[lemming]

Originally Posted by clyde

They finally posted some interesting info. If you're not following along, they're trying to charge when they're down to about 30% range and charging to 90%. They would be going down to 20% if they had more confidence in the range estimates AND that there would be working chargers that aren't super slow when they arrive at the location.

They're seeing per mile costs averaging $0.25/mile with Electrify America (although yesterday was free) and $0.30/mile with Chargepoint.

They've had some bad luck with slow chargers and seem to generally be seeing about 1.2 minutes/mile of charge time overall, but it's highlight dependent on charging speed, which seems highly variable. At some locations, the first charger they've plugged into has been super slow, tried another and found it to be much faster. Sometimes, they're all slow.

If they have the ability to get to a charger without unhitching, they do...even if it blocks all the other chargers at that location. In other places, the geometry or bollards won't let them get to the charger with the trailer hooked up, so they have to leave it somewhere nearby.

For towing, the $0.27/mi cost is kind of competitive with diesel depending on your diesel alternative's efficiency and how long of a term you use for comparison. Average diesel price in the US today is $3.41/gallon. At 15 MPG, that's $0.23/gallon, but (if new enough) you also have to add DEF occasionally, do oil changes, probably add a tune, an exhaust at some point, etc. At those prices, a single trip of considerable length will be noticeably more expensive, but not enough to hurt, but I'd guess total running costs over 100k towing miles (10-15 years of significant use?) would be similar enough to wash out.

The parts that really hurt are that they're spending nearly as much time charging as they're spending moving and that they have to charge so often (although they're being cagey about sharing range details). I think a lot of thoughts I and others have had about the electric F150 apply here: Towing with an electric doesn't make sense...yet. If you want or need a truck for anything else...it's viable in today's world.

Staying tuned...

I appreciate this synopsis. Not enough bandwidth to follow this saga. I see many Rivian trucks daily on highways in LA with manufacturer tags. It is very large.

Your cost breakdown makes me less enthusiastic for the moment.