A Tesla Cybertruck was spotted charging a Rivian R1T electric pickup, seemingly stuck without a functioning fast charger.
There are only a few Cybertrucks on the roads, and yet, they are already proving helpful.
Cybertruck is equipped with a 240-volt outlet in the back of the bed, which can power many different power tools and even charge other vehicles with a level 2 mobile charger.
Now, a Cybertruck was spotted helping another electric vehicle charge in the wild for the first time.
Kitty Adams Hoksbergen, executive director at Adopt A Charger, Inc., shared the picture, which reportedly came from the owner of the Rivian R1T (via LinkedIn):
She hypothesized that the owner was planning to charge at a CCS charging station, but it didn’t work when they got there, and they had to improvise.
Fortunately, a Tesla Cybertruck was around, and even if a level 2 charger is nowhere near as fast as a level 3 fast charger, it is still super helpful to get enough charge to get to the next functioning fast charger.
The problem of inoperable DC fast-charger is a real one and one of the main reasons automakers in North America are adopting the NACS connector standard in order to get access to Tesla’s Supercharger network, which is known for being much more reliable than the average CCS fast-charger.
To be clear, this scene is not a failure of the Rivian R1T but rather of the charging infrastructure with CCS connectors. However, the situation wouldn’t work the other way around as the R1T is not equipped with a 240-volt outlet in the back, only a 110-volt.
Rivian buyers have been asking for an update to enable more power in the back of the electric truck.
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