Important Tip for Rivian Owners Using Tesla Chargers

Using a Small Generator and L1 Power + in Cabin Heat

Vincent · 2025-01-10T19:33:15+00:00

A friend needed to support his son who would be running a 'very cold' marathon on Sunday while rucking a 30 pound pack. The outside temps will be around 15F-20F the whole time. The location of the race is nowhere close to any L2 chargers, but he's not worried about driving distance to or from the race - it is 50 miles away from his house. He says he will be sitting in his ruck with his laptop and watching his live track+Garmin inReach data for the duration of the race (about 4 hours). He thought about taking his Honda EB2800i gasoline powered generator, if he can use the level 1 EVSE attached to the generator and keep the truck running with full heat + power - without really consuming much of the truck's main battery? He feels it's super dorky to have a gas generator running while attached to a Rivian in the woods, just so he can stay warm, but don't know if it would work ok this way and 'preserve' the main battery so he doesn't need to worry about driving range when we wants to head home. He talked to me about it and I told him the simple answer is NO. I tested this theory the other night when I was plugged into a 5.9kW charger. To maintain the interior amenities (interior and exterior lights, radio, heater, seat heaters), it took almost all of the charge. I charged for 15 minutes, it delivered 1.6kW, and the truck consumed 1.4kW, delivering only 0.2kW to the truck battery. Told him he would be using a laptop at another 200ish watts. The little trickle charger charges at 1.4kW on a good day, 1.2kW is normal for me. You can slow the bleed, but you cant stop it. My advise to him was for him to charge it up to 100% at home, and roll the dice is what I would do.

Vincent

Member

Friday at 5:46 PM

Hi all, so I just wanted to share a quick tip based on an experience I had last week.

I and a friend stopped at a Tesla charger in North Bergen, NJ (John F. Kennedy Boulevard 2819) with 9% battery at 10:30 at night. We were driving back to Boston from Philly.

When I plugged in, the message on the dash was a normal "Starting .." but then a red message flashed saying something like "Payment Authorization Failed".

After multiple attempts, using the Tesla adapter and my own, and trying different stalls, I called Rivian. They ultimately had me go to the Tesla app and begin charging from there which worked and brought me out of my panic mode. I charged at another Tesla spot in New Haven, CT later that night with no problem.

So, lesson learned, if you're using Telsa charger, make sure you have the app on your phone and a payment method setup as a backup.

Happy trails!

Important Tip for Rivian Owners Using Tesla Chargers

Vincent

Member

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