Rivian Opens Up About Opening Up

by Steph Willems

November 21st, 2019 2:28 PM

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If everything goes as planned, electric utility vehicle startup Rivian will start production on its RT1 pickup and RS1 SUV next year, utilizing plenty of Michigan and SoCal brainpower and a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois.

Of all EV startups, Rivian is widely believed to have the best chance for success — and big-bucks investments from Amazon and Ford back up that assertion. While it’s well known that the automaker plans to offer its vehicles in three battery flavors, little in the way of new details have emerged this year. So here’s a tidbit: as far as the SUV is concerned, owners will be be able to choose just how much wind they want in their hair.

In a Twitter reply to a reservation holder noticed by Motor Authority, Rivian laid out buyers’ options for the RS1’s roof. While the long-range EV debuted with a panoramic glass roof, the options go far beyond that.

“We will offer multiple roof styles including electrochromic glass (which turns from opaque to transparent on demand), a fixed glass panel, a two-piece removable composite roof and a standard fixed roof,” the company stated in its reply.

It certainly sounds like Rivian is more than happy to have its customers spend extra to get what they want, which suits the financial needs of many an EV startup just fine. The company has already stated it plans to offer the two largest battery sizes first (135 kWh and 180 kWh), as such vehicles command the highest MSRPs. These two packs, according to the manufacturer, should propel the three-row SUV 310 and 410 miles, respectively (subtract 10 miles for the RT1 pickup). Only after a year of production does Rivian plan to offer a smaller 105 kWh, 240-mile pack, which pretty much mirrors Tesla’s Model 3 launch strategy.

Rivian wins kudos, of course, for not being infuriatingly self-aggrandizing about everything it does, unlike its Palo Alto-based rival.

While Rivian’s offerings can’t be called mobility for the masses, the two models’ entry prices aren’t that far removed from loaded-up ICE-powered vehicles of the same class. The pickup starts at $69,000, with the SUV commanding a starting price of $72,500. Battery packs aren’t as pricey as they once were, but they’re still the dearest part of any EV.

As of publication time, Rivian still claims customers will see deliveries begin near the end of 2020, with test drives occurring earlier in the year.

[Images: Rivian]

#ElectricVehicles #EVs #FutureModels #ProductPlanning #Rivian #RivianRS1 #SUVs

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13 of 34 comments

ThomasSchiffer on Aug 20, 2019

I very much like the design of this vehicle. It is futuristic in appearance without being too futuristic. It is not boring in appearance and even carries an ounce of sportiness to it. My main issue with current EVs is the lackluster range and extremely long charging times. It is also my understanding that supercharging the batteries will decrease their longevity and long-term reliability. Another problem that enters my mind is, where do I charge this vehicle in the wilderness? I cannot carry an energy dense liquid source of power with me in the form of petrol/diesel in jerrycans...

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- SCE to AUX on Aug 20, 2019
  
  If you go to US campgrounds, you can charge an EV on the plentiful NEMA 14-50 receptacle. But if you're truly in the wilderness, then liquid fuel is the only way to go.
  
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- Art Vandelay on Aug 20, 2019
  
  @SCE to AUX "But if you’re truly in the wilderness, then liquid fuel is the only way to go." The Mars Rivers all disagree. Mars is fairly remote last I heard.
  
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- Lockstops on Aug 20, 2019
  
  I live up in the north, so EVs make no sense for us over here. Not for short errand-running (constant warm-ups followed by the car and battery cooling down again, then warm the car and battery up again...) or long trips (huge energy waste because of horrible heating efficiency on battery power).
  
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- Highdesertcat on Aug 20, 2019
  
  Lockstops, https://www.foxnews.com/auto/police-bizarre-electric-vehicle-duck-tape courtesy of a friend of mine after reading my consideration of buying a Rivian pickup truck on ttac.
  
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- Inside Looking Out on Aug 20, 2019
  
  Does wilderness even exist in Europe anymore? BTW do you have garage with 220V outlet? It should help.
  
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- ThomasSchiffer on Aug 20, 2019
  
  @SCE to AUX Solar panels on the roof of electric SUVs/campers would make some sense. It provides a means for these vehicles to charge their batteries while stationary in the ‘wilderness’. Of course, if it’s a rainy or cloudy weekend you are pretty much ‘screwed’ as you Americans would say.
  
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- ThomasSchiffer on Aug 20, 2019
  
  @Inside Looking Out, There is plenty of wilderness left in Europe. But our population density is very high which means you will never be alone. I do not own a garage per se, at least one that is big enough for my 2007 Mercedes GL320 CDI 4Matic or my wife’s 2019 Skoda Octavia vRS Combi 2.0 TDI. Those two vehicles park outside on assigned parking spots in front of my apartment. There is a small underground garage but the parking spaces are only big enough to allow parking for really small cars. That is where I park my beater Renault Twingo, my city car. There is no EV charging capability.
  
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- Vvk on Aug 21, 2019
  
  @ThomasSchiffer I am on vacation in Spain and I would never own a car if I lived here. Public transportation is everywhere, there are normal people on it (unlike the US) and taxis are about 3 or 4 times cheaper than in the US. Using public transportation in the US, with extremely rare exceptions, is super inconvenient and you feel like a looser doing it. So everyone is forced to own a car.
  
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- ThomasSchiffer on Aug 21, 2019
  
  @VVK, I totally agree with you. If public transportation were affordable, reliable and could bring me everywhere I wanted to go I would use it more often. That is, however, not the case in Germany. Our national railway service has been privatized and since then it has gone downhill. The agenda is minimal investment, maximum profits at the expense of the train commuters. The trains are in a desolate state. In the summers the airconditioning systems consistently fail, the heating systems don’t work in the winters and the train fares are overpriced and they are never on time. The Inter-City-Express (high speed rail) train is limited to slow speeds because there are few to no high speed rails available for it to travel on. Supposedly they can travel 300 km/h and faster. The few times I have taken an ICE train I never saw it go faster than 120 km/h. In the city, the S-Bahn and U-Bahns are grotesquely overpriced, slow, unreliable and operating at their limits. Taxis are also very expensive in Germany, no matter where you are. In many cases it is actually still cheaper to take your car, despite the high fuel prices which we have here.
  
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- Vvk on Aug 21, 2019
  
  @vvk > The few times I have taken an ICE train I never saw it go faster than 120 km/h. Speaking of which, I took the medium-speed Euromed train from Barcelona to Valencia and was very impressed by the 125 mph and how effortless it seemed.
  
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- Inside Looking Out on Aug 21, 2019
  
  @ThomasSchiffer "hose two vehicles park outside on assigned parking spots" That's not a problem. You can ask HOA to install charging stations for every parking lot. It is just a matter of time when EU will make owning ICE cars illegal. In US at work we have charging stations on parking lot where employees can charge their EVs for free during day or night (many in Silicon Valley work overtime).
  
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Lockstops on Aug 20, 2019

Why does it have 2 huge USB-C ports in the front?

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