Rivian Connect+: Everything You Want to Know

Rivian Wave

Rivian vehicles come with standard connectivity features, but as of June 6^th, 2024, Rivian began to offer Connect+, a premium connectivity package.

Connect+ offers a wide range of additional connectivity features for Rivian owners, so let’s take a look at what the standard connectivity offers, and what Connect+ brings to the table.

Rivian offers a 60-day trial of Connect+ for existing owners and to new R1T and R1S owners.

Standard Connectivity

Standard Connectivity comes with a good set of basic features, including regular over-the-air (OTA) updates when connected to WiFi. In addition, it brings live navigation (including traffic-based routing), remote vehicle commands via the Rivian app, phone as-a-key functionality, Alexa (for vehicle commands) and the ability to tether your vehicle to a WiFi hotspot.

For tethering – you can connect to any external Wi-Fi network – including your cellphone’s hotspot or the WiFi network from something like Starlink to get internet access while you’re on the go.

Unless you’re connected to WiFi or a hotspot, you won’t be able to stream music in your vehicle

Connect+ Pricing

Connect+ will cost $14.99 USD per month or $19.99 CAD per month. It is also available as an annual package, at $149.99 USD per year, or $199.99 CAD per year – a discount of 2 months if you purchase annually.

You can sign up for Connect+ through the vehicle infotainment system, through the Rivian App, or by logging into your Rivian account on their website.

Connect+

Connect+ brings various additional features – including a vehicle hotspot for your other devices. This lets you easily stream video on iPads and other devices seamlessly and without any data limits.

In addition, satellite imagery for navigation is also added, improving the basic maps user interface that’s already available as part of Standard Connectivity. Alexa also gets an improvement – you can now use Alexa Connected commands to influence things outside the vehicle, such as opening your garage door or changing your home’s temperature.

Connect+ also brings you data access to streaming – including Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Tidal, and TuneIn Internet Radio. In a future update, Rivian will also add Google Cast support and a native YouTube app to stream videos.

Another upcoming big feature will be the Gear Guard Live Cam which will allow you to view all the cameras from your Rivian vehicle while Gear Guard is active. Rivian intends to bring this feature to all vehicles toward the end of 2024.

Difference Between Standard Connectivity & Connect+ 

* Streaming Media support includes Spotify, Audible, Apple Music, Tidal, and TuneIn currently. YouTube support is coming later in 2024.

** Gear Guard Live Cam may be accessible if the vehicle is connected to Wi-Fi. We’re waiting for Rivian to confirm this feature.

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Rivian Large+ (Plus) Battery Pack Unlock Coming Soon

Rivian Wave

Rivian transitioned to their second-generation vehicles in 2025. One of the goals with their second-gen vehicles was to reduce vehicle costs, so one of the changes was to reduce battery options for these new models.

Rivian slimmed down its battery pack choices by reducing them from four options to three. Instead of offering Standard, Standard+, Large, and Max battery sizes, they now only offer Standard, Large, and Max batteries packs.

However, to reduce complexity further, initial production runs only had two battery sizes — Standard and Max. For customers who ordered a Rivian with a large battery pack, Rivian actually included a Max battery pack software limited to the range of a Large battery. These vehicles were coined as Large+ (Plus) batteries by the community, and Rivian soon adopted the name.

Advantages of a Large+ Battery

For customers who have a software-locked Max battery, there are several perks. Normally, with a lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery, you’d want to avoid charging the vehicle to 100% on a daily basis to prevent premature aging. However, with a software-locked Max battery, customers can actually charge to 100% since the vehicle will stop charging once it hits 100% of the “large” battery.

A Max battery pack can store 140 kWh while a Large is 108.5 kWh, so charging to 100% on a Large+ battery is equivalent to charging to just 78% on a Max battery pack. This lets customers continuously take advantage of their vehicle’s full range without any ill effects on battery degradation — a really nice perk.

However, there’s more. According to Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s Chief Software Officer, Rivian will soon offer customers the ability to unlock the full benefit of the Max battery pack, essentially purchasing the Max battery after the fact.

This is a really nice option, as some customers may discover they could use the extra range, especially as their battery degrades slowly over the years. It’s not a must-have, but having the option is a great addition.

