First customer Rivian electric pick up rolls off the line
Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Rivian has become the first electric truck maker to actually build a truck. Well, one that will end up in the hands of a customer, at least.
Rivian’s CEO, RJ Scaringe, has tweeted a photo of the first R1T to roll off the production line, surrounded by a group of staff cheering it on.
The truck will join others like it being shipped out to customers this month, handily beating Ford’s all-electric F-150 Lightning that is expected to go on sale in the first half of next year. The R1T will be followed by the R1S SUV later this year, and both start with the special ‘Launch Editions’, with two more trim levels for following early next year.
An official Rivian email earlier this year confirmed the R1T and R1S will launch in Europe in 2022 as well, adding that more details will be shared closer to the time.
**READ MORE:
* Tesla Cybertruck delayed to 2022
* Is Nissan building a small all-electric ute?
* How far away are electric utes?
* Chevrolet announces fully electric Silverado
**
The company has also indicated an Australasian launch is on the cards as well. Rivian's chief engineer, Brian Gase, said back in 2019: 'The truck makes sense in the Australian market. We see significant value, particularly with the SUV in right-hand drive markets. And we've commonised everything on the vehicles forward of the B-pillar, so by default, getting a right-hand-drive truck is a low barrier, because I've got a right-hand-drive SUV.'
Meanwhile, Rivian’s wins don’t stop with the production roll-out. Amazon and Ford are two companies that have invested in Rivian, with the former ordering 100,000 electric delivery vans for the end of 2022.
According to the maker, the truck and SUV will produce a healthy 588kW from four electric motors, enough to hit 100kmh in around three seconds and tow as much as 5000kg, in case you ever wanted to do that and have the proper licence.
Battery sizes range from 105kWh to 180kWh, with ranges of 400km to 650km.
Rivian’s milestone is a big one, considering there have been a lot of EV start-ups over the past few years offering the latest and greatest machinery, but few actually get to the production phase.
Take rival Lordstown as an example – it has been under increasing scrutiny in recent months after the company acknowledged that it had no firm orders for its vehicles, just after saying it had enough demand to maintain production through 2022. It intends to start limited production later in September.
The company’s CEO and chief financial officer resigned and in August, Lordstown acknowledged receiving two subpoenas from federal regulators and said that prosecutors in New York have opened an investigation.
Tesla is obviously well versed in producing vehicles, but its Rivian rival, the Cybertruck, is still at least a few months away from a launch.
While the original plan was to have the truck well into production by the end of 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings call that there would be a “few deliveries of the Cybertruck toward the end of this year, but I expect volume production to be in 2022”.
It might not seem like much of a delay at first, but the 2022 date doesn’t get any more specific than that, meaning Tesla could technically release the Cybertruck next Christmas.