Last week, on the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, we could witness a birth of a new player in the electric cars’ game – Rivian.
To start with, I’ll explain what is hiding under this rather modern name. Rivian’s owner describes his products (because they already launched two, not one) as “The world’s first Electric Adventure Vehicles”. As it turned out, they’ve been working on their project for the last seven years in their headquaters in California (obviously), developing their product with the smallest details and avoiding mistakes previously made by competitors.
So, they made two models – a seven-seat SUV called R1S and R1T, which is a five-seat pick-up. Both of them are based on Rivian’s invention named ‘skateboard’ platform (sounds cool, doesn’t it?), which basically means that parts like the battery, suspension or drive units are placed below the height of each wheel. Not only does it provide much more passenger space, but also a low centre of gravity, which might make the difference in the car that weights 2.6-tonnes.
Potential buyers can opt for three battery sizes: 180kWh (400 mile range) and 135kWh (300 mile range) and a 105kWh battery (230 mile range). Rivian also promises that their products’ interiors are provided with the best quality materials, such as actual wood on the dashboard.
Right, but it all sounds like we’ve already heard that story about a complete revolution in the electric cars industry, best materials, biggest batteries and even bigger numbers attached. Rivian’s owner, RJ Scaringe claims that he “started Rivian to deliver products that the world didn’t already have.” So, what is so special about this brand?
First of all, their cars are provided with kind of artificial intelligence of the new level. While driving the Rivian, an algorithm constantly analyze your driving style and learn how to better optimize its charge. Welcome to the future!
As the Electric Adventure Vehicles, they are expected to provide you some load space, right? Well, in the R1T, there’s 330-litres under the hood (because there’s no engine inside), a 350-litre space in the R1T’s so called ‘gear tunnel’, and a 200-litre bin beneath the rear bed floor.
Moreover, both models are equipped with tools like cameras, lidar, radar, ultrasonic and GPS, which allow for ‘Level 3’ autonomy. What does it exactly mean? In Level 3 cars, you’re still needed as a driver, but you are able to transfer safety-critical functions to the vehicle, depending on traffic and other conditions, so they are really close to producing fully autonomous cars with a highest Level 5 autonomy.
And the last but not least – speed. These things are TREMENDOUSLY quick. Both are claimed to reach 60mph in 3 seconds. In a car of this weight, these numbers are far more than impressive.
You can already order both of Rivian’s models. The pick-up is expected to be delivered in 2020, and the SUV no earlier than a year after.
So, what do you think about the whole project, apart from the these cars’ names which you probably associate more with a Star Wars’ characters rather than cars? Will Rivian find its niche or make a huge loss? Let me know below!
References:
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/12/02/autonomous-driving-levels-0-5-implications/
The project seems very promising and exciting but you need to remember that EV industry is very complicated. There were a dozen of promising EV such as Lucid Air and Faraday Future. Both of them had eye catching designs, good prices (50k $ for a 1000 HP electric limousine) and were very promising. (and they are struggling – https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/29/18118847/faraday-future-evergrande-legal-fight-money-ff91-layoffs). What you need to remember that EV company doesn’t only make cars. They are also software companies as they usually want to make their vehicles autonomic (to some extent). This is where everyone is behind Tesla. Recently Tesla has announced they have data from over 1 Billion km of autonomic drive. That much information is an unbelievable advantage . Additionally Tesla lends their factory to Panasonic (their main batteries supplier) while other manufacturers have to buy them and pay for transport. Another advantage Tesla has over new competitors is the infrastructure. Tesla has over 10000 superchargers deployed all over the world. All new EV startups seem promising, but they have no experience, nor do they have same financial means. Despite this I wish well to all of these EV startups, as more competition means that Tesla and other EV manufacturers have to do even better.