… until I perused the latest issue of Forbes magazine yesterday.
The company is very well-funded, is currently re-tooling the old Mitsubishi factory in Illinois, and its technical staff includes the guy who developed McLaren’s famed 720S and MP4-12C, plus the former VP of design for Jeep.
Now, if they can just do something about those headlights…
https://www.autotrader.com/car-reviews/rivian-r1s-electric-suv-first-look-281474979899394
Whoever designed the front end must have been thinking of the equally atrocious 1958 Edsel.
What I’m seeing is this . . .
The vehicle is clearly aimed at “well heeled” buyers who are in the market for a luxury suv
However, given the fact that this company will be quite late getting into the game, so to speak, I’m wondering if they’ll be around for a long time
Tesla was/is the relatively young upstart company which aims to change the way the automotive business works
What will be this new company’s angle . . . ?
We’ve had two discussions on the Rivian. One in December started by @It_s_Me and the second last month started by @RandomTroll. We can talk again!
It seems larger than the Tesla Model X, which looks more like a crossover with lousy storage behind the third row. We can’t see the interior in this article, of course, but the write-up states the Rivian is about the same size as the Explorer. I expect if third row is used for seating, interior storage behind the seats will also be poor. The expected prices seem in line with comparable Model X SUVs, but that max range one 410 miles is excellent. I guess we’ll see what happens when and if it is built.
I think it is going to cost a LOT more than they estimate and thus have a market so small that it will be impossible to be profitable.
Maybe it was here, I dunno but I thought it had been in one of the car magazines like Motor Trend a month or two ago. I thought they were doing a pick up. At any rate I thought the styling was kinda not too good. How many car companies have been bought out and/or struggled to survive in the last ten years. I just start wondering what is going on that folks think they can just start up a car company and expect to be around for 50 years. Outside of being a little novel to put batteries and electric motors in cars, I just ask what distinguishes them from the others. Then you get down to nuts and bolts things like a dealer network, parts, service. Just starts to look like the old days where every bicycle or buggy shop got into the car business. Maybe just too much idle money laying around to invest. I guess we’ll see. People with a lot of money will buy just for the novelty.
UGLY in spades…
Front end is weird/ugly. But the 1958 Edsel—still love the styling, but that’s a matter of personal taste.
@RandomTroll’s NYT reference above shows a pickup.
‘Marketplace’ (the radio show) reports on Rivian http://download.stream.publicradio.org/podcast/marketplace/segments/2019/02/19/mp_20190219_seg_01_64.mp3 70 seconds