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We Visit Rivian, And Its Pickup Truck Is The Real Deal: Watch This Video
7 H BY STEVEN LOVEDAY 71
While we can’t yet divulge details about Rivian’s upcoming vehicles, to say they’re incredible would be an understatement.
*Check out Rivian’s new video entitled “The Electric Adventure Begins” above.
Aside from Rivian’s upcoming products, what impressed us the most was the size, beauty, level of organization, and overall reality of the Rivian facility in Plymouth, MI, which is one of several throughout the U.S. Moreover, CEO RJ Scaringe embodies the utmost in intelligence, drive, vision, and passion. In fact, it would be unfair not to point out that every executive we met, every presenter, and every employee we had the pleasure to meet shared these traits. This is arguably a team of all teams, to say the least. Rivian as a company, as well as its vehicles, are truly everything we could ask for and expect from a startup that is well-placed to achieve maximum success in the space.
More Rivian Automotive Content:
Much like that of BYTON, we at InsideEVs have plenty of faith that Rivian is the real deal. As you may well know, that is saying a lot when it comes to the fate of most EV startups. To be honest, while we’ve supported and cheered for Rivian from the beginning, we didn’t anticipate the level to which its plan, preparation, and execution could be so intact and praiseworthy.
Rivian’s Plymouth facility was teeming with a vast mix of employees all hard at work in various areas. In terms of equipment, financial investment, and product planning, Rivian proved rather quickly that it has its ducks in a row, and then some. Ah how we wish we could divulge more or that you could have seen it for yourself. Honestly, to see it is to believe it, and at this point, you can only take our word. Fortunately, in just a few short weeks, the upcoming electric automaker will show the world its astonishing vision.
While the Tesla Model Y and Tesla Pickup Truck will not be out for several years, and GM and Ford are dragging their feet on utility electric vehicles like trucks and large SUVs, Rivian will spring forth to pick up the slack.
We all know that production is the point at which the tables can turn rapidly. Let’s hope that Rivian’s painstaking journey, nine long years of research and development, product planning, and acquisition of a monumental and functional production facility will help to alleviate at least some of the expected adversity.
GO RIVIAN!
Check out the entire press release below:
RIVIAN RELEASES DEBUT VIDEO OF R1T
ELECTRIC ADVENTURE VEHICLE
NEWLY-NAMED RIVIAN R1T PICKUP AND RIVIAN R1S SUV
SET TO DEBUT DURING LA AUTOSHOW 2018
PLYMOUTH MI, November 15, 2018 … Electric Vehicle Maker Rivian today released a video of one of the pair of all-electric adventure vehiclesTM that will debut during the week of the 2018 LA Auto Show. The automaker also confirmed that its all-new pickup will be named Rivian R1T and the all-new 3-row 7-passenger SUV will be named Rivian R1S.
The 57 second debut video called “Launch into Space” depicts a person trapped inside the noise and pressure of modern-day urban life. The intensity of his surroundings crescendo until he is able to break free into nature behind the wheel of a Rivian. The Rivian R1T pickup is then seen traveling at speed on a dirt road, leaving behind it a trail of dust as the driver, now enjoying the silence of electric drive, heads into the sunset. The video closes on Rivian’s unique front light signature. Accompanying the video is a still image depicting an aerial view of the R1T full-size pickup truck.
The two all-new electric drive models promise impressive performance figures and class-leading on- and off-road specifications including range, power, torque and off-road articulation. These vehicles are set to demonstrate that electric vehicle technology is now able to deliver durable, long-range on- and off-road capability to consumers.
The autoshow debuts will be available for consumers to view at www.rivian.com from 7.30pm PST on November 26th for the R1T and after 11.50 am PST on Tuesday November 27th for the R1S.
