Rivian Shows Off New Blue to Reservation Holders

The Rivian R1T made its debut in blue last week at an event in Seattle.

The highly-anticipated all-electric pickup was on display for reservation holders, who got a look at a new blue paint. It’s a bolder look for the truck, which has previously been seen in silver and white.

The R1T, is expected to go into production next year and start at $69,000.  It will seat five passengers, and pack four electric motors. Three battery packs will be offered – a 180 kWh battery that is expected to offer more than 400 miles of range per charge, a 135 kWh option that gives more than 300 miles of range per charge, and a 105 kWh pack, which will give about 230 miles of range per charge.

The entry-level truck will go 0-60 mph in 4.9 seconds and the 185 kWh version hits 60 mph in 3.2 seconds. The 135 kWh pack goes 0-60 mph in 3 seconds flat. The R1T has a towing capacity of 11,000 pounds.

The company purchased in 2017 a former Mitsubishi manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois, which will be home of the first production run.

The company has also raised more than $1 billion from heavyweights including Ford and Amazon.

Tesla is expected to reveal their own electric pickup by the end of the year.

Photos: Rivian

 

[Candleflame]

Ummm if you're going to be towing, you're going to need a seriously large pack. I've seen the silver prototype in the flesh and it's a terrific looking truck.

The inclination Tesla fans have to *sugar* on other brands is... Weird. Rivian has an interesting product, appear to be well capitalised, and are first to market for the truck/true SUV markets.

Stick a 180kwh battery into any Tesla and it will have a range of over 700 miles. How rivian can only get 400 miles out of their cars (a figure probably grossly exaggerated already) is beyond me.
They'd be better off investing into better EV charging.

 

[Brando]

Perhaps Tesla will actually get their own truck to market before Rivian??? 2024 ??

Oct 2019 - Rivian newsletter

Nearly two years after Rivian first arrived in Normal, community members will finally be able to see the company’s first electric vehicles in person. Rivian is planning a community event from 1-4 p.m. Oct. 13 in Uptown Normal. Rivian’s battery-powered R1T pickup and R1S sport utility vehicle will be on display.

The EV maker is also recruiting employees for its Normal manufacturing plant, which now has around 130 employees. Rivian has said it plans to hire as many as 1,000 workers by 2024.

Several jobs in Normal are now posted on Rivian’s websites, including maintenance technician, battery manufacturing engineer, facilities engineer, packaging engineer, and quality assurance engineer. Rivian plans to begin making its first vehicles in Normal next year.

“Normal’s experienced workforce, existing plant infrastructure, and beautiful location made the city a natural home for us,” Rivian said in a statement Thursday. “We’re excited to build our electric adventure vehicles in collaboration with this community.”

Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe will be in Normal for the Oct. 13 event. The company will also have a temporary storefront displaying Rivian history and plant photos at One Uptown Circle.

 

[timf]

Stick a 180kwh battery into any Tesla and it will have a range of over 700 miles. How rivian can only get 400 miles out of their cars (a figure probably grossly exaggerated already) is beyond me.
They'd be better off investing into better EV charging.

I'm not sure how you compute that. If you take a Model X (the closest comparable model to what Rivian has) with a 100kWh battery at 325 miles and add 80%, that's only 585 miles. Rivian is also clearly sacrificing some aerodynamics for utility. I feel if anything their range estimates are conservative, and should exceed these numbers once they have a production model to test.