Rivian has teamed with EnergyHub so EV owners can enroll in utility programs that manage charging and shape load on local grids, with the move presented as a way to simplify daily routines and lower drivers’ fuel costs.
Under the agreement Rivian vehicles will be eligible for EnergyHub’s active and passive managed charging services as part of a virtual power plant that aggregates thermostats, home batteries and other distributed energy resources, the companies said.
Andrew Peterman, Rivian’s director of advanced energy solutions, said the combined capacity of EVs on US roads already represents nearly 200 GWh, arguing managed charging now delivers meaningful grid benefits from neighborhood distribution nodes up to bulk power regions.
A January report prepared by the Brattle Group for EnergyHub found active and passive managed charging delivered far less energy to plugged-in EVs during peak demand windows than unmanaged controls, with the active group consuming less energy than the passive one.
The Brattle analysis also said effective managed charging can boost distribution grids’ EV hosting capacity by a factor of two to three before infrastructure upgrades are needed and that utilities could lower per-vehicle costs by more than 25% by switching from unmanaged to managed charging.
Jeff Huron, EnergyHub senior manager for EV strategy, said the company favors reducing program costs and adding more layers of value, a goal served by direct partnerships with automakers, and noted EnergyHub already administers programs across more than 170 utilities.
Rivian and EnergyHub described a software-first approach that lets drivers plug in, set a desired state of charge and leave a return time while the software ramps power to meet targets, which the companies said helps customers avoid the complexity of time-of-use tariffs.
Nevada Charging Network Shows Widespread Station Failures
A separate investigation by Scott Allison found the Nevada Electric Highway, launched in 2015, has seen most of its original 29 fast-charge sites fall offline, with just seven remaining operational and service gaps as large as 232 miles, Allison reported.
Allison said most stations went defunct between March 2023 and October 2025, with one site failing in 2021, and his published data tracked when chargers were last online through December 2025, meaning conditions could have changed since his January 2026 report.
The investigation highlighted reliance on grant funding to install and maintain remote chargers across Nevada’s largely sparsely populated landscape, and said rural operators risk losing government support if sites cannot meet a 97 percent uptime threshold.
Allison described examples where locations appeared maintained yet remained unplugged, citing an Alamo site that had not been online since March 2025 while being listed as available, and said he expects limited improvement until at least the end of 2026 despite federal infrastructure efforts.