Rivian is a full-scale automaker and leading mobility technology company, founded in 2009 by MIT engineering PHD graduate, RJ Scaringe. The name Rivian is derived from ‘Indian River’, the estuary that ran through Scaringe’s childhood backyard in Florida. The company’s logo is an interpretation of a compass, suggesting the North, South, East, and West of adventure. Rivian currently employs a staff of 500 across its 5 locations, with Vehicle Development and Design in Plymouth, MI; Battery, Powertrain, Controls and Integration in Irvine, CA; Self-Driving and Digital Experience in San Jose, CA; Advanced Engineering in the United Kingdom and Manufacturing at a 2.6 million sq. ft production facility south of Chicago in Normal, IL. Rivian expects to double employee numbers as it ramps up to full production.
The R1T pickup and the R1S SUV will be delivered to customers from 2020.
Source: Rivian
Categories: General
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71 Comments on "We Visit Rivian, And Its Pickup Truck Is The Real Deal: Watch This Video"
It’s always exciting when a new player is emerging, but I can’t get too worked up by the teaser without more information. Hopefully you will be cleared to provide it soon (I guess it will be out following those auto shows).
More info:
The A1T will be able to sprint from 0-60 in 2.8 seconds, wade through 3.6 feet of water and climb a 45-percent incline. Both vehicles will be unveiled at the LA Auto Show in November, 2018. The base trim will include a range of 200 miles and the top trim will have upwards of 400 miles. (from Wikipedia)
Also learned via their website that it has an air suspension. Sounds pretty amazing but I get the feeling this is not something that will be affordable to most people. I am curious if it is under 6 figures (I doubt it).
AT one point they said 50k-90k
That would be really impressive.
Yeah, for the just the battery.
Slowing and pausing the video gives a better view, 4 door pickup like the Honda Ridgeline, tidy truck bed with minimal wheel intrusion. Looks like solar roof (front metal, back glass) . Big hood.
Advertorial?
Yes, but having said that… the mission is to replace ICE with electric, so the more the merrier, right?
I can’t say that I find a pickup or SUV appealing, butt it will be fun to see the reaction, or lack there of, from the legacy pickup truck crowd. The EV pickup truck seems to be the one thing the Big 3 just don’t want to even acknowledge. If this gets a lot of attention from the media, it will be officially time for them to start freaking out.
I am still going to stick to my prediction that there is an F-150 (E-150?) unveiled at the Detroit show. Ford wants to show investors that they can remain viable. Slapping togetherp a concept truck would be an easy way to suggest they aren’t totally ignoring EVs and it would be “different”
F-150 hybrid is coming- no word on BEV
I would not be surprised to see an F-150 based on Rivians platform as a way for them to play without risking their existing platform by modifying it to support BEV needs
Ram 1500 already a mild hybrid. GM has done it in the past, both are practically pointless. Hopefully F will do it better. Without passenger vehicles F will have to build an EV truck to be able to sell in CARB states.
I’m pretty sure they said “no” to BEV pickup. Hybrid, as you mention, is coming.
Yeah, ICE won’t be doing a BEV pick-up because they don’t have the battery capacity to high volume a pick-up requires, and with the BEV pick-up dominating the ICE in every performance category, it would just make their cash cow ICE pick-up look bad. It will take an EV manufacturer to launch a BEV pick-up at volume.
Tesla already has the commercial consumers lining up for the semi, so expect the upcoming Tesla pick-up to go after the full-size commercial pick-up market just like it went after the large luxury performance segment and midsize luxury performance segment.
I do think the “typical pickup crowd” in Texas, Montana and Alabama will be resistant and late adopters. It’s a culture thing. But there are a TON of outdoor types like me that would prefer a 4 door pickup, SUV or Van that runs on electrons.
I think, due to cost and range requirements, that a Voltec type setup is ideal in this platform until batteries shrink by half in cost/size. When going backcountry skiing for a week in stormy conditions you never let your gas tank get less than half full. Same goes for battery capacity, a huge reserve is necessary, hence my PHEV bias. If cost was no object, then yeah give me a 300khw battery, but that really seems wasteful.
