Man Leaves EV Charging for Entire Week, Comes Back to Find It Only Gained 8 Miles/Day of

The owner of an R1T, an electric truck manufactured by Rivian Automotive, Inc., wrote to electric vehicle website InsideEVs.com to share his experience, or rather his nightmare.

The Phoenix resident told InsideEvs he had left his truck plugged in for an entire week and found it had drawn only 32 kWh which means it only added 56 miles to its range. According to InsideEvs, “the vehicle had a 70 percent charging limit set, it was hooked up to a 240-volt 48-amp home charger, it had Gear Guard turned off, but it stayed connected to the WiFi network.”

This is known as “excessive drain” or “vampire drain,” the report said.

The owner contacted Rivian who recommended he bring the truck in for a service visit.

Electric vehicles have been known for losing battery in cold weather, but according to InsideEvs, they’ve heard numerous complaints from Rivian owners over the past few months who say their cars were losing substantial battery while parked – in moderate temperatures.

Another Rivian owner posted on RivianForums that the last update may be responsible for the increased drain. His “daily drain” increased from 1.8 percent to nearly 4 percent after the update. According to InsideEv’s, others have noticed this as well.

One owner on the forum wrote he’d been told by a Rivian technician that a “1 percent drain every 12 hours was acceptable and he also recommended that the vehicle be plugged in if it’s going to sit unused for a while.”

Each of the owners had a slightly different remedy for the excessively high drain. InsideEvs said that Rivian is aware of this issue and seems to be dealing with owners “on a case-by-case basis.”

Although Rivian appears to be receiving an outsize number of complaints, we hear reports of problems with EVs from every manufacturer.

Earlier, The Western Journal published a story about a man whose $115,000 GMC Hummer recently broke down in the middle of the Utah desert. The owner, a host and reviewer for vehicle review site TFLoffroad, said mechanical issues with the car began early on. Before he had even driven the Hummer 250 miles, it “broke down in the middle of a busy highway.”

On Monday, a VIP driver for attendees of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, told a journalist that they are not allowed to use EVs because they are unreliable in the cold weather.

Follow @ganaha_masako she not only brilliant but she’s at this week’s World Economic Forum doing some insider investigative reporting. Check this out, the WEF VIPs don’t use electric cars because they’re afraid they’ll run out of juice in the snow.@elonmusk any thoughts? https://t.co/qrLsT8blHL

— LTG (R) Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) January 17, 2023

Certainly, gas-powered cars have plenty of mechanical issues, but if well-maintained, they’re pretty reliable. And, when I go away for a week, the gas is at the same level as it was when I left. It doesn’t lose energy as EVs do.

I can travel much farther on a tank of gas than I can with a fully charged EV. And there are more gas stations than EV charging stations. I can fill up my tank in five minutes rather than spending hours plugged into a charging station.

And I can drive in cold weather or any weather.

Liberals are pushing hard for us to buy electric vehicles, but the technology has not reached the level where EVs are a viable alternative.

Talk to me in 15 years.

In the meantime, one thing is clear: their time has not come.