As a lead up to the L.A. Auto Show, Rivian Automotive officially announced the R1T, a fully electric pickup truck set to debut some time in 2020. While traditional pickup truck manufacturers dabble with partial electric power, the Rivian is being developed without the need for gasoline. Can Rivian do for pickup trucks what Tesla has done for sedans? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
As of today’s writing, Rivian Automotive does not have a production-ready model to show the public. Instead, they debuted a near-production example that will probably be nearly identical to the real thing. Full-width LED front and rear lights aside, this thing looks good to go.
Overall, the truck looks tough and rugged but also somewhat upscale, which is important when one considers the vehicles it will go up against.
And make no mistake: this future truck, and the soon-to-be-announced SUV sibling to the R1T, are unquestionably luxury vehicles. Rivian isn’t shying away from that fact either: the starting price for the pickup is $61,500 after the $7,500 federal tax credit is applied. To put things into perspective, Car and Driver tested a 2018 Ford F-150 Platinum with the 5.0 liter V8 and other options back in February, and the MSRP on that test vehicle was $61,745. Obviously incentives bring that number down quite a bit, but it is not outside the realm of possibility that consumers will pay extra for a truck that never has to visit the local Mobil station.
| Make/Model | Length (inches) | Width (inches) | Height (inches) | Wheelbase (inches) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford F-150 Supercrew | 231.9 | 79.9 | 77.2 | 145 |
| Rivian R1T | 215.5 | 79.3 | 71.4 | 135.8 |
In terms of sizing, the Rivian is a bit smaller than a modern full size pickup, but somewhat larger than the mid size entries.
The big question that everyone will want answered pertains to the battery range of the truck when it’s fully loaded. No figure is available yet, but Rivian claims the R1T will be able to tow up to 11,000 pounds. If they want the pickup to boast competitive payload numbers, they’ll likely need to make the bed capable of hauling about 2,000 pounds. The truck will also have full 4X4 capability from four 147 kW motor units near each wheel. (Update: electrek posted the full specs of the R1T, and it will have a payload capacity of just over 1,700 pounds)
Rivian did disclose basic range estimates, and they’re good: 400 miles with the top tier 180 kWh pack. The mid range 135 kWh pack will allow the truck a range of 300 miles while the entry level 105 kWh unit, which will not be available at launch, comes in at 230. DC fast charging will allow the Rivian to regain 200 miles in battery capacity in thirty minutes.
It’s fully electric origins enable the truck to locate everything related to propulsion below the top height of the wheels, a configuration now being called the “skateboard” setup. That means more storage options when compared against a conventional truck. If you’ve always wanted a truck with a trunk, Rivian has got you covered.
The R1T will also have this nifty cutout behind the cabin. It looks fully capable of swallowing up some golf clubs or smaller pieces of lumber.
There will also be some storage available in the bed, although it looks like the company wants that space to be a dedicated spare tire compartment.
And the Rivian will also come with an integrated tonneau cover that is watertight.
Another cool exterior feature is the full width lights, some of which switch over to green while the truck is charging.
Inside, the Rivian does its best Tesla impression. Certainly not a bad thing, as even the Model 3 boasts a cabin that is appropriately luxurious. The R1T also boasts two massive screens for infotainment and other necessary functions. Overall, it looks like it will be able to fully compete with its internal combustion counterparts when it comes to interior accoutrements.
Rivian’s offerings are slated to be produced just outside Normal Illinois, at the former Mitsubishi auto plant. The company is probably going to want the roads around the property renamed at some point in the future.
The R1T has the potential to be a true game changer in the pickup truck segment. And like Tesla, the company is an all-American venture. Stay tuned for more content related to Rivian, which looks like a company with a promising future.
Sources:
“Rivian Automotive’s electric pickup breaks cover” – Automotive News
“Instrumented Test: Ford F-150 5.0L V8 Supercrew” – Car and Driver
Well now, it certainly sounds and LOOKS like this Company did their homework!
I wonder who did the ID (design) work? The pictures show a handsome, integrated design that looks BETTER than any other U.S. pickup I can think of. Inside and out it appears they made every cubic inch count. Without the “test” of being able to sit on them, the seats in this truck certainly look more inviting and supporting than my son-in-laws HUGE, $alty F-150….DFO
Its specs are impressive. I don’t think its styled as well inside and out as what Tesla’s upcoming pickup will be.
The payload is given as 800kg (1763 lbs). A complete spec sheet is here: https://electrek.co/2018/11/26/rivian-r1t-all-electric-pickup-specs/
Given that this pckup weighs almost 6000lbs, the additional load from payload in the bed won’t make that much of a difference, next to none once the vehicle is rolling, as aerodynamic drag is the biggest draw of power.