Maybe the i3 model is better. Give us 150 miles of range, and a puny REX that can’t power you up a hill at 60mph, but keeps you from getting stranded and dying in a snowstorm. The Sprinter camper van crowd would love that one.
The biggest individual market is for pickups is probably fleets. They’re going to be most interested in economic factors than anything else. If there’s an EV that fits their purposes AND TCO is lower then it’ll be bought. The issue is making the pickup purchase price low enough for the TCO to go below an ICE.
Doubt I’ll be able to afford, but excited to see and hope that it can replace many suburbans, and large pickups quickly.
If they really do have production sorted, and can bring a semi affordable option to market next year, it will be yet another nail in the legacy makers coffins. Electrics will be synonymous with new companies, driving customers away from legacy makers. The Kodak/Blackberry moment is coming for GM/Ford/Chevy…
There’s a bit of confusion here as to actually how big this pickup is. It’s called a full size in the article above, but previous articles have mentioned it being Ridgeline size and the image itself looks more Ridgeline sized.
If it is I’m not sure it will sell to many full sized owners as it’s a completely different vehicle. Conversely it may be very popular with people that are interested in a pickup but can’t justify the extra fuel costs and/or want a more car like vehicle.
If it is a full size then great, but it doesn’t appear to be so at the moment.
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised when they unveil it. I didn’t call it a full size nor did I call it a compact, and for good reason. In just a few weeks everyone’s questions will be answered.
So it’s a crew cab short bed midsize then? :p
If the bed/box is under six feet it isn’t useful as a truck. Please tell me it’s going to be 6′ plus.
Looks like a 5′ bed. Probably the right call on their part, given the demographics of who will buy this. No one who needs a real 8′ bed wants a $100k vehicle. But most 1/2 ton or less pickups are just used as passengers vehicles anyway.
@Steven:
I’m glad to know that you were thoroughly impressed by your visit to Rivian. I, too, am excited to see what appears to be the emergence of an EV startup which has a real shot at succeeding! And I’m jealous that you got to visit the auto assembly plant of this stealth company… or emerging-from-stealth company.
But sadly, the video linked above is very little more than just another info-free teaser. In fact, it’s actually labeled “teaser”.
They will be at the LA Auto show in two weeks with the vehicles and all the info. This was an exclusive first look ahead of that, and they provided a video and press release, otherwise, we’d have nothing to spawn a new article.
Lucky guy you are, to have had an advanced look.
I’m officially jealous 😉
It was definitely pretty amazing.
Cool. I wonder about their ability to build these in any sort of volume. I don’t know enough about their history to understand their manufacturing potential. Any hint or a summary of the origins of their assembly plant? I seem to remember that they bought a shutter plant from one of the big 3.
Unfortunately, IMHO what you were allowed to publish doesn’t cross the threshold for justifying an article.
It’s very good news that you got to see enough so the outfit looks not just real, but serious. The more serious player in the EV space, the better, and I do trust your judgment on that.
However, an article needs to have a bare minimum of meat in it. I feel like I wasted 100% of my time reading it. The video wasn’t even teaser territory — nothing in in except the last few seconds had anything to dowith the company or its products, and the last few seconds showed nothing. If we could rate articles, this would get minus 100 points from me.
Disagree, and I’m a skeptic of the spin machine. Nice to know this is coming, I had no idea. I’d always skimmed past Rivian or any other startup since I’m burned out on vaporware EV companies. This is all news to me, a regular reader.
Oblig comments:-
1) Where are they getting the batteries from?
2) No charging network
I really hate the so called teasers. Like the hundreds of ‘content free’ presentations I have sat through over the years, they bore me to tears.
Either keep totally quiet about the ‘thing’ or give a full presentation. Choose one and do it.
We certainly need to know which kind of DCQC they are using (if it doesn’t have that I don’t even know what to say).
Hopefully CCS, which should be the go to for all companies from now on.
