The battery temperature of electric vehicles must be carefully controlled to maximize driving range and performance, and minimize degradation.Without sufficient cooling, electric vehicles may lose significant cruising range over time like the first-generation Nissan Leaf.Although it is not that important, in cold weather, the absence of a heat pump will still damage the cruising range of electric vehicles.Despite the lack of a dedicated heat pump, the 2022 Rivian R1T should not be a victim of such problems because its battery heating is done using waste heat from the vehicle’s inverter.
When asked to explain the reason for the lack of heat pumps in the 2022 type certification application that Rivian submitted to the EPA, Rivian disclosed the setting to The Drive, and the application was excavated by users of the Rivian Owners Forum.The document specifically noted “N/A” under the subtitle of the heat pump, which seems to mean that there is no heat pump.A company spokesperson confirmed that there is indeed no dedicated heat pump, but this does not mean that the battery cannot be heated.Instead, the heat from the powertrain inverter is captured by the coolant and then circulated in the battery.Functionally, this is the same thing and a clever way to re-use the waste heat of the drivetrain-Kia and Hyundai do similar things in their current electric cars.
“The R1 vehicle is designed with active battery heating through the power electronics in the system, which essentially mimics the behavior of a heat pump,” a Rivian spokesperson explained.”This allows the battery temperature to be maintained to provide proper energy output from the battery pack to optimize range and cabin regulation. The system supports the overall performance of the R1 vehicle in cold weather.”
The absence of a heat pump for R1s is not the only interesting detail revealed in the above document.When I drove the prototype R1T earlier this year, we had no official information on its weight or maximum DC fast charging speed.Both are confirmed in the document, which states that the R1T weighs 6,949 pounds.As a bonus, the file is even the same as the curb weight of the R1S-which is 6,916 pounds.
As for charging, Rivian previously only stated that the R1T can restore 140 miles of cruising range in 20 minutes under a 200 kW DC input.According to the document, the maximum input is not much more than that, at 210 kW; a fairly high charging rate, although it is lower than the comparable (although more expensive) charging rate provided by the 2022 GMC Hummer EV, which can accept 350 kW Charge.For further reference, the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning seems to charge more slowly at 150 kW, putting Rivian in the middle when charging because of its price and power output.
This limitation may be due to the fact that the R1T’s drivetrain is a 400-volt system, rather than the 800-volt system Porsche chose for the fast-charging Taycan (270 kW).On the other hand, Hummer is compatible with 800 volts during charging, but it runs at 400 volts under other conditions.
R1s without a heat pump will not give them any benefit in comparison with other electric vehicles on paper, although it is unlikely to significantly affect daily usability.The R1T’s 135 kWh battery provides it with a range of 314 miles—even if it suffers a loss of 57% of the range discovered by AAA at 20 degrees Fahrenheit, my own mathematical calculations can still guarantee a range of 135 miles.Moreover, if you need to drive a pickup truck as far as the weather, you may not buy a truck with strict cruising range and charging requirements in the first place.
Update: December 14th at 5:44 pm Eastern Time: A Rivian spokesperson clarified that R1 does not have a heat pump, and explained that other parts of the drive train will perform its duties instead.
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