Sure, this probably isn’t going to be the best bet for folks looking to pull a very heavy trailer regularly. But for a lot of upscale pickup owners, for which it is a lifestyle vehicle more than a work truck, this could be quite appealing.
The risk is that it (and the future Tesla pickup) nips away at the high end of the Big 3’s pickup market, which is of course the most profitable. That’s what’s happening with tesla’s cars, and a pickup (and related SUV, which is also coming from Rivian) could potentially dent that niche of the market.
Absolutely. As much as people seem to hate on the Titan and Tundra, the fact remains that combined they accounted for 170k sales in 2017. That’s almost 20% of total F150 sales. Yes that looks like a small percentage but I think Ford or GM or Ram would LOVE to have an extra 170k sales if those two weren’t around. Any volume that a Rivian takes away will have those guys starting to think…
Considering how well Toyota competes in other sectors, the Big Three are delighted that Asian brands get less than 10 percent of their most important category.
The spare tire location seems real questionable to me, so you get a flat you have to dump your load on the road to access it? I know trucks these days are more a rugged fashion accessory than real work vehicles in this day and age, but come on that seems really bad
How often has it been an issue on the Honda Ridgeline? Even putting aside that too many pickups do go without a full bed most of the time, the quality of modern tires is such that one could conceivably own a vehicle for years and never have to access the spare.
Agree. Last year I sold my wife’s 1999 Camry with 200k on it with the original spare in the trunk. It still had the blue goo on it and nary a scratch on the steelie rim.
Ridgeline does this as well, and that was my exact thought when I saw it in that truck. And you know you’ll get the flat on your mulch or gravel run, not when the bed is empty. To me, it says something about the way the manufacturers figure the majority of people will be using the vehicle the majority of the time.
Similarly, I recently realized the Grand Cherokee has its spare under the cargo floor rather than below the vehicle.
Since the vast majority of pickups are rarely if ever used for hauling, it seems a moot point.
Rivian is going after the luxury market that is currently being served by the high end pickups like the Platinum F150s, and SUVs like the Escalade. While some may be used as tow vehicles for toy haulers, boats, and RVs, very few carry any loads in the bed.
It may be anecdotal, but the majority of work vehicles I see are the vans, not pickups. I rarely if ever see the 2 door basic models that are the supposed backbone of the workmen’s rides. I think that 4 door pickups have simply become the new sedan, with SUVs the new wagons. Work trucks are so few and far between as to be nearly non-existent.
You could be right, but I’m not sure how you would ever know. Myself and several other business owners I know drive trucks you probably would assume don’t have a bed full of tools, but they do. I’m currently driving a Raptor with a bed cover that doesn’t look like a work truck, yet I have a few thousand dollars worth of tools in the back, and I work out of it every day. A good friend drives a Z71 set up in a similar way.
Absolutely not the case here in Oklahoma. While there are plenty of vanity pickup owners here that may never load up anything more than some plants from the nursery, or the family dog, and plenty of compensator trucks that sit so tall you couldn’t load anything into the back if you wanted to, there are many more work trucks. Single cab short beds, single cab long beds, extended cabs, & crew cabs can be seen all over being used as the workhorses that they were intended. The days of the work truck are far from being over.
Honda Ridgeline is what this truck reminds me of in general, which isn’t exactly a positive comparison if it has aspirations to put a dent in Ford and Chevy sales. Not that I would blame the spare tire location, but it clearly doesn’t credibly present itself well as a truck, and that’s just one of the thousand cuts. I also question whether truck buyers are clamoring for an EV in general, the demographic is quite different than for urban dwellers in plug-in sedans
I know it nice and fuzzy feeling to root for trendy technology upstarts but I’m too cynical to see this as much more than the pickup truck equivalent to the Fisker Karma at best
My contractor uncle has both a Model S and an F-150 Limited, but the only common use they each have is going too fast for the constabulary’s liking.
Agreed, the Honda Ridgeline is the first thing I saw when I saw this. I guess if it works well in the real world and the company can sustain itself, heavier duty versions will make their way onto the market eventually. Do the Big Three have any plans for hybrid or all-electric pick-ups by any chance?
IIRC reading the press release earlier, the spare is optional. It’s an additional storage compartment “that is big enough for a full-size spare”. I’m guessing it comes with a sealant-inflation kit standard.
Let’s see, the last time I had a flat was in…the 80s, That would be a good QOTD.
It would be a good question, and I’d bring the average up. 3 flats in recent memory, including one a week after getting 4 brand-new tires. Fortunately paranoia had led me to get the road-hazard warranty, but still pretty infuriating. Lots of construction around here, so plenty of opportunity for nails, screws, and random metal bits to lurk on the road.
