Rivian: 1000 Mile Moab Trip

Trip to visit the National Parks in the Moab area, and a stop in Aspen on the way home for some hiking and driving over Independence Pass.

*See compromises below

The Plan:

• Pick up family from Denver International Airport
• Stay overnight in Grand Junction
• Travel to Moab, explore area and national parks
• Travel to Aspen
• Back home to Golden, CO

Where did we charge?

• First charge: about 15 minutes during a bathroom break in Edwards, CO
• Overnight at our hotel in Grand Junction
• At our campground in Moab (x2)
• about 30 minutes during lunch in Grand Junction on the way to Aspen
• Overnight in Aspen

So this is kind of the ideal trip in an EV- we did not make any stops we wouldn't have in a gas car. We never had to wait while the car charged; we had to go to the bathroom, and we had to eat lunch. This did not add any more travel time than we would have in a gas vehicle, on a 1000 mile trip.

The compromises:

• We stayed in a hotel with access to a charger in Grand Junction (it was about $110 a night, there are not many cheaper options anyway)
• We stayed in a campground with a charger, ~$50 a night. I see this as the biggest compromise; normally we would disperse camp in Moab and use the fast charger. Our out of town guests did not complain about access to nice bathrooms though, and it is also nice coming in to town with a reservation, instead of hunting for a site
• We ate lunch near a fast charger in Grand Junction
• We had to plan. We couldn't just stay anywhere in GJ and Moab, and we had to have backup plans; if the hotel charger is occupied, what should we do? where are alternative chargers? Luckily it went according to plan.

So is it worth it?

Most of the charging on this trip was free, so we traveled about 1000 miles for $10. Thats a penny per mile. This would have cost us about $175 in a similar vehicle (mid-size truck). That is enough to nearly cover a hotel room and both nights at our campground. This isn't always the case, normally we would pay a bit more, but this was nice.

There is also a pretty significant reduction in energy use driving an EV; a gas vehicle would use about 50 gallons of gas; we used the energy equivalent of 14 gallons of gas (462kWh). That's 72% less energy.