance.
It has been virtually maintenance free.
I would expect my Rivian should be similar or even better.

Maintenance requirements

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