Sammy, they have been very quiet.
It seems totally reasonable that within 2 weeks of a reveal they would try to build up a little type.
As for your questions:
1) Modules and packs are theirs, cell source unknown (to me anyway)
2) Charging network – everyone should be going with 3rd party/common standard. Deliveries start in 2020 and I expect there to be a lot more fast chargers available through Electrify America and others. Tesla *may* also provide access to superchargers (as per recent article)
They kept quiet for almost 9 years. They will be letting the full cat out of the bag in 2 weeks in LA. We are just fortunate to live close by so we got a first look.
I am impressed with Rivian. They have a sound business plan, appears to be similar to Tesla at startup, but in a market Tesla doesn’t occupy. So good business plan in a wide open market gives them a lot of potential. They appear to have done an EV and done it properly (soundly beat any other pickup for performance metrics that matter to intended customers). I have no insight though, but just tone I gather from reading about them (like your comments above in the article).
Precisely
To me from what’s been described the Rivian sounds like the it’s going to occupy the opposite end of the spectrum as the Bollinger truck. Between the two approaches I would think the trucks market would be fairly well covered.
I thought they just said it used an Ultra-Charger like the via does.
As far as the vid goes – doesn’t look like IEVs is going to have problems with divulging trade secrets.
is this a sponsored story by Rivian? if so it should be indicated in the header. The author is so overwhelmingly effusive with praise it makes we wonder.
The author got a tour of the facility and was impressed. I think the tone of the article is fine, as long as they can back it up with future articles (which are promised).
It’s not sponsored whatsoever. I attended the event and I work for InsideEVs, and I’m truly excited about the future of this product, as I should be.
ok. i’ll accept that. Looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.
Keep in mind a few other things that are significant here as well, and have never been done before. Think of the huge frunk a truck could have! Think of the covered storage space that could be freed up as a result of the skateboard platform, in addition to having a highly functional bed. Best of both worlds. Just wait and see. I think everyone will be quite excited.
We can’t compare this to a traditional ICE truck in many ways. It’s just not the same. There are too many aspects of electrification that will work to put it in a class of its own.
Cool *hints*
No hints allowed. Just trying to get people thinking of the bigger picture and not comparing to ICE. Also, no discounting it before it even arrives, etc.
Trust me. It’s going to be great.
Well, confirmed it is an SUT, not a pickup (not unexpected given we saw the clay buck previously).
The hood is quite long. Styling? Crash worthiness? Maybe they’ve added some innovative storage solution that demanded extra space?
It’s box may suffer the same problem as the Ridgeline’s – it’s a lot smaller than a conventional box.
They are going after the adventure crowd, so this form factor will probably work and is easily extensible to an SUV form factor so they can hit two markets.
Hopefully they put a good off-road suspension in it (i.e. at the F150 Raptor end of the scale) and give it a strong tow rating (8000+ lbs).
It won’t be able to haul an ATV and a boat but I might be able to relax that requirement (I only do that a half dozen times per year) if the other features are attractive.
Can’t wait for the official review…
I feel like this will go over well with the Xterra crowd (assuming we are correct on size). Something capable yet comfortable, but not requiring huge range or capacity for things like truck campers. Space for a RTT, ground tents and bicycles/climbing/hiking gear, with space for a dog or two.
The Xterra was also discontinued a couple of years ago so there’s plenty of people looking for alternatives right now.
I like how disciplined these guys are plus how they generate revenue on things they are not using for themselves yet.
Whether it be the parking lot to VW, or excess stamping capacity sold off to other manufacturing companies.
Go Rivian!
An hour analysis that we posted yesterday we had 600 horsepower and 200 kilowatt hour battery. And 3.9 second 0 to 60 time. Still plenty of margin to crank up the software since we know that the battery is good for a whole lot more and we also know that the rear drive unit in model 3 is good for at least 340 horsepower. So we could easily crank the wick up to 680 horsepower perhaps a tad more. I’ll have to look.
