Why The Heck … Is There An EV Charger In The…

Electric vehicle charging stations are becoming more common in Wyoming. Still, there are a lot of remote places in the Cowboy State’s wide open spaces where they would seem out of place and subject to mockery.

One of those places is the Red Canyon Ranch, a rugged and remote 5,000-acre property south of Lander managed by The Nature Conservancy. Yet, two EV charging stations are prominently placed at the Red Canyon Learning Center on Red Canyon Road.

The charging stations are functional and available to anyone driving one of many EV models on the market. However, they’re more than just a couple of random EV chargers in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. The Red Canyon stations are part of a unique experiment that tests the limits of EVs in the harsh conditions of the Cowboy State.

EV trucks have been working on Nature Conservancy properties outside Lander and Ten Sleep for more than two years. So far, the directors of both sites said they’ve performed incredibly well.

“I thought (the EV truck) was super capable,” said John Coffman, Western Wyoming stewardship director for The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming. “It could get up and go anywhere a Jeep or a side-by-side could go, and it was comfortable and suitable for the country.”

RT1’s Results

Coffman said he and his colleagues at the Red Canyon Ranch and the Tensleep Preserve in the Bighorn Mountains have been driving pickups built by Rivian Automotive Inc. The California-based company focuses on creating practical outdoor electric vehicles.

“The Nature Conservancy has a partnership with Rivian,” Coffman said. “We were working with their special programs group and testing the trucks out on preserves. As part of that partnership, we were testing and providing feedback on how it might work for ranch management.”

The Wyoming Chapter was one of four Nature Conservancy preserves selected to test the company’s vehicles. To facilitate the tests, the company installed EV charging stations for its trucks at both locations. The side benefit is anyone visiting also can charge up there.

Coffman drove Rivian’s RT1, a pickup that can comfortably seat five people while going from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds, according to the company’s website, and has a range of 420 miles on a single charge.

In March 2022, Rivian’s trucks were shared between the Red Canyon Ranch and the Tensleep Preserve. Coffman had nothing but positive things to say about how the RT1 performed in the rugged terrain outside Lander.

“It had 900 pounds of torque and 850 horsepower,” he said. “And the whole truck lifts to 18 inches of clearance. That made it suitable for getting over rocks and other obstacles, which was useful. It could get up and go.”

An Excellent EV

Trey Davis, Eastern Wyoming stewardship director for The Nature Conservancy, was sitting in one of the Rivian RT1s when Cowboy State Daily called to ask him about it.

“I’ve been privileged to drive three different ones,” he said. “At first, we were able to drive a prototype when the company came out to visit our site. Later, I had a pre-production model, and this would have been the same one John Coffman was driving. And most recently, for about a year, I’ve been driving a launch edition, which means one of the first editions of the Rivian RT1.”

Davis said one of the reasons Rivian and The Nature Conservancy wanted to use the RT1s in Wyoming was to see how they perform in winter. Davis said he regularly drove his test trucks over the Bighorn Mountains through the lowest subzero temperatures of winter in the course of his duties, providing a perfect test for the trucks.

“I frequently traveled over the Bighorns to our Tensleep Preserve, including a whole bunch of winter use during the toughest times of year,” he said. “I drove it in 31 below zero and in temperatures nearly that cold quite a few times and through 8% grades in mountainous terrain.”

Davis said the harsh winter conditions did impact the purported range of the RT1, but not enough that he was ever imperiled on his journeys. Luckily, the charging stations Rivian installed at the Tensleep Preserve ensured there was enough juice to get the vehicle everywhere it needed to go.

“When it comes to handling Wyoming’s winter conditions safely, in ice and snow, it served very well,” he said. “The grades and the cold weather do affect the ability and range of the battery, but I’ve been traveling mainly in the same mountain range. I didn’t have to worry much about running out of energy in the winter.”

Additionally, Davis said the truck did everything else that any other vehicle would be required to do at both of The Nature Conservancy’s Wyoming preserves.

“It has an 11,000-pound payload, so it can do a lot of hard work,” he said.

Energy Futures

A Rivian RT1 is expensive, with the Dual Standard model starting at nearly $70,000 with a range of 240 miles on a single charge. Thanks to their partnership, The Nature Conservancy now has a higher-end Rivian free of charge.

“(Rivian) donated it to our chapter of the Nature Conservancy,” he said. “We drove it for quite some time while still under their ownership, and they donated it to us this year.”

That donation included the EV charging stations at Red Canyon Ranch and the Tensleep Preserve.

“They installed those chargers for us to charge the trucks, and some chargers are available to folks as part of their charging network,” Coffman said.

Rivian announced the opening of its first Rivian Network Adventure Site in Wyoming, six stations in Cheyenne, in March 2024. A map on the company’s website shows sites in Gillette, Buffalo, Sheridan, Cody and Rock Springs as “coming soon.”

The charging station at the Red Canyon Ranch appears on Rivian’s map, while the one at the Tensleep Preserve doesn’t. Nevertheless, all the stations are open to the public and compatible with most EVs.

“It’s a solar facility, by the way,” Davis said. “It was partially tied into solar now and then, and we’re working on taking it completely to solar.”

Both Coffman and Davis attested to the R1T’s excellent performance in Wyoming. After years of rugged terrain and subzero excursions, they believe the trucks have proven themselves as capable as any other vehicle.

“It’s not my job in any way to advertise for the company or criticize the company, but I do have a lot of experience with all-wheel drive vehicles in hard conditions,” Davis said. “But the R1T served really well and still does.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.