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Rivian Confirms Paid Battery Unlocks Are Coming Later This Year
Rivian is finally letting owners unlock more range—if they’re willing to pay for it. Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s SVP of Software, confirmed today that Large+ battery packs (which are really just software-locked Max packs) will get a paid upgrade option later this year. This likely means Standard+ owners (who actually have a locked Large pack) will get the same opportunity.
Tesla’s done this before, and now Rivian is jumping in. The good news? More range without swapping hardware. The bad news? You already have the extra capacity—you just have to pay to use it.
This comes just after news that the 2025.06 update will let R1 owners pay to boost their dual-motor powertrains to Performance specs. Clearly, Rivian is going all-in on software unlocks, whether it’s more power or more range.
No word yet on pricing, but it’ll be interesting to see how Rivian handles it. One-time fee? Subscription? Either way, it’s an easy way for Rivian to make money while letting owners get more out of their trucks.
Would you pay to unlock range or horsepower, or does it bug you that Rivian locked it in the first place?
I find it incredibly distasteful that Rivian is selling you a truck for $100,000 and is not letting you use all of its capabilities without paying even more. It eliminates any warm feelings I had about this company. Now Scaringe just seems like any other greedy CEO.
Any of the trucks costing 100k are going to already be full capacity and use except for maybe adding the performance ability to a Dual Max. This will largely affect the 70-80k range. Still expensive, but I disagree that they’re giving you capabilities that you have to pay more for to unlock. In fact, I’d be willing to bet unlocking a large+ pack will be cheaper than buying the max pack to begin with for those people.
This makes no sense. You didn’t pay for the extra capacity up front, and the company is offering you a chance to pay a deferred upcharge to get it anyway, versus not getting it at all. Or you could have bought the extra capacity up front but it would have also cost you more up front. There are really no shenanigans happening. Either you don’t understand this, or are against more choices for consumers.
I think this is a great thing for those of us who spec’d our R1S under $80k to get the EV tax credit. Our standard+ dual motor would not have qualified for it with either the performance package, large battery, or definitely not both. This deferred the (optional) cost, allowed us to get the tax credit and effectively get the performance upgrade at a discount.
Software locks of hardware do not leave me with a good feeling about Rivian and playing this game with battery/range is borderline extortion. I’ve seen many posts of Rivian’s getting hauled away on a flatbed because they were out of juice and the owner mistimed charging stops or arrived at chargers that were out of order in cold weather. But hey, maybe they could pay $7000 on the spot to unlock more range. More of the ‘you don’t own anything’ mindset of late stage capitalism.
Does this mean gen 1 quad large will get extra range if paid and unlocked?
Only Gen 2 Large+ and Gen 1 Standard+ since they were software locked.
These were discounted at time of sale compared to full size/performance. Seems reasonable to me.
I’m a little confused re: what a “large+” battery pack is. I’m shopping for an R1S. If I order a dual motor “large” pack, can I later upgrade it?
Right now, Rivian occasionally offers the Large+ but the hard part is on the website it isn’t called out. Otherwise in the vehicle, it’ll tell you in the settings.
Thanks. Wish they’d tell you when you bought it! Saving a few K to wait and see if really need the extra range would be nice.
In settings what am I looking for?
Under About you’ll see the battery type
Good business move. Rivian could have chosen to *only* offer the higher range/power – at the higher price. Those who are willing to pay for it, do, others are out of luck.
This gives customers more choice, without Rivian having to manufacture different SKUs. And it is Rivian accepting the risk. The cost of the car is the same, so Rivian gets lower margins on the lower range/performance sales. They hope to upsell, but don’t force it on the initial sale.
More choice for customers, no service center visit required (huge plus), and Rivian pays the price if they are wrong. All wins for the customer.
What about customers having to carry around the extra weight of a battery they’re software locked out of? Is that a win for the customer too?
^THIS. F CEOs and their henchmen!
They unlocked enough capacity at the outset to offset the additional weight so that the advertised EPA rated range would be consistent between Large & Large+. A Large+ has 120.5kWh unlocked whereas a “standard” Large only has 108.5kWh. Please do some research before spouting off.
In British Columbia, almost every Rivian is over $125K which jumps it from 15% tax to 20% so this option of getting to purchase some features with a separate transaction helps with the tax. Rivian can still get their money with the customer not having to pay that extra 5% on 125K or more. I got the Rivian I almost wanted over a year ago knowing that I would be able to upgrade at some point. We actually had to swap wheels at purchase to keep the cost under the line
Similarly to the Tonneau fiasco I hope to get that installed soon
People, this is a feature. By having a bigger battery that you can’t use, you mitigate battery degradation.
Does this mean that a software locked Standard+ or Large+ can be regularly charged to 100%?
Yes!
Upper and lower limits for battery charge are being set for a reason and are directly related to the degradation of the battery. “Unlocking” the longer range means setting the upper limit (100% charge) higher, lover limit (0% charge) lower, or both. This means that those who will choose to purchase this service will not only get more range or more power but will also get a faster degrading battery as a bonus.
Thanks for the tip on extended range. I will wait for the aftermarket software hackers to unlock it for less.
Wow! Why does Rivian need to screw fhe customer more than they already have? Lying to them upfront about capacity then saying ohh well. You want to pay, we will let you use something you already paid for. They are dirty and that is not sustainable. They will fail.