[Steverino]

2020-2025 will be busy EV years if all the announced new EV's become reality.

 

[!arry4pyro]

Don't want to be a wet blanket but the performance and range specs are probably for an unloaded truck. That might be acceptable for an ordinary EV but a pickup may increase weight by 50% or more, or towing twice the weight of the truck will dramatically reduce performance and range. So it might be tempting to think of using this truck for things like towing a heavy load to go camping but the reality is Rivian has to use the same charging infrastructure as all other EVs except Tesla, so this will limit the utility of this truck for anything but predictable trips like commuting to work and sharing the charging infrastructure with other EVs.

 

[KenC]

Well, it doesn't exactly look like a work truck!

I assume that along with new, interesting BEVs, there'll be new and faster charging infrastructure to go with it. I mean this truck isn't even supposed to be available until 2020, presumably at the earliest. I think the number of clever ideas that Rivian has shown, has me excited that we're about to see an explosion of great BEVs in the next decade. The barrier-to-entry for a new auto manufacturer is/was super-high, and it's still high, but not quite as high as it was. It'll be sad to see some of the older manufacturers fall to the wayside, but that's always been the case in the auto industry. The King is dead, long live the King!

 

[Dakster]

Why does this truck need to go that fast with that power? Because no one ever said, I want less power, less range, hold back some of that HP and TQ.

As far as "Work truck". Willing to bet that the percentage today of people who use trucks as work trucks is a lot lower than it was 20 years ago. I commute in mine - it grocery gets, takes the kids to places. Lowes/Home Depot runs- dirt/rock/gravel when needed. Pulls trailers. Maybe 25% of all my miles are pulling something. Charging for me is an issue that would require us to still have an EREV or ICE vehicle. Anyhow - I like it and hope this is the future of where EVs are going. If anything this will make Tesla and workhorse up its game.

 

[scottf200]

Nice review.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Yes, definitely a city truck, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because that is actually who buys most of the trucks in this country.

 

[scottf200]

Yes, definitely a city truck, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because that is actually who buys most of the trucks in this country.

You are not doing any research or paying attention to the details. Lot of discussion and videos on how this is offroad capable (i.e. goes thru 3ft/1m of water, top approach/departure angles, pass-thru for gear, etc, etc. It is a combination of several things.

Off road info --

Rivian Additional specs info:

Other trucks:
https://www.off-road.com/blog/2017/...t-pickup-truck-approach-angles-on-the-market/

 

[Jeff N]

I wrote this article today with unique info about the battery pack, coolant loops and HVAC, and full-stop one-pedal regen capabilities of the new Rivian vehicles.

https://electricrevs.com/2018/11/29/rivian-the-powertrain-details-you-wont-read-about-elsewhere/

 

[Bill Step]

cool truck,,need to fix the front end.

 

[Ladogaboy]

You are not doing any research or paying attention to the details. Lot of discussion and videos on how this is offroad capable (i.e. goes thru 3ft/1m of water, top approach/departure angles, pass-thru for gear, etc, etc. It is a combination of several things.

Like I said. For play and pissing contests. Not work.

 

[hparker]

Anyone know how their drivetrain is set up? They say 4 motors, but from the pics it doesn't look like wheel motors. And they talk about a gearbox of some sort. I'm guessing that, for each axle, they have 2 motors going into one gearbox of some sort... I don't know much about fancy gearboxes, but perhaps they have it set up so one motor can drive both wheels (compensate for failed motor) and/or both motors combined into one wheel (provide ton of power to wheel that has traction)? Curious if this would really be better than Tesla's D setup, which seems less complicated.

Other descriptions sound like the gearboxes are separate (4 total)... so a simple reduction gearbox near each wheel, which would be the most obvious way to do this. But that doesn't make sense with other descriptions they have, where they say they can do 300+kW into a gearbox, which is only possible with multiple motors going into one gearbox (motors are 147kW each). Hmmm.

Maybe that "input into gearbox" is just the sum of all 4 independent gearbox inputs. So 300kW means the base version can really only pull 75kW per motor (half their true power) if you want max AWD performance (assume it could do all 300 to rear to max both rear motors for normal traction acceleration). The 562kW version would allow 140kW x 4, which is close to motor's max power, so this might be it, just seems an odd way to spec it.

You are making it too complicated. The design is simpler than you think. No need for 2 motors per wheel. What you're missing about electric motor ratings is that they are rated for continuous power, not peak power. They can typically put out much more power than their rating for a short time, but would overheat if they kept it up for long. However the gearboxes are rated for maximum power. So they have a good match at one gearbox per motor.

