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Rivian R1T electric pickup truck review

3K views 20 replies 6 participants last post by  PhotoAl 
#1 ·
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#2 ·
Richard, pretty expensive neighborhood, you might just as well give the new hummer a look while you at it,,.
https://www.gmc.com/electric/hummer-ev

Pretty exciting times for those with deep pockets?

How much does new Hummer weigh?
Result for new hummer weight 9046 lbs
You thought the original Hummer was huge? In its most powerful spec, the new GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 pickup will weigh 9046 lbs, nearly 1000 lbs more than the H1.May 18, 2021
 
#3 ·
I agree that some of the new electric vehicles don't appear to be very practical for the general public and are not priced to create a big rush of vehicle owners to dump their ICE cars and embrace battery power. Who really needs that kind of weight and power, plus you are going to have to get them recharged at a commercial charging station, which is typically not all that cheap unless the government is footing the bill and the recharging is free. Plus, the big vehicles have big batteries which take a long time to recharge if you run them down. So you will be spending hours of your day waiting for the battery pack to be fully charged. Not exactly like taking 5 minutes to refuel a gas tank.
 
#7 ·
Why would they need to charge at commercial chargers vs a home charger? Most EV owners who have a driveway or garage charge at home. A 220 Level 2 charger at home will charge from 20% in several hours for most vehicles.

I agree the prices on some of these new vehicles are ridiculous - but so are many SUVs. I wonder how some people afford the payment.
 
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#5 ·
I don't see most contractors being interested in EV pickup trucks. They are looking for cheap, rugged, proven reliability, and a large carrying capacity. That is not what you get with the Rivian or the Cybertruck.
 
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#6 ·
It is an impressive pickup. Price tag will be too. When I first saw the headlights several years ago, I really disliked them. They have grown on me.
 
#8 ·
I think that the manufacturers are following Tesla's lead and introducing the high end, high margin vehicles first and then working there way into the more competitive higher volume segments especially for the big manufactures with plenty of successful ICE models on the market,,. A lot of these vehicles are experimental stage which is another reason why I wouldn't take the plunge,,.
EV's make sense as a commuter vehicle where you have a designated route that you can plan around, charge it at home or at the office when your carrying out other activities,,. Going out touring with a four by four or Electric Motorcycle and getting stuck at a filling station doesn't work for most people,,. My friends wife drives one of the earlier Tesla S models and he hates it, says its a big drama every time they leave town with it,,.
 
#10 ·
Talked to a Tesla driver a couple months ago. He and his wife had made a quick trip from Yellowstone Park to the LA area. They drove into quick charge facilities and in 15 minutes they were back on the way for another 200 miles.
Don't forget that Ford is advertising it's electric truck as a work site vehicle that can conveniently power your home when the grid in Texas goes down again.
Might want to consider that most job sites have power and the truck can recharge on site.
I wonder how many miles the average delivery driver covers in the typical day? A 200 miles range just may provide the power needed.

A home I walk past on my daily walk has Teslas parked on the street. Someone carelessly smacked into the left rear of one of the Teslas. I've heard that they electric cars are heavier than gas powered vehicles due to the battery mass. The Tesla had a broken tail light and the air bags had been deployed so it must have been a solid whack. I wonder what the other car looked like?
 
#11 ·
A home I walk past on my daily walk has Teslas parked on the street. Someone carelessly smacked into the left rear of one of the Teslas. I've heard that they electric cars are heavier than gas powered vehicles due to the battery mass. The Tesla had a broken tail light and the air bags had been deployed so it must have been a solid whack. I wonder what the other car looked like?

One of the earlier knocks on Tesla was the body repair bills were horrendous as parts weren't available to the auto body industry and the dealer network didn't have the facilities to repair body work so right offs were common,,. This may have been rectified by now, Tesla's a pretty fast moving company?
 
#15 ·
Some pretty hot looking designs coming down the pipe, seem like the leading edge is being directed to EV, like Etrons, Tycans, Ipace, even Cadillac,,!!

I just don't know, I get impatient when I have to fill my vehicles up with gas which isn't very often with how much I drive,,. Sometime I wonder why I choose a station with such a slow pump so I think for me a road trip it would be aggravating to alter my plan based on fuel even though its obviously quite doable,,. Also if you stay at friends while on vacation you need to mooch electricity which is something you would never do with gas as its so readily available?
 
#16 ·
My 200A power is direct burial. 4 houses are served from the same tap on the transformer. Hard to believe you have only 120v service. You have air conditioning? My HVAC for 1500 sq ft is on a 70A circuit.

As for the service size, what is the top breaker in your distribution panel? The one that turns everything off. Does it have 2 bars? If so: 240V.

You would be surprised at how easy it is to change direct burial wire and pipes. They tie the new to the old and use a tractor or backhoe to pull on old drawing the new through.

If what you say is true then you are in the bottom 1% of American homes.
 
