Rivian?

[Mal Paso]

I never heard of a Rivian truck but I rode in one yesterday. It belongs to a customer in Big Sur who was tired of driving to town for gas. He plugs it in at home. He paid $70K for the privilege. I think he said 600HP with a 140KW battery bank. I see 0-60 is 3 seconds. You can adjust the ride height and there is a drive motor on each wheel, no driveline. Door handles sense you and swing out. Cameras front and rear, you could drive just watching the center console. Backing up the screen overlays your path according to the steering wheel position. Cross country it was as bumpy as any 4X4. The headlights are truly Fugly! I couldn't drive something with headlights that ugly.

[Jeff Michel]

Curious what the replacement battery will cost him in a couple years. The only thing I'll ever own that works off batteries is a flashlight.

[legend 550]

Range 314 miles, Pulling a camper or trailer maybe 200, Worthless

[redneck1]

I don't advocate for electric vehicles , but if the stated raneg is true and the batteries ever became affordable to replace the purchase price is not all that out of line with what trucks cost these days .
Not that I would ever spend that kind of money on a vehicle .

I paid $600 for the truck I've been driving for nearly 5 years now ....
Though to be fair it's a rare day I get more then 20 miles from home
And if I have to go further then 100 miles I just go rent a car

[farmbif]

can't stop the future from happening, pony express drivers never could have imagined the model t. the big question is how much pain and suffering will occur during transition to electrics , gas prices we are seeing right now could just be tip of the iceberg
I wouldn't mind having one of the new 4wd teslas that they are trying to build if I knew that it could be recharged in the time it takes to fill up a 32 gallon gas tank and the batteries would last 250,000 miles
but these days a $70,000 pickup truck is pretty darn common for a full size 4wd that can pull 7 tons if you take a look at what the big 3 auto makers are offering.
plus with the shortages of everything seems most dealers are adding a $10k surcharge on to new vehicle sticker prices for a full tank of gas and some floor mats.
but for now my 20 year old f150 4x4 gets me to where I need to go and doesn't owe me anything

[warren5421]

A friend has a Teslas 4 door that takes about 1/2 hour to charge from almost dead to full charge. She lives in Indianapolis and has no problem going to Destin, Florida and back, 750 miles.

[Bent Ramrod]

Well, these advances generally develop in the same way:

1). Lab experiments that show success slowly over time.

2). "Popular Science" for a small, dedicated coterie of knowledgable enthusiasts. The rest of us don't understand it, or them, at all. Buncha geeks and weirdos.

3). "Rich Men's Toys". This is where the rest of us yell "Get a Horse!" as they stand at the roadside and puzzle over the latest breakdown. Or we tell them that the only use we can think of for their computer thingies is a recipe book, except we already have a recipe book, so who needs it?

and finally, with luck and a lot of development (supported by the rich men's patronage) towards the goals of safety, affordability and ease of operation

4). Products that enrich all our lives.

Nowhere in any of this is some Pharaoh/Politician saying. "So Let It Be Written. So Let It Be Done." Despite the fantasies of the political class and their worshipful serfs.

It appears that the electric car is somewhere between 2) and 3).

Sometimes, admittedly, the process is deranged or modified, if the product has some kind of strategic potential, like rocketry and aviation, but normally it goes as described. The notion that it can be forced along by people who know nothing except that they want it is nonsense.

And often, it never goes all the way. I'm still waiting for that backpack with vertical propellor that Popular Science said we'd be strapping on for our morning commutes to work by air...

[DougGuy]

Ha! I saw one of them Rivian trucks on a rollback, I was sorta curious until I looked in the mirror and I SWEAR they dug up an old Edsel photo somewhere and slapped it on the front of the "new" truck.. Ugly ain't the word for it!

[Baltimoreed]

Replacement batteries will cost more than the truck is worth when they finally fail making the truck worthless. Battery tech is behind computer tech by many years. Whenever batteries catch up and become much cheaper then e-vehicles will work. Not to mention the toxicity of the heavy metals used in them.

[rockrat]

Saw one driving between Barstow, CA and Las Vegas, last month. Wasn't impressed

[1Hawkeye]

When they come out with a electric car that can do 80 mph for a thousand miles and the fancy ones can be driven off the lot for 20 grand then I might start to consider one. I'm probably delusional but like alot of folks I can't put out a lot for high tech vehicles.

[rancher1913]

ford used to have a majority stake in rivin, they had a fire sale and sold all interest in the company.

[GhostHawk]

Saw a youtube video about a nuclear waste/diamond battery. Does not ever need charging and should last for 28 years. Now that would make an electric vehicle work.