How to Tell If You Have a Large+ Battery

If you’re not sure if your vehicle has a Large+ battery, you can tell by going to your vehicle settings. Your vehicle should have about 300 miles of range. If it has about 250 miles or 400 miles fully charged, then you have a Standard or Max battery pack.

To check if you have a Large or Large+ battery pack, you’ll need to be in your vehicle and navigate to Settings (gear icon), then tap on the About menu item on the left. You’ll see a rendered model of your vehicle and directly underneath, you’ll see your model, which includes the battery pack size. You should see either Large or Large Plus in the model description.

What You Get By Unlocking

We previously dived deep into Rivian’s battery options for both its Gen 1 and Gen 2 R1 series vehicles, but in short, you can expect your Rivian’s range to increase to the same level as a vehicle with a Max battery pack when unlocking the full capacity of the Max battery.

This will take your Rivian R1S or R1T from about 330 miles of range (531 km) to about 420 miles (676 km), depending on the model.

Range Increase

R1S

Price to Unlock Max Battery

While Rivian hasn’t announced the price to unlock the Large+ battery’s full potential, expect it to cost about $6,000. This is the same price as purchasing the Max battery pack at the time of configuring your vehicle, so don’t expect a discount, at least initially.

It’s possible as these vehicles get older, Rivian realizes that people may not want to buy a $6,000 add-on for a 5 or 10-year-old vehicle, and at that point, they may consider lowering the price.

Performance Upgrade: Rivian recently announced the ability to purchase the Performance option for dual motor vehicles as well, so owners of Large+ battery packs can double dip and get the Max battery pack and unlock the Performance version of their vehicle as well. Rivian priced the Performance software upgrade at $5,000, which is also the same price as getting it from the factory.

How to Unlock Large+

While the ability to unlock your Large+ battery pack isn’t available yet, expect the upgrade option to be available in the Rivian app and in the vehicle — similar to the Performance upgrade.

Release Date

Wassym didn’t say when the software battery unlock would arrive, but it seems that it will be coming as part of a future OTA update, which will bring the purchase option to your Rivian. Just like with the Dual Performance upgrade, you’ll be able to use Rivian Reward credits towards the unlock as well.

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Rivian Performance Upgrade: What It Adds and Price

Rivian Wave

When purchasing a new Dual Motor Rivian, you might have considered the Performance option, which was offered as a $5,000 upgrade at the time of ordering. However, Rivian is now offering the Performance upgrade as an in-app or in-car purchase for Dual Motor R1S and R1T owners.

The Performance upgrade boosts the vehicle’s horsepower and torque, while also introducing new driving modes.

Features

The Dual Motor Performance upgrade adds additional features to the R1S and R1T vehicles, with the most notable being a major performance boost.

This upgrade increases both horsepower and torque, reducing the 0 to 60 mph time from 4.5 seconds to an impressive 3.4 seconds.

In addition to the power boost, the upgrade introduces new driving modes: Sport, Soft Sand, and Rally. Each mode adds specialized capabilities—Sport for track performance, Rally for off-road adventures, and Soft Sand for tackling sandy terrains.

The Performance upgrade is available for Gen 1 and Gen 2 vehicles.

Launch Mode Reserved for Tri and Quad

Even if you’re familiar with the roller-coaster-like feeling of launching an EV, the performance upgrade is going to be a big step up, and it’ll be a useful upgrade for off-roading too. The noticeable increase in horsepower not only helps you launch with more power but also makes crawling over rocks or pushing through water more effortless.

However, for owners hoping to take their R1 series vehicles to the track, there’s something to keep in mind—this upgrade, just like buying a Dual Motor Performance model, doesn’t include Launch Mode. That feature is only reserved for the Tri and Quad configurations.

Price

If you’re craving a bit more power or want to relive the thrill of launching your Rivian for the first time, the Performance upgrade is likely a great choice. It adds over 120 horsepower, giving you about a 25% boost in performance.

The upgrade costs $5,000 USD / $7,000 CAD, whether purchased over-the-air or at the factory. If you own a Dual Motor Rivian, you can easily buy it through the app or the vehicle itself, available with software update 2024.06 or later.

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