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Electric Truck - Wow!

Tom K.

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rivian-r1t-reveal-2.jpg

Disclosure: I typically have no -- or perhaps somewhat negative -- interest in e-cars. This thing blows me away, except for the $90,000 price:

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/26/rivian-r1t-electric-truck-400-mile-range-supercar-acceleration/

It checks so many boxes for me. Perhaps a 2020 Black Friday 30% discount?!
 
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WheatKing

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As an electric car owner, who also lives on a farm and uses a truck for truck things.. I'm waiting for the big 3 to catch up to the railroads.. I want a diesel electric. Efficiency of a diesel, with the convenience, torque and smoothness that comes with electric, with 0 range issues.

Biggest issue with electrics which barely gets mention.. is heat. We all like a warm cabin in the winter, and it takes an enormous amount of energy to make it...

One of the reasons I have a Chevy Volt.. electric for the 90% of the time I can get by on electric.. with a range extending gas engine for those times that I want to make 10~14 hour trips to real mountains, and when it gets cold, I can burn a bit of gas to warm the cabin quick and then switch back to electric.

Full electric truck? No thanks.. not until charging infrastructure is vastly enhanced.. and even then.. it's hard to beat the convenience and energy storage of dino juice.
 

Andy Mink

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I think this is a start. There are some neat tricks on this truck. The pass through storage, lots of outlets/ports, eye popping acceleration, and a decent tow capacity. But, the bed is small and it's not ready for 5th wheel use. And the range while towing is going to be limited. For $90k I can buy a lot of diesel for my RAM. And get way better looking lights. Those things, in both ends, are horrible!
 
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Tom K.

Tom K.

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I think this is a start. There are some neat tricks on this truck. The pass through storage, lots of outlets/ports, eye popping acceleration, and a decent tow capacity. But, the bed is small and it's not ready for 5th wheel use. And the range while towing is going to be limited. For $90k I can buy a lot of diesel for my RAM. And get way better looking lights. Those things, in both ends, are horrible!

Agree completely on the short bed, not to mention the price.
 

Philpug

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Agree completely on the short bed, not to mention the price.
Other than the people that actually use trucks for work...the majority of the premium trucks ($70K+) have short beds. I think if they stay on track they will have a winner with these and their SUV counterpart.
 

Andy Mink

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Other than the people that actually use trucks for work...the majority of the premium trucks ($70K+) have short beds. I think if they stay on track they will have a winner with these and their SUV counterpart.
I think an SUV would be a better place to start. More useful for more people. If I had 90k for a truck or SUV I'm getting the SUV.
 

Philpug

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I think an SUV would be a better place to start. More useful for more people. If I had 90k for a truck or SUV I'm getting the SUV.
You aren't the market for this truck, Tesla owner from the bay is, jsut look at the background of the image they used.
 

slowrider

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I rode in a E-car last Summer for the first time. It was very quiet and smooth with good acceleration. I look forward to E transportation and self-driving vehicles. Anything that takes the controls away from people.
 

Andy Mink

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You aren't the market for this truck, Tesla owner from the bay is, jsut look at the background of the image they used.
IF I had 90k I'd be in the market!
 
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Tom K.

Tom K.

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Other than the people that actually use trucks for work...the majority of the premium trucks ($70K+) have short beds. I think if they stay on track they will have a winner with these and their SUV counterpart.

Six foot MINIMUM bed for me. Skis, dirt bikes.

I think an SUV would be a better place to start. More useful for more people. If I had 90k for a truck or SUV I'm getting the SUV.

They seem to have that covered, too:

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/tag/rivian-r1s/
 

Andy Mink

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Which came first? Rivian headlights or the Dyson blade?
v33591.001-2.jpeg
 

Bill Talbot

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EV's have so many issues that few people even talk about. Cold weather (that means SKIERS!), charge time, range, battery life, depreciation, real cost per mile, etc... How do you go on a ski trip?
Trucks are 80% used as a poor substitute for a good car. Never understood that. The folks who actually work them need a real truck.
:doh: :nono: :(
 

James

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t's hard to beat the convenience and energy storage of dino juice.
Very true. It's really quite amazing the infrastructure in place. Imagine the early 20th century when none of it existed. Cars seemed fairly silly to use into the mountains.
 

Eleeski

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Trucks are good platforms for hybrids or big battery electrics. They are already big and heavy so performance is not degraded by the extra weight of big batteries. Big fancy trucks are ridiculously expensive already so another 10k for adequate capacity electric might really work. This is pretty cool.

If you actually work with the truck, electrics might make even more sense. Predictable routes mean charge planning is straightforward. Electricity does enjoy a price (and carbon) advantage from the hydro and renewable sources (fossil fuel generated power is not as cheap or clean but it's just a portion of the grid). You have a chance of paying off the the price differential.

The filthy rich Bay Area techies (sigh, want to be one) will gobble up this truck. Hopefully it will trickle down to the rest of us as the technology gets proven.

Cool development!

Eric
 

Plai

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The filthy rich Bay Area techies (sigh, want to be one) will gobble up this truck.

I guess I don't qualify either :( But, if I had the money, don't think this vehicle represents me (my use cases) well. There are a lot more (of us) struggling silicon techies, than the former. We just keep on dreaming, striving... Just saying...
 

ScottB

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Here is my electric vehicle ski car, a Ford CMax Energi

IMG_20190315_173519690.jpg


Which has worked very well for me in my first winter of ownership. Now full disclosure before I get to the point, this is a "plug in" hybrid which has a gas engine and can run 100% on battery via a setting button inside the car. Its the tech. equivalent to the Chevy Volt that WheatKing mentioned he/she drives. My vehicle is only good for 30 miles on electric, so ski trips are done on good old gas, at 38 mpg average for a ski trip, I am pretty happy. (replaced my Honda Pilot getting 17 mpg).

My point. that I only learned after buying this vehicle, is Tesla is driving charging station infrastructure all across the country and you would be surprised how close we are to being able to drive anywhere anytime on a 300 mile range full electric. The other key piece Tesla has is super high voltage charging which only takes 20-30 minutes to get back to 75% capacity. I skied Vt a lot last year and there were charging stations everywhere in that state. No problem doing a ski trip in Vt with a 100% electric car. I don't see the same thing in ME, which I skied mostly this year, so I burned gas for the most part. It won't be long before charging stations will be as common as gas stations. I honestly think there is money to be made there in the near term future. Without getting too deep, most charging stations have a usage fee (typically $2.00) which goes straight into the pocket of whatever company owns the station. In Vt. there is a charging station in the parking lot of almost every country store. I was quite surprised, and put off by the $2.00 fee when I will use about a $1.50 worth of electricity.

Cool looking truck, but $90K. I paid under $20K for my CMax.
 

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