This will be interesting to watch. On the one hand, the pickup buyer tends to be much more conservative than average and more about practicality over style. That tendency to gravitate towards “old school” will be a problem for a new electric truck.
That said, many pickup buyers use their trucks for leisure more than work, so there is no reason that an electric would not work for many.
Strangely appealing, but a mess of contradictions to me:
-The acceleration and range are impressive, but you have to seriously lay off one to achieve the other as with any electric.
-I question its durability in a work situation, but then it isn’t intended for that and most loaded crew cab half-tons don’t seem to be purchased for more than commuter duty anyway.
-Look at the ground clearance and approach/departure angles! But you’ll never fully use those because you will be terrified of damaging your $70K+ electro-lux wizard truck, and I can only imagine what a rock could do to the underside of the battery packs.
-The high-technology and luxury are appealing in the traditional virtues of effortless acceleration and nice-looking cabin with unusual goodies like the carpeted frunk and storage compartment behind the cab, but I’d want traditional analog gauges and HVAC knobs instead of massive, blinding, ridiculous & trendy tablet screens mounted all over the dashboard.
I wish them luck, another American start-up automotive company seems worth rooting for even if the vehicle is niche.
No light duty truck is going to stand working in a heavy duty environment. Name me a parlour truck that can take 4000 kg of rebar and not even break a sweat.
A Hino 195 with a twelve foot flatdeck is a work truck, not a Ram.
Ha, true enough, but I’ve seen some truck partisans extoll the domestic half-tons as real work trucks bringing real paychecks to people who do real work with their real hands, unlike that poseur Tundra that is bought purely for image.
So called “half ton” pickups can haul more payload than many “three quarter ton” pickups from the 1970’s and earlier, Tundra included. Our ’93 C1500 had a rated payload of almost 2200 lbs. That is plenty for real work by contractors, utilities and government public works departments. 4000kg of rebar is way outside the pickup truck class.
I hauled real payloads with the 1st gen Tundra regular cab long bed. A plain white truck with painted steel wheels is not a poseur. I think that insult applies more to domestic brand HD diesel crew cabs with very short beds, all jacked up on huge aftermarket wheels and tires.
That’s not how modern contracting/construction works. It’s not so vertically integrated. Our suppliers deliver the materials to the job site, then we show up with the tools to do the job. Modern trucks fill this need in a fantastic way, especially in the middle of the US where it’s not uncommon for us to travel 100 miles one way to a job. I can make all the calls I need to hands free, in quiet comfort, driving 70 miles an hour, carrying my tools, and arrive on the jobsite not beat to hell. Contrast this with the terrible ride of a big truck, or from fighting the noise/driving dynamics of a van. In addition, I can even keep a change of clothes or my more precision equipment in the back seat so I can superman from a more dirty job to a sales call or whatever. Oh, and on those rare occasions I do need to pick up my own materials, I can pull an 18 foot flatbed with 5500 lbs worth of pipe/all thread/whatever.
Our next door neighbors are doing a major remodel that has taken months and involves many trades. The contractor drives a “long bed” (6’) Tacoma and his lead carpenter drives a ‘68 or ‘69 El Camino. The painters have a variety of vans ranging from Transit Connect and Caravan through E250. Most of the other trades show up in older 1/2 ton pickups ranging from Hard Body Nissan to Tundra or Silverado. No big trucks at all, except deliveries.
»eyeroll« Ummm, exCUSE me, but what are you, like, old or something? Touchscreens test well with Millennials, soooooo…
This almost-too-old-to-be-Millennial would like to smash the dashboard touchscreens with a hammer, remove the pieces, and have real wood, real metal, and real knobs with a nice hefty tactile quality installed in their place. Analog gauges of machined metal to make a Tag Heuer envious. If I’m paying luxury prices, I want luxury fixtures, dang it. Everyone has a touchscreen. That’s not luxury!
Oh, I’m totally onside with you, though I don’t require Tag Heuer-level pants-fanciness. Don’t even require real wood and metal; decent plastic’s fine, but I want gauges, meters, pullknobs, pushbuttons, dials, levers, switches, and sliders. Real ones.
And I never asked for (and don’t want) pushbutton engine start/stop. That I want to do by rotating a key in a lock.
Speaking as a Baby Boomer who has a 10-year-old Tag Heuer that has been back to the factory servicing centre twice in the past 12 months – and it still loses 5 to 10 minutes per day – I’ve unfortunately succumbed to finally wearing a touchscreen on my wrist.
I may not be able to take it down to 300 meters, but at least I’m on time for meetings.
More expensive the watch, the less accurate! My $60 Armitron (with Seiko movement) is dead nuts on.
