[groon]

My pre-order date was April 30, 2020. Back in November '21 they estimated April-May 2022 delivery. I feel like it's a victory that at least in this one case the company achieved something ahead of schedule!

The delivery experience was efficient - my guide called me on wednesday, then I got the paperwork done online via the website. They were able to arrange the DMV registration paperwork online as well. I did a trade in of my old Prius which they assessed sight unseen (just based on mileage and my stated "Good" condition) and just knocked the assessed value off the price of the R1T. Then on Saturday a few minutes before the scheduled time, a guy from the company showed up with the R1T on a small flatbed, quickly looked at our trade-in, and showed us around the new truck. It took about 45 minutes. I learned from him that the LA area service center is in El Segundo by the way.

So far so good: I haven't put it through the paces to test its true capabilities, so far just the suburban adventures of shuttling kids around to school. Boy they are excited to be one of the first ones in town with such a cool vehicle. My 8 year old loves crawling through the gear tunnel.

It drives very smoothly. It's a much larger vehicle than I'm used to but it really doesn't feel like it because it's so responsive and the visibility is great. This is not unique to Rivian and may not be news to most of you but since I haven't bought a new car in 10+ years, I've never experienced modern safety features like the ultrasonic blind spot sensor and radar. Very handy tools.

I went with the 21" road tires for efficiency's sake: I do plan to do some mild off road driving for camping with the kids, but realistically, 90% of my time in the truck will be driving around town.

I really like the LA silver color - it's a nice unique silvery-white and more understated than the yellow or blue, so probably not drawing as many stares. Though we have gotten a few. We live in a fairly affluent area with a high rate of EV adoption (teslas everywhere) so I do expect a lot of queries from folks.

I hope the rest of you have an equally good experience and also receive your vehicles ahead of schedule!

 

[rainmixer]

I am in Altadena and hope to see you and the silver R1T on the road around here soon!

 

[groon]

I am in Altadena and hope to see you and the silver R1T on the road around here soon!

Right on! If you see an R1T, it's probably me: I've only had two R1T sightings ever in this area: both in La Canada, and both with Illinois plates so presumably Rivian employees on business..

 

[derekmw]

Congrats! Does the car come with a portable charger? Or is the only charger available from Rivian, the home charger they sell?

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Congrats! Does the car come with a portable charger? Or is the only charger available from Rivian, the home charger they sell?

32A portable charger is included with the vehicle.

 

[groon]

Congrats! Does the car come with a portable charger? Or is the only charger available from Rivian, the home charger they sell?

It did indeed come with a portable charger, with adapters to plug into 110V or 220V wall outlets. But it's fairly low power so doesn't seem super useful except in emergencies in my opinion. I already have a 6.5 kW charger for my Leaf at home, fairly similar to the home charger that Rivian sells. So that, along with commercially run chargers at my work locations is how I plan to keep the vehicle going..

 

[derekmw]

It did indeed come with a portable charger, with adapters to plug into 110V or 220V wall outlets. But it's fairly low power so doesn't seem super useful except in emergencies in my opinion. I already have a 6.5 kW charger for my Leaf at home, fairly similar to the home charger that Rivian sells. So that, along with commercially run chargers at my work locations is how I plan to keep the vehicle going..

Thanks for confirming. Is the 32A charger really not sufficient in most cases? I have a Model 3 Performance right now and just use the mobile connector and only once (when I got home with 3% charge left) did I not finish charging in time by the morning when I had to leave at 5am. I never saw a need to spend money on Tesla side on the wall charger and figured as long as a similar 'mobile connector' is available on the Rivian, it would still be the same for me.

 

[Riviano]

Thanks for confirming. Is the 32A charger really not sufficient in most cases? I have a Model 3 Performance right now and just use the mobile connector and only once (when I got home with 3% charge left) did I not finish charging in time by the morning when I had to leave at 5am. I never saw a need to spend money on Tesla side on the wall charger and figured as long as a similar 'mobile connector' is available on the Rivian, it would still be the same for me.

