Is It Rivian's Time To Rise?
Is It Rivian's Time To Rise?
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! Tesla exploded the electric car market, becoming the clear leader in the industry with the mass-market Tesla Model 3, and eventually even having the #1 best selling model of any kind in the world ... [continued...
Tesla exploded the electric car market, becoming the clear leader in the industry with the mass-market Tesla Model 3, and eventually even having the #1 best selling model of any kind in the world with the Tesla Model Y. Recently, though, BYD sales have climbed much faster, and Tesla sales have actually declined. Perhaps it’s just a bump in the road for Tesla, but this is definitely the year of BYD. There are several other Chinese EV startups rising fast as well — from NIO to Xpeng to Zeekr. Does that mean the US is just going to be left in the dust? Maybe, but we’ve got some cavalry on the way. In particular, watch out for the rise of Rivian.
In the latest CleanTechnica Talk podcast, CleanTechnica’s Scott Cooney and Rob Simon discuss the great potential of Rivian, the quality of Rivian vehicles, the company’s coming mass-market (read: cheaper) models, and the opening Tesla is leaving for another young EV startup to climb that always daunting mass-adoption scaling graph. Enjoy the discussion!
Are their new planned cars gigantic too? The existing models are too long for my garage.
The R2 and R3 will be smaller. I don't think there are official dimensions for the R3 yet, so the ones I used are unofficial.
LxWxH:
R1T 217″, 79″, 78″
R1S 201″, 82″, 77″
R2 186", 75", 67"
R3 161, ?, 60
Drove an R1T, nice, works like a truck should, would be great for camping or hauling, but reliability issues combined with no Android Auto or Carplay make it a no go for me.
Can you be more specific about the reliability issues?
For starters, Consumer Reports lists it near the bottom in reliability:
https://www.autoblog.com/article/predicted-car-reliability/
"We study 20 trouble areas, from nuisances—such as squeaky brakes and broken interior trim—to major bummers, such as potentially expensive out-of-warranty engine, transmission, EV battery, and EV charging problems. We use that information to give reliability ratings for every major mainstream model.
We weigh the severity of each type of problem to create a predicted reliability score for each vehicle, from 1 to 100. We use that information to give reliability ratings for every major mainstream vehicle. (The reliability rating is then combined with data collected from our track testing, as well as our owner satisfaction survey results and safety data, to calculate each test vehicle’s Overall Score.)"
Even if one doesn't believe in CR and their reporting methods, it does show that there are multiple complaints.
Second, heading to the Rivian forums, you can find issues ranging from squeaks and creeks to powertain and home charging issues.
While many of the complaints I read seem circumstantial, many are build quality issues.
Rivian is still a new company and is bound to have some problems that need to be ironed out, which seems to be the case.
no Android Auto or Carplay
WTF? This is preposterous for a car that is supposed to be cutting edge. Do they have some janky manufacturer specific solution instead?
From what i understand, the leadership has a stance against it, but i don’t think they’re talking about the same thing we are.
There’s Carplay and AA, where you just get app integration from your phone, but then there’s plans to make that the entire dashboard, speedo and other driver data included. I suspect they’re talking about the latter, despite it not really being a thing yet.
Nonetheless, i agree with the original comment. I can survive without Carplay in my 2004, buy buying a car without it today is a hard no, unless the car is exceptional otherwise
lol, no
both of the people who could afford to buy one of their trucks already have a truck
I guess you bought the Ford Lightning then?
Ford Lightning
That actually looks pretty solid, but it's waaaaay too expensive. Plus, I can never buy a new car again, as long as it's legal for them to track everything I do in a car that I paid for. It's fucking preposterous that we don't have any consumer protection against corporate spying, and by extent, police and government spying.
My friend has two Rivian's and I find them pretty nice. Nice features, storage, etc.
I myself drive a Model S (generally regrettably, but...well, is what it is now).
But...the Model S is too big to me, I mean, it's fine, I've gotten 87% used to it, but I'd prefer it be smaller. So, obviously, Rivian has no options for me.