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It’s always interesting to see a startup automaker join the big leagues and become as official as big names like Dodge and Hyundai. One promising startup is Rivian. This automaker started off with an all-electric pickup truck, the Rivian RT1. Complete with a removable roof option, a built-in miniature kitchen, and a pop-up tent, this pickup truck quickly received its certification, and the RT1 helped Rivian hit the top of the charts in the 2023 Consumer Reports Auto Survey. It’s been two years since, Rivian has released another all-electric vehicle, and this time it’s a crossover. Here are the highlights for the R1S crossover.
New Power Source
Automakers going electric are trying to find new materials to use when it comes to producing batteries and battery packs for their battery-electric vehicles. Silicon carbide chips look promising, but there are still other alternatives to discover. Rivian is switching from nickel-based cells to lithium iron phosphate for its BEV batteries. Rivian claims these new batteries can still provide an all-electric range (AER) of 270 miles, and iron-based batteries can be charged regularly to 100 percent, versus the typical 80 percent most BEVs can do on the regular.
Quad Motor
One motor, twin motors, now quad motors. With fewer moving parts, making a powertrain with more than one electric motor becomes possible as long as a large enough battery can power them. The R1S comes with a standard four-motor layout - two in the front and two in the rear – able to generate a combined 835 horsepower. The original motors came from Bosch, but following that arrangement, Rivian made some motors in-house. The new output is 1025 horsepower, able to accelerate from 06- mph in 2.5 seconds. Rivian will be offering a twin motor, three-motor, and four-motor setups.
Production Costs
How much it costs a company to produce a vehicle can present a problem if the demand isn’t there. With the base model coming in at $77,700 with shipping for the twin motor and up to $100,000 with shipping for three motors. A four-motor system could only mean it costs that much more, and it creates a small niche of consumers in the market that can afford the R1S. Having sold more than 50,000 units last year, with plans for a new concept already on the way, Rivian doesn’t seem to be too worried. If anything, the automaker is finding cheaper ways to produce their vehicles and still keep quality up.
"We have updated over half the vehicles' hardware components, including a wide range of engineering improvements to the body structure, battery packs, wire harness, electrical system and closure systems….Much of the body structure now uses a 50 percent more efficient manufacturing process. All of this contributes to our next generation R1 vehicles delivering a substantial cost reduction that will be key in achieving our necessary unit economics." – Rivian
Exterior Updates
Think of a classic appearance package automakers break out when they need a quick and easy exterior update, and the “blacked out” option comes to mind. Rivian is calling their version a “darkout” trim, but it follows the same pattern. The Rivian R1S darkout comes with black trim from the vehicle's badging to the skid plates, and 22-inch wheels in gloss black with clip-in aerodynamic covers. Rivian is offcially one of the big boys.
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