 

[scottf200]

Like I said. For play and pissing contests. Not work.

No, you specifically said "city truck" which implied not capable off the street and I corrected you that it is a lot more than that.

Also the design had Jeep input:

Rivian’s R1S design was led by Jeff Hammound, who joined Rivian in May of 2017 as VP of Vehicle Design. Hammound previously spent 13 years at Fiat Chrysler, where he was Chief of Design for the Jeep division. His most notable design during his tenure with Jeep was the Jeep Grand Cherokee. In addition to recruiting Hammound from Jeep, Rivian also brought on Nick Malachowski as Director of Advanced Design.

via: https://www.teslarati.com/rivian-r1s-suv-tesla-chief-designer-franz-von-holzhausen/

 

[Ladogaboy]

No, you specifically said "city truck" which implied not capable off the street and I corrected you that it is a lot more than that.

Yes. "City truck" as in, not a work truck. It's truck that people in the city buy thinking that they might one day take it camping or offroading.

While they both still share some similar weaknesses, I would consider the Bollinger B1 much more of a "work truck" than the Rivian R1T. Maybe that's just my preference, but I have a hard time seeing the Rivian used for real work.

 

[samotlietuvis]

It is a very well thought through truck. I am considering going to LA auto-show just to see one in person.
On the bright side Tesla will not be the only manufacturer designing electric cars like they mean it.
Rivian is raising the bar with 4x motors and the sizes of the battery packs they claiming.
Competition is great. Hopefully I see one one the road in less than 3 years for less than $100k. Although many people will pay > $100k.

 

[V0ltastic]

I am already at the point that 250+ is the minimum requirement for an EV because as soon as the weather grows cold or goes to rainy **** range drops and your always leashed to that nearest charger.

I can concur with this assessment too.

 

[scottf200]

Rivian Published on Nov 30, 2018

To build the world’s first Electric Adventure Vehicles, we had to build a new kind of car company. This is our story.

Learn more at rivian.com

 

[sosmerc]

Looks promising and I hope they can be successful. Competition is a great motivator !

 

[scottf200]

Looks promising and I hope they can be successful. Competition is a great motivator!

Absolutely, one of the major reasons I really like this Rivian company. If they can push other companies to EVs for trucks and SUV/CUVs that is a tremendously large market. The savings ($, pollution, etc) of going from an ICE truck to an EV truck is way better than an ICE car (Prius, etc) to an EV car!

Hope Toyota, Ford, GM are motivated by Rivian and Teslas entry. Tesla will certainly benefit from Rivian as well since Rivian has taken so many things into account to make this truck versatile. Heck, they even have 'topo' maps when off-roading (forget the term they used in video above).

 

[Ladogaboy]

My biggest question regarding Rivian is where will they be sourcing their batteries? It looks like they are using cylindrical cells, which could be LG, Panasonic, or Samsung, but who actually has the available capacity to produce that many batteries?

The top-end R1T has a battery that is literally three times the size of the Bolt EV's battery, and GM is having difficulty just accessing enough batteries for 30k to 40k Bolt EVs per year. Maybe Rivian's plan is to only sell about 10,000 of these trucks a year? Perhaps they might need to invest in their own dedicated "gigafactory"? But even a factory capable of producing 5 to 10 GWh of batteries looks to cost upwards of $1 billion.

So, regardless of their strategy, it makes me wonder about their available capital. That's a lot of $1,000 deposits they're going to need.

 

[Steverino]

Absolutely, one of the major reasons I really like this Rivian company. If they can put other companies to EVs for trucks and SUV/CUVs that is a tremendously large market. The savings ($, pollution, etc) of going from an ICE truck to an EV truck is way better than an ICE car (Prius, etc) to an EV car!

Hope Toyota, Ford, GM are motivated by Rivian and Teslas entry. Tesla will certainly benefit from Rivian as well since Rivian has taken so many things into account to make this truck versatile. Heck, they even have 'topo' maps when off-roading (forget the term they used in video above).

I'm really happy to see Rivian making use of the shuttered Mitsubishi plant in southern Illinois. Yes, a new truck will be exciting in that segment. I wish them well, we all know how hard it is to enter the auto market, Hard and fantastically expensive. Tesla was reportedly a week or two away from dying during the Model 3 rollout. And many others (Faraday Future, etc.) never got past glitzy announcements and concept cars. So here's wishing them good luck. They will need it.