Rivian Could Open up its Charging Network as Soon as Next Year

• Following Tesla, the young automaker wants to make its network open to every EV driver.

• Rivian’s Adventure network had higher growth than Electrify America during the first quarter of the year.

• The automaker wants to have 600 stations across North America within two years.

Rivian has announced it will open its proprietary charging network to every electric vehicle in the United States as soon as next year.

Like Tesla, the small automaker decided to develop its own public EV charging network in North America which it calls Rivian Adventure.

Since its vehicles are pickups and SUVs that are capable of going off-road, many of these charging points are in remote locations where EV drivers could risk getting stranded.

While Tesla has to retrofit every Supercharger with a compatible plug in order to allow other EVs to use its stations, Rivian mostly likely only needs to perform a software update since its vehicles use the same standard connector as every other non-Tesla EV in the United States and Canada.

At the moment, Rivian’s network is still fairly limited, but it grew more rapidly in the first quarter of the year than Electrify America, which is the largest independent EV charging network in the country, with 12 new stations containing a total of 72 fast chargers.

The automaker doesn’t want to rest on its laurels either, since it plans to have 600 charging stations across Canada and the U.S. within the next two years.

Since every Rivian station has on average 6 charging points, this means the company could have over 3,500 individual chargers on the continent.

At the moment, the company’s DC fast chargers are rated to deliver 200 kW, but this could soon be increased to 300 kW, something that will make them more appealing to drivers of 800-volt EVs that can charge at this rate, such as the Hyundai IONIQ and Kia EVx models, along with the Genesis GV60, the GMC Hummer EV, the Porsche Taycan, the Audi e-Tron GT, and a number of upcoming models from different manufacturers.

In addition to these fast chargers, the Rivian network will also include destination chargers installed at hotels and other locations where drivers are likely to spend a considerable amount of time, just like Tesla also offers.

This decision to open up the network to every EV driver is not done entirely out of generosity, however, since it is a requirement for the company to receive federal funding for new stations in the United States.

Source: Automotive News