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Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

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Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#91

Post by kube-system »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #46
qwerpy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a cybertruck owner who likes to drive deep into national parks, I'm optimistic about this. Tesla covers the big highways really well with their superchargers, but where they fall short are those adventure/outdoors destinations. E.g. the north cascades loop in WA state. You can find the occasional level 2 charger but they are painfully slow and aren't maintained well. Prior to the CT, Tesla didn't have "adventure-c…

[flagged]

Maybe they are interested in the topic.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#92

Post by jchw »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #46
qwerpy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a cybertruck owner who likes to drive deep into national parks, I'm optimistic about this. Tesla covers the big highways really well with their superchargers, but where they fall short are those adventure/outdoors destinations. E.g. the north cascades loop in WA state. You can find the occasional level 2 charger but they are painfully slow and aren't maintained well. Prior to the CT, Tesla didn't have "adventure-c…

[flagged]

I would guess mostly because they own one, realistically. Why else would it be?

There are probably times when 90% of my last 200 comments are about Go or NixOS.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#93

Post by fredsmith219 »

The have a charger very near to where I go in Michigan, and 30 miles from the nearest supercharger. They announced earlier this year that they would open up the RAN “near the end of the year” so I’ve been waiting for this announcement. The fact that they will only gradually modify existing chargers to work with other vehicles is a disappointment. It’s all CCS so it should just be a software update. I am really looking forward to charging my model Y at the Rivian charger. I’m guessing that that will be a long time coming now. Oh well, I guess the Red E charger gets my business for the foreseeable future. They have excellent customer service and they just upgraded the charger to be much faster.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#94

Post by qwerpy »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #57
user3939382 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it any of your business?

Yeah? It definitely has my interest. Public comments get public attention.

OP here. Yeah I talk about them a lot. All of the other topics I could talk about, I seldom have original content to contribute. All of the interesting things get said pretty quickly for software engineering, living in a west coast city in the USA, not enjoying ads, etc. But for this one, I'm a relative rarity on this site and I'm enthusiastic about the topic, so there are more frequent opportunities for me to say something unique.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#95

Post by cogman10 »

fredsmith219 wrote: post #93

The have a charger very near to where I go in Michigan, and 30 miles from the nearest supercharger. They announced earlier this year that they would open up the RAN “near the end of the year” so I’ve been waiting for this announcement. The fact that they will only gradually modify existing chargers to work with other vehicles is a disappointment. It’s all CCS so it should just be a software update. I am really lookin…

> It’s all CCS so it should just be a software update.

Nope.

CCS has to negotiate voltages with the attached vehicle. Unfortunately there isn't a standardized pack voltage and the range of what it can be is anywhere from 400 -> 900V.

That can mean new inverter hardware at a location to handle the varying range of voltages that come in. For a single manufacturer, it's easier as the cars and charging stations are more aligned on the supported voltages.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#96

Post by no_wizard »

ggreer wrote: post #88
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it started taking 30 minutes to "fill up" your car. High speed chargers can cost >$200k installed. A gas pump costs about $25k installed. If the average person spends 4 minutes at a pump, that comes out to: The time value of a slot at a super charger can be >$5 for each charge. The time value of a slot at a gas pump is ~$0.07 per fill up. The economics of a charging business are awful. High CapEx, few cars, not…

Companies tend not to publish their costs, but we can find some info about the economics of charging stations. A grant program in Texas subsidized up to 70% of the cost of charging stations. Tesla bid $500k for a fast charging station with 17 plugs, and around $380k for a station with 9 plugs.[1] That's $29k per plug for the 17 charger station. Assuming they asked for the maximum subsidy, that means Tesla's costs are…

EV manufacturers (re: most car manufactures) are going to do all they can to get the government to subsidize this as much as possible.

I noticed an explosion of EV charging stations where I live after the state government put incentives in to subsidize their build out. Other states have done it already and are doing it now.

They're going to see the pattern of "I can get the government to subsidize this" and will hold out for them going forward, is my best guess.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#97

Post by whoknowsidont »

qwerpy wrote: post #94
whoknowsidont wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah? It definitely has my interest. Public comments get public attention.

OP here. Yeah I talk about them a lot. All of the other topics I could talk about, I seldom have original content to contribute. All of the interesting things get said pretty quickly for software engineering, living in a west coast city in the USA, not enjoying ads, etc. But for this one, I'm a relative rarity on this site and I'm enthusiastic about the topic, so there are more frequent opportunities for me to say so…

That actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the insight and reply!

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#98

Post by cogman10 »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #19
izacus wrote: post #18

How did we get from a situation where you could just pay with cash/card for fuel to having monopolized single-brand car fueling stations?

When it started taking 30 minutes to "fill up" your car. High speed chargers can cost >$200k installed. A gas pump costs about $25k installed. If the average person spends 4 minutes at a pump, that comes out to: The time value of a slot at a super charger can be >$5 for each charge. The time value of a slot at a gas pump is ~$0.07 per fill up. The economics of a charging business are awful. High CapEx, few cars, not…

> The economics of a charging business are awful.

Ish. I mean one thing the charging business has going for it is that after the initial investment the ongoing investment is basically 0. You don't have weekly fuel shipments or any real ongoing maintenance costs.

You also don't see immigrants all over charging stations because they are mostly unmanned. Usually placed in parking lots of retail stores.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#99

Post by cyberax »

ggreer wrote: post #62
MrHamburger wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charging via application brings unnecessary friction and severely degrades UX. Another UX offenders are QR codes on charging stalls and locking charging cables unless you will find that correct QR code so you can unlock your charging cable. Not that one, that will unlock charging cable in the stall next to you. For FFS why do I need to search for QR codes at a first place... I can imagine a simple solution - take a c…

You don't even need the contactless credit card reader. ISO 15118 is the standard for plug and charge.[1] Tesla implements it, as do most other EV manufacturers. The problem is that charging networks and manufacturers haven't settled on a way to exchange and update certificates.[2] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_15118 2. https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/4/24312002/ev-plug-and-char...

Tesla doesn't use the ISO standard for plug&charge, they have their own custom implementation.

Re: Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs

#100

Post by vel0city »

izacus wrote: post #18

How did we get from a situation where you could just pay with cash/card for fuel to having monopolized single-brand car fueling stations?

The last several times I did a DC fast charge that wasn't just plug and charge it had a credit card terminal that took chipped cards, swiped cards, and tap to pay. Plug in, tap credit card, it starts charging.
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