On February 24, 2026, EnergyHub and Rivian announced a partnership intended to make Rivian vehicles eligible for passive and active "managed charging" programs across North America. For Rivian drivers, this opens a path to let a utility influence when the vehicle pulls power in exchange for savings. The upside is real but modest, and it comes with a small, deliberate loss of control. It is worth understanding that trade before you opt in.
What "managed charging" actually means
Managed charging is the unglamorous, useful cousin of vehicle-to-home. Your charger still only pushes power into the car, one direction, but the timing is handled for you instead of starting the moment you plug in. Two things happen. Most nights, charging shifts into the cheapest, lowest-demand hours. Once in a while, when the grid is strained, the utility can slow or briefly pause your charging for a stretch, which the industry calls a demand response event. In both cases you typically set a ready-by time, and the system aims to have the car at your target by then.
The logic is simple: an EV sitting in a garage overnight does not care whether it charges at 9 p.m. or 3 a.m., as long as it is full by morning. Utilities will pay a little for that flexibility because it helps them avoid running expensive peak power plants.
This is not theoretical. In July 2025, ChargeScape, a managed-charging venture owned by BMW, Ford, Honda, and Nissan, and PSEG Long Island announced a program that aims more than 4,000 BMW and 2,200 Ford drivers in the utility's Peak Load Reduction program (BMW Group press release, July 22, 2025). Those are enrollment targets, not measured results. The EnergyHub and Rivian partnership is aimed at bringing Rivian owners into programs like it.
What Rivian and EnergyHub announced
EnergyHub is a managed-charging aggregator, the software layer that connects utilities to automakers' vehicles and other flexible home devices. On February 24, 2026, EnergyHub and Rivian announced a partnership intended to make Rivian vehicles eligible for passive and active managed-charging programs across North America. The release does not specify an in-app enrollment workflow or an eligible-model list, so which programs are live, how you enroll, and which Rivian models qualify are details to confirm with your own utility rather than assume.
Looking further out, the Rivian R2 is expected to add bidirectional charging after launch, a larger step than managed charging because it sends energy back rather than just shifting when you draw it. That is the vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid story, and most of it is still in front of us.
How it compares to doing it yourself
If you already have a time-of-use rate, you can capture most of the savings on your own with a charging schedule. Managed charging adds utility-run optimization and, in some programs, enrollment or per-event bill credits, in exchange for handing over some control of the timing.
| Approach | What you do | Where the savings come from | What you give up |
|---|
| Plug in whenever | Nothing | None; you pay your normal rate | Nothing |
| Time-of-use rate, self-scheduled | Set a nightly charge window | The peak-to-off-peak price gap | You manage it yourself |
| Managed charging (utility program) | Enroll through your utility's program | Off-peak charging plus any utility credits | Some timing control during grid events |
Who this helps, and what to do now
If you charge a Rivian at home overnight and your utility runs a managed-charging or time-of-use program, this is close to free money, because you were going to charge overnight anyway. The first step is to check whether your utility actually runs a managed-charging program that accepts Rivian vehicles, since coverage is a growing patchwork rather than a nationwide switch. The EnergyHub and Rivian release does not list eligible models or describe an enrollment workflow, so confirm both with your utility's program before counting on them.
How much you save depends entirely on your utility. It comes from two places: charging during cheaper hours, and any enrollment or per-event credits the program pays. To see what the off-peak side alone is worth on your rate, run your numbers in our home charging cost calculator before and after moving your charging to overnight.
The caveats
It only matters if your utility participates, and many do not yet. During a demand response event the utility can pause or throttle your charging. Whether you get a guaranteed ready-by time and the ability to override an event depends on your specific program's terms; the EnergyHub and Rivian release does not spell those out, so read the enrollment agreement before opting in. The per-vehicle flexibility is real but small: ChargeScape, another aggregator, says in its own sponsored materials that it delivered up to about 5 kW of load reduction per vehicle per event in 2024 (a vendor claim, not an independent measurement), so across the industry the grid value is a fleet story more than a per-driver windfall. Treat the bill savings as a modest, steady line item, not a reason to buy the truck. And know that enrolling shares your charging data with the utility through the program's aggregator.
Bottom line
Managed charging reaching Rivian is a small, sensible win. If your utility offers a program that accepts your vehicle, you let your overnight charging be scheduled for you, save a little, and help the grid. It is not vehicle-to-home, and it will not slash your bill. Check whether your utility offers a program, read the enrollment terms, and treat it as the low-effort optimization it is.
Last factually verified: October 17, 2026, against the EnergyHub release "EnergyHub and Rivian Partner to Bring the Benefits of EV Managed Charging to Drivers Nationwide", re-fetched on that date and dated February 24, 2026 (it names no eligible models and no enrollment steps), and the BMW Group press release on ChargeScape and PSEG Long Island dated July 22, 2025 (enrollment targets of more than 4,000 BMW and about 2,200 Ford drivers). The ChargeScape ownership description and its per-vehicle demand-response figure (from its sponsored Utility Dive content) were not re-checked in this pass. Program availability and savings vary by utility and are point-in-time. We have no referral arrangement with Rivian, EnergyHub, ChargeScape, or any utility; this reflects independent judgment.
Corrections (August 11, 2026): An earlier version of this article was built around a reported June 16, 2026 Rivian and ChargeScape announcement with enrollment and controls inside the Rivian app; we could not verify that announcement against a primary source. The verified partnership is between EnergyHub and Rivian, announced February 24, 2026, and that release does not describe an in-app enrollment workflow or an eligible-model list. Details attributed to the unverified announcement, including eligibility of every current Rivian EV and specific ready-by and override terms, have been removed.