#18 ·
No one that I know of has air conditioning in my area. If you want your home cooled off, you just need to open up your windows.

I took a close look at my electrical panel for the first time. It has a large number of red circuit breakers marked 20 amps and one blue 15 amp breaker for the furnace. In the middle of the panel are two grey breakers attached to each other. They are marked 100 amps. So I assume that the panel would not need to be changed if the electrical wiring in my home was upgraded. The adjacent "smart meter" (which is read electronically and no longer by a utility employee) belongs to the electrical service provider, Pacific, Graft and Explosion. So I assume that any upgrade to my home's electrical service could be performed by a private electrician and only require a city $$$ permit and inspection. (To give you an idea how expensive city permits are, 20 years ago when I had a contractor place a 3" cast iron pipe through the street curb so that it drained into the gutter, the contractor charged me $100 to bore a hole through the curb and the city charged me $400 for the permit authorizing the hole and to perform an inspection of the work. [:(!] )

I just received my electrical power bill yesterday. For the month I used 168 kWh at a cost of 26 cents per kWh. So that would make my average daily electrical power consumption 5.6 kWh.

When I had a foundation drain installed next to the foundation wall along that side of the house (the old foundation drain consisted of a 3" clay pipe with its joints open, but it wasn't connected to any outlet, which resulted in flooding of my downstairs bedroom and garage) the electrical service was exposed and I was surprised to see the wire looking more like an extension cord than something more durable.

I am not sure how many homes around here actually have 240V circuits past the meter as during my walks I see several Model 3 Teslas sitting in driveways with L1 cords and not L2 handles connected to their power receptacles. I suspect that it would not be to big a project to upgrade to 240V power inside the home, just something of an expensive hassle.
 
#17 ·
Having access to only 120V service would be a deal breaker for everyday usage for me. I have read folks that live in apartments/condos with no options to charge at home or those that have only street parking and make it work via public chargers. For me, that would be too big a tradeoff and lifestyle change.

At my home, I installed a Level 2 charger outside my garage. Much to my wife's chagrin, the bikes own the inside. My electrician ran a 60 amp line from my basement power panel to my garage which, IIRC, cost about $500-600 plus permits.
 
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#21 ·
I bought a new Chevy Bolt in January because it was cheap. $21,322 out the door including taxes, no trade and no government assistance. We d have a GM card which saved us $3,400 plus and extra $3,000 bonus earnings. In February the bonus earnings went away but could get an extra $3,000 off thru Costco. Car sticker'd at $44,130. I guess Chevy was making it's profits on volume haha. I had a Volt before and it was a fantastic car. I thought at the time there would not be another opportunity to buy a Bolt or another EV at anywhere near the price and so far have been correct. I've been able to sell it to Carmax and make a few thousand but what could I buy? At the time it was less expensive than a Honda CRV. It drives nicely, is a bit sporty and I leave home every day with a "full tank". Due to the lack of charging stations in NE Alabama it is just a city car although I have DC fast charge capability. Driving an EV is similar to a normal car but different. Smooth and quiet without having to have elaborate sound deadening systems and moron mounts. Just press the accelerator and it goes, no shifting just goes. With regen slowing becomes something of a game as I routinely drive even coming to complete stops without touching the brake pedal. Maintenance? Simply put there is none other than occasionally checking the washer fluid.

For charging I charge at 12A 120 or 240V and never have a problem with not having enough range. If more people understood the good parts of having an EV there would be more drivers. Right now the big missing piece is charging infrastructure. Tesla has lots of charging station around but other no so much. I would have liked to have driven it to Chattanooga recently but there are not good reliable convenient charging stations I could use. Would have to go out of my way, use a much slower charger or hope the one that is available is not broken or in use. I have a gasoline powered van for trips. For really long trips I have my motorcycle :) The mention of the Tesla that drove from Yellowstone to LA failed to mention that routes available are dependent on the availability of charging stations. When riding in remote areas in Wyoming and Montana I have enough trouble finding gasoline much less a DC fast charger or even a Level 2 (slower) charger. From what I have seen the DCFC are mostly along major routes and not on the remote secondary roads the I like to take when on a sightseeing trip.

Didn't buy my Bolt to save the planet, bought it because it was good reliable and low cost transportation for trips to Costco, the grocery store and taking my grandkids for ice cream. The Rivian appears to be a great off-road vehicle at a reasonable price. However I cannot get over the look of the front, just is not appealing. Tesla hit a home run with the Model S and used it to build their image. The styling of most of th EVs out there do not appeal to me at all and that includes the 2022 Bolt. Most folks that see my Bolt think it is a small car or SUV and don't realize its an EV.

@Richard230 I know what you mean about older houses. Mine was built in the early to mid 60s and when we bought it 30 years ago we had the fuse panel replaced with a breaker panel. My son lives in San Jose and I've seen the older houses there. It is going to be interesting with more EVs as people start to try to connect chargers to old electrical wiring. I'll be out there in 3 weeks to visit my son.
 
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