Rivian appears to finally be getting ready to release its bidirectional EV charger that will enable R1T and R1S drivers to power their homes using their vehicle’s battery.
The fact that Rivian hopes to introduce vehicle-to-home (V2H) is not new, with the company previously saying both the R1T and R1S have the necessary hardware for bidirectional charging. The two pieces that are missing are the software to enable this, and a bidirectional charger.
Rivian now appears to be close to finally releasing both. During the company’s Investor Day presentation on Thursday, senior vice president of electrical hardware Vidya Rajagopalan said they will be announcing a bidirectional charger “later.” This new charger will work with the newly-released second generation R1S and R1T, as well as the first generation R1, and of course the upcoming R2.
“We will be announcing this later, but we will be offering a bidirectional charger that you can mount on the wall of your garage, or wherever you park your car, that can pair up with the first gen R1 or the new gen 2 version, and can actually be used as a vehicle-to-home charger,” Rajagopalan said.
Rajagopalan went to explain the new charger will provide about 24kW of power, a capacity she assured is “plenty for most homes.”
Pricing was also not revealed. However, Rivian will also offer a cheaper birdirectional charger for the R2, which will be able to support up to 11kW of power, according to Rajagopalan.
You can watch Rivian’s entire 2024 Investor Day presentation below. The video will start at Rajagopalan’s comments on the bidirectional charger.