A 32A 240V charger should provide about 15 miles per hour of range assuming 2.2 miles per kwh of consumption for the truck. That would satisfy my daily driving needs for sure.

 

[groon]

Thanks for confirming. Is the 32A charger really not sufficient in most cases? I have a Model 3 Performance right now and just use the mobile connector and only once (when I got home with 3% charge left) did I not finish charging in time by the morning when I had to leave at 5am. I never saw a need to spend money on Tesla side on the wall charger and figured as long as a similar 'mobile connector' is available on the Rivian, it would still be the same for me.

It might be worth a test sometime. I'll post here if I get around to it.

I was just doing the back of the envelope 32 A x 110 V = 3.5 kW so to fill a 135 kW-h battery (assuming no losses in extension cords and so on), it's like 38 hours to fully charge. I guess my 6.5 kW charger is not even a factor 2 better but at least overnight it could halfway charge the Rivian.

 

[groon]

A 38A 240V charger should provide about 15 miles per hour of range assuming 2.2 miles per kwh of consumption for the truck. That would satisfy my daily driving needs for sure.

Ah my bad, I was thinking 38A at 110 V.

 

[derekmw]

Ah my bad, I was thinking 38A at 110 V.

Sorry I should have clarified too. I'm not using the 110v plug on the mobile connector now on the Tesla, but the NEMA 14-50

 

[Riviano]

It might be worth a test sometime. I'll post here if I get around to it.

I was just doing the back of the envelope 32 A x 110 V = 3.5 kW so to fill a 135 kW-h battery (assuming no losses in extension cords and so on), it's like 38 hours to fully charge. I guess my 6.5 kW charger is not even a factor 2 better but at least overnight it could halfway charge the Rivian.

Remember that most people don't use the truck's entire 125kWh (135kWh minus buffer) of charge during daily driving, and most people don't charge to 100% even during long trips.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

It might be worth a test sometime. I'll post here if I get around to it.

I was just doing the back of the envelope 32 A x 110 V = 3.5 kW so to fill a 135 kW-h battery (assuming no losses in extension cords and so on), it's like 38 hours to fully charge. I guess my 6.5 kW charger is not even a factor 2 better but at least overnight it could halfway charge the Rivian.

You’ll never get 32A at 110V…. The 32A rate is on a 240V circuit = 7.6kW.

 

[iansriv]

Congrats! Need pics please. I have a LA silver with the OC interior on order. How do you like the LA Silver so far?

 

[groon]

Just to follow up: I tried plugging in the portable charger to 110V: the app told me the truck was charging at 2kW. So ~18 amps getting to the car. Probably some losses in my extension cord as well.

 

[derekmw]

Yeah, no surprise there using 110v. Did this charger come with various plugs such as a plug for 14-50? I'm hoping it does as a 110v charger is pretty useless.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Yeah, no surprise there using 110v. Did this charger come with various plugs such as a plug for 14-50? I'm hoping it does as a 110v charger is pretty useless.

yes, NEMA 14-50 is included. It can charge at 32A @ 240V = 7.6kW when connected that way.

 

[groon]

Congrats! Need pics please. I have a LA silver with the OC interior on order. How do you like the LA Silver so far?

I really like the color! Certainly more understated than some of the other Rivian color options like the blue or yellow, but I have never seen an automobile color quite like it - a bit more white in it than the typical silver you see out there. Not sure how well it comes through in the photo but I think it is very pretty.

 

[Riviano]

Just to follow up: I tried plugging in the portable charger to 110V: the app told me the truck was charging at 2kW. So ~18 amps getting to the car. Probably some losses in my extension cord as well.

That doesn't look right since it means you are gaining only 0.6 miles per kWh. That would give the truck 74 miles of range with a full battery.

 

[sciencegeek]

That doesn't look right since it means you are gaining only 0.6 miles per kWh. That would give the truck 74 miles of range with a full battery.

You're mixing up kW and kWh. kW is the charging rate. 2kW means that it'll take about 60 hours to fill the usable capacity (ca 120 kWh) of the battery.