I love my Swatch Sistem51 Irony – keeps amazing time for a mechanical watch, 4 day reserve, looks great, costs under $250.
One thing Tesla seems to have done is to convince everyone and their kid brothers that they too can start a successful automotive manufacturer from scratch. Never mind that nearly everyone who’s tried to do so since at least WWII has failed, sometimes spectacularly (see: Tucker, Bricklin, DeLorean, Fisker, etc., etc.). Powering your vehicles with batteries and electric motors rather than internal combustion engines isn’t likely to change that equation, as most previous startups used off-the-shelf powerplants made by other companies. There’s been too much vaporware in EV startups already (raise your hand if you think Faraday Future will ever deliver even one vehicle to a paying customer).
That said, I like the design of this truck both aesthetically and functionally. The front reminds me of some vintage car (or bus) but I can’t put my finger on which one. Or maybe it’s the back of a ’60 Edsel….
This?
There’s certainly some resemblance to the Biscayne but it wasn’t what I was thinking of.
It’s those four stacked lights behind the clear lens in the capsule-shaped headlamp housing – sort of like a vertical rendition of those on the GM Futurliner bus or some versions of the Tatra 603. Or Richard Arbib’s AMC Astra-Gnome. But it’s not those either….
My favorite show car from my childhood days. I remember asking dad when he was going to start getting them in the showroom.
Those headlights make it look like it belongs in a “Little Orphan Annie” cartoon.
Leapin ‘ lizards! I was thinking baleen whale, myself.
Ditto on those hollow, staring eyes. Now, I have to Google why the cartoonist did it first.
Workhorse, a US manufacturer, was also planning on a 2019 debut of their electric pickup. They are also testing electric postal trucks for the USPS.
Interesting truck with interesting features. I like the clean design. But doesn’t appear to be meant as serious work truck but more an urban show truck with bragging (green environmental) rights, Nothing wrong with that…..if that’s your cup of green tea.
“…Range is 400 miles with the top tier 180 kWh pack. The mid range 135 kWh pack will allow the truck a range of 300 miles while the entry level 105 kWh unit, which will not be available at launch, comes in at 230….”
Is the range quoted unladen? What is the range towing up to the rated 11,000 lb or hauling 1,700 lbs? I doubt fully laden will live up to range claim.
I think that the golf bag compartment speaks volumes about the mission of this “truck”.
Bollinger B2 is another big electric pickup, due in 2020. It’s got a clever pass-through feature that’s only possible with an electric drivetrain.
Bollinger’s B1, a Jeep-sized off-road truck available next year, has the same pass-through.
Surfers would love that too if they could make the opening a bit wider or taller
In this age of ugly cars, this truck is aesthetically pleasing inside and out. The only thing I don’t get in this article is the comparison of the interior with a model 3. The piece of wood across the dash in the model 3 and the placement of gauges and controls on a centrally located screen looks like a 4th grader did that part of the design.
I wish Rivian success.
Rivian unveiled the SUV version today. Side profile looks about halfway between a Ford Flex and a Range Rover to my eyes – a bit boxy, but I prefer it to the needlessly swoopy Tesla Model X. I’ll say it again: the front end styling is spectacular – an easily recognizable face, despite not having a grille. Inside, the same sensible interior as the pickup, sensible doors too, plus an adult-sized 3rd row and decent space behind it.
Still, there’s lots of unanswered questions. Will it be reliable? Will it drive well? Will they get the basic stuff, like comfortable seats, right? Will the company be able to build them fast enough to meet demand if it hits? Tesla built a huge battery factory; does Rivian have a source too? I still think the large supercharger network may prove to be Tesla’s biggest advantage over everyone else.
Also, someone tell them that Renault beat them to the diamond logo
Unlike Tesla, whose early years (and Roadsters, starting with protons) were very visible, at least in Silicon Valley, I’d never heard of Rivian until this post. They seem to have a strong experienced management team, and ex-Chrysler designer Tom Gale is on their Board. And like Tesla, they’ll be using an existing automotive plant … at least the location, which at least brings with it the potential for a good workforce, sub-tier supplier base, local government support, etc. as a truck owner, I think they’ve done some nice design things here too. Yeah, as with the Ridgeline I wouldn’t want to unload a yard of dirt if I had a flat. But in the real world, I’d rather unload a few bikes or camping gear or even bags of potting soil, and pull out a clean spare, than deal with the archaic crank-down underframe spares, covered in years of road grime, of a “real” truck.
I am convinced that full size electric trucks are going to become huge in the next five years. Any manufacturer who claims to not be currently working on them is either foolish or lying. I rarely make predictions but I wanted this one to be in print for the “I told you so” moment. From here on out I shall continue mostly complaining about ugly front ends and SUVs, CUVs, and WTFUVs.