The charging experience for Rivian owners (and pretty much all non-Tesla EV owners) is on track to improve after the roll-out of the Tesla North American Charging Standard adapter. This gives Rivian owners access to over 15,000 Tesla Supercharger stalls across the U.S. But Tesla and Rivian aren’t stopping at that in their quest to make the EV charging experience incrementally better over time.
On X, the platform formally known as Twitter, a popular Rivian-focused handle called RivianTrackr posted a small new addition to Rivian screens when the EVs are plugged into a Tesla Supercharger. The real-time charging costs are now displayed on the gauge cluster and the central infotainment display of Rivian EVs.
It might not sound like a big deal, but it's certainly an intuitive add-on—and a more useful feature than most EVs have.
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The charging experience is improving slowly in the U.S.
Record EV sales mean the charging infrastructure needs to expand at a record pace as well. That's certainly happening, and at the same time, brands are working hard to make the charging experience worry-free and intuitive.
All the important charging information is now in sight, deleting an additional layer of complexity where you have to navigate through your charging or payments app to find out exactly how much the charging session costs you. So now you have your real-time range, the charging rate, the number of kilowatt-hours being added, and the exact cost and time remaining.
EV fast charging rates can often be all over the place. They're likely determined by the cost of local electricity, and also what the station or company is choosing to charge. This feature offers more immediate transparency into how kilowatt-hours translate into dollars.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe quickly retweeted RivianTrackr’s post, saying that Rivian collaborated with Tesla to bring this tiny detail onto the screen. It might appear like an insignificant addition on the screen, but it likely was a complex task of advanced system integration between the two brands. It's unclear how fast this quirk will be rolled out across the country.
According to RivianTrackr, this feature is exclusive to Tesla Superchargers and the Rivian Adventure Network at the moment, so it’s unlikely that you would see real-time charging costs on the gauge cluster after plugging into Electrify America, or any other network.
Several Rivian owners who got their hands on the NACS to CCS1 adapter early on have said that charging at Tesla Superchargers is trouble-free. Rivian’s in-car charging map now displays the nearby Superchargers compatible with adapters—not all are compatible at the moment. All drivers need to do is plug the adapter into the NACS cable and then connect that to the vehicle’s charging port. You should also have an established payment method in the Rivian app for plug and charge to work.
Nearly all U.S. carmakers joined Ford and General Motors in adapting Tesla’s NACS connector for their electric cars last year. That is slowly coming to life in 2024 as Tesla-made and other aftermarket adapters become available for non-Tesla EV owners.
Inadequate charging infrastructure and worry-free charging experience are major barriers to wider EV adoption—but significant work is underway to change that nationally. With that, we wonder what other collaborations are underway between Tesla and its fellow rivals in making the EV experience incrementally better for owners.
Correction: The live cost feature is displayed when using the Rivian Adventure Network as well. A previous version of this article said that it was exclusive to the Supercharger.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com