[Baltimoreed]

Don’t know if millions of e-vehicles running around with nuclear waste powered batteries would be a good ideer? Sounds ‘not too good’.

[dverna]

https://ussanews.com/2022/07/20/battery-replacement-of-familys-ev-ford-focus-would-cost-more-than-car-itself/

That would really suck.

[Tazman1602]

https://ussanews.com/2022/07/20/battery-replacement-of-familys-ev-ford-focus-would-cost-more-than-car-itself/

That would really suck.

And there are all kinds of these stories all over, like the couple who bought a new EV truck and a trailer to travel 2700 miles cross country after retirement and ended up having to stop EVERY 100 MILES to charge it.

No thank you.

Art

[Moleman-]

The battery tech needs to come a long way before they're going to be useful for truck stuff, especially towing. There are a few decent youtubes out there where they pull what I'd consider a smaller sized camper with an electric vehicle. IIRC the F150 ev made it 86 miles doing normal highway tow speeds (https://insideevs.com/news/594871/ford-f150-lightning-vs-gas-truck-towing-range-single-charge/) and a rivian video I saw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUD3deFYUgM) made it almost 150 but they only averaged 47mph trying to keep it at 55mph. Both had the extended battery/tow package. Debating replacing our 10year old truck this year, but if we do it won't be with an EV

[kenton]

I figure my next car will be a electric car. It makes perfect sense for me, I drive between 60 to 100 miles for my commute. If the car has a 200 mile range I could make to to work and back even if the power is out. Current battery life is between 10 to 20 years and will probably be better in the future. The money saved not doing maintenance and oil changes associated with a internal combustion engine would probably pay for the battery replacement let alone the fuel savings.

My wife will probably keep her IC van for since her commute is much shorter and it would be nice on long trips. I will keep my old Chevy C30 for pulling trailers and hauling. 99% of my driving is me picking up and dropping the kids off and heading to and from work. For that kind of driving I don't think you could beat an electric car if you look at it practically.

Of course I'm the kind of guy who enjoys driving a mini van because of it's practicality, so maybe take my perspective with a grain of salt if you worry about being "manly".

[Dio]

I'm reminded of the backup on I 95 last year,south of DC. People couldn't move.
I wonder how much worse it would have been if 25-50-75% of those vehicle were electric. People could have frozen to death I suspect

[Finster101]

When they come out with a electric car that can do 80 mph for a thousand miles and the fancy ones can be driven off the lot for 20 grand then I might start to consider one. I'm probably delusional but like alot of folks I can't put out a lot for high tech vehicles.

There hasn't been much that you drive off the lot for 20K in a while.

[jsizemore]

How much camping can you do if you don't have a place to plug it in? If you charge off the generator why not just drive a gas burner?

[popper]

Current battery life is between 10 to 20 years
advertisement only!!

[Ickisrulz]

Current battery life is between 10 to 20 years
advertisement only!!

And the performance degrades over the battery's lifetime.

[MT Gianni]

Estimates in 2015 were that the Bakken field would make the USA the largest oil producing nation in the world. There is a bunch of fools that could not have that due to their global warming agenda and some very wise people that believe it would throw the middle eastern nations into a real desire to have a world economy the way it was in 600 AD. I am beyond the fools that cannot see how improving efficiency of petroleum and coal is better than relying on solar.

[farmbif]

there is so much hoopla and speculation and all kinds of stories out there. we can find stories from "experts" saying both thing we can agree with or disagree with.
and the manufacturers make all kinds of claims to boost their brand and make us believe all kinds of things. but reality on the ground is manufacturers can't even produce vehicles and deliver them right now. I was at a chevy dealer yesterday and they have 0=zero new vehicles of any type and have many on order and the factory cannot even provide them with a build date on any never mind a delivery date for anything.
what amazed me is how everyone is complaining about high gas prices but the traffic I dealt with yesterday was like nothing I ever experienced here. bumper to bumper traffic for the full length of the city's main drag about 12 miles long. I dont understand, can't explain it but that is what I witnessed. there was a line of cars at least 1/4 mile long waiting to order from the chic filet drive through, I like chic filet but wont participate in such a waiting line.

[DocSavage]

I'm not a truck fan have no use for one IC or electric,but the one thing all the champions of electric cars ignore can the electric grid that is powered by fossil fuels going to be able to handle the increased demand. Places like Calif are near capacity now add an extended heat wave to the demand of charging your EV I see big trouble ahead.

[William Yanda]

Saw a youtube video about a nuclear waste/diamond battery. Does not ever need charging and should last for 28 years. Now that would make an electric vehicle work.

Sounds like that battery would need a new vehicle in ten or fifteen years.