Two months after the issue was first identified — and despite several software updates — Rivian is still struggling with the battery range calibration problem affecting multiple second-generation R1 vehicles.
A major software bug, which affected an unknown number of Rivian vehicles, displayed incorrect battery charge levels, leaving drivers stranded when their cars ran out of power — despite showing remaining range.
The company took the issue into account last November, which reassured owners that the problem was a software bug rather than a battery chemistry issue.
By then, the EV maker urged drivers to install the latest over-the-air update — 2025.38.30 then — and reassured owners that the issue was purely software-related.
“Due to a software calibration issue, your vehicle may experience range estimation that becomes progressively inaccurate as state of charge decreases,” the company stated.
New Guidance
According to messages from the Rivian Engineering Team first shared by the blog Riviantrackr on Wednesday, the EV maker is now contacting several owners with new guidance, suggesting that previous updates failed to resolve it.
“The Rivian Engineering team has determined that your vehicle has not yet completed a necessary battery calibration. This process is crucial to enable accurate range estimates from your vehicle,” the message read.
“Over the next several weeks, charge your vehicle to 100% every two days (or as often as possible),” they suggested, adding that “calibration will incrementally improve each time you charge to 100%.”
In order “to avoid the most significant effect of the calibration issue,” drivers were warned they should keep the battery at 20% or higher.
“You’ll receive another text once calibration is fully completed,” the team concludes.
Kyle Conner, who runs the Out of Spec platform on YouTube, also shared on X that his vehicle continues to be affected by the issue.
“I have fully charged this thing so many times and it’s still unbalanced,” he wrote on Wednesday.
According to him, the 12V issue he’s flagged before — also addressed in a late November update — has been solved.
“I’m all here for testing cars and problems, makes for interesting content, but R1 LFP owners paid for their advertised range and are getting significantly less capacity out of their vehicle than planned,” Conner noted.
Battery Display Issue
The issue was first reported in November, when multiple users shared their experiences on social media.
Several Rivian owners found that, despite the system indicating a SoC of over 20%, their devices went out of charge.
The company has not issued a formal recall, safety notice, or public statement regarding the battery gauge malfunction.
However, multiple Rivian owners said the EV maker has contacted them regarding the issue.
Other Battery Issues
The company announced in mid-December that it would also fix a cold-weather-related charging issue in an upcoming over-the-air update.
The issue prevented certain R1 vehicles from AC charging at home or with Level 2 chargers when in colder weather, reducing charging to just 8 amps on home chargers — a fraction of their normal capability.
It was expected to have rolled out in the major 2025.46 update later that month; however, the release notes did not mention it.
The update was released last week — a month after the announcement.
In a previous update in late November, the company said it was fixing other rare issues such as the 12V battery draining when the vehicle woke from sleep and fast-charging failures.
Rivian also stated that it had resolved an issue that impacted the charge port indicator and the in-vehicle charge status display.