I found this video disturbing. Maybe I’m somewhat epileptic but this did nothing but scramble my brain cells. If I wasn’t such an EV fan, I would have stopped watching after the first couple of seconds.
I’m genuinely interested in anyone’s response, good or bad.
Agree. Thought it was not very good.
Not disturbing but almost unwatchable. I can’t remember anything of what I saw.
It might be an indication of the target demographic they are going after – aggressive, outgoing types.
I thought it looked cool, but conveyed very little technical information, or looks, which is what I’m interested in.
LA Auto Show will start on November 30th, and can’t wait to see what they will be showing.
I didn’t like the video at all for the same reasons.
I assumed they didn’t have to pay copyright by using less than a quarter-sec of 200-300 random stock videos. Should have a epilepsy warning. It was so freakin’ stupid, I have completely discounted any of their claims to having a real product.
The overhead view makes it look like a very small bed, similar to a Ford Explorer Sport Trac or early Honda Ridgeline. Maybe a suburban hauler for potting soil, mulch and peat moss, but not so much for a couple of 8′ sheets of plywood. I hope I’m wrong about the small capacity bed, but when the time comes, I’m sure it will take my breath away {when they announce the price}.
I have a 1st gen Ridgeline, and I’ve hauled 800-900 lbs of 4’x8’ plywood/drywall on mutiple ocassions (900lbs is the max for 4’x8’ sheets as any more and you exceed the rear GAWR before you exceed the GVWR). The Ridgeline bed is over 4’ wide so you you rest 4’x8’ sheets directly on the bed (unlike the Taco/Frontier/Colorado where you have to elevate the sheets to clear the wheel wells). With the Ridgeline’s tailgate down you have 6.5’ of support under the 8’ sheet, so there’s not a lot of unsupported weight. The Ridgeline is enough truck for 95% of truck buyers, it rides/handles like a dream, and fits three adults (or three car seats) in the back with ease. It’s by far the best vehicle that no one buys.
Exciting stuff, especially s9nce it looks like they’ve set themselves up to start producing in the near future. I thought I saw a previous article showing photos of their test mule with an F-150 body on it, so I expect it’ll be full sized.
Yes, I forgot about that. The F150 was the shortest one you can buy though, so perhaps a wider bodied mid size? Which would fit the comment Steven made further up?
(Yes, loving the speculation as i’m looking forward to its reveal, even if I probably won’t be able to afford the first iteration/or it may not suit my needs – it’s a step in the right direction whatever!)
The mule looks to have an extended cab with 5.5′ box, which I don’t think Ford actually sells, making it shorter than any full size with more than a standard cab.
Very exciting. I hope they do great!
Does anyone know if there is a plan to deliver a right hand version of the truck to Australasia?
I believe I overheard someone saying Australia is a huge market for Rivian’s future.
The bed looks small. The trend of trucks with beds smaller that six feet is annoying and, in my opinion, pointless. Why have a truck that isn’t capable of hauling anything other that pets and luggage? I really want an EV truck but won’t buy one that is an SUV minus the roof over the storage.
See Joe Martin’s comment above, and also Steven L.’s comment much further up that you can’t just assume the body by looking at the image.
Nothing says quality like a bunch of stock footage and then a brief view of something. Lives changed!
You can’t even reveal the expected price range? An $80,000 electric pickup isn’t going to worry Ford or any of the big manufacturers.
It may — there are Ram 1500s, F-150s, and Silverado 1500s that retail for $55k-$65k. I assume those are hugely profitable for the big three; if I were them my big fear would be that someone poaches my highest margin trucks and leaves me selling commodity vehicles to businesses and price conscious consumers.
Autoline/Schaeffler Electric interview, pretty informative, what they think of the shape of things to come:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEI16HHMN3s
Had to check if this was sponsored content. Lot of gushing over vapourware. If I want to see cool CGI vehicles, I’ll buy Forza Horizon 4