It “will be the Rivian interpretation of a rally car.” Colour us keen.
American EV startup Rivian might’ve taken the world by surprise when, after working for years in deep secrecy, they rolled out no less than two high-performance high-end vehicles for audiences at the Los Angeles motor show to salivate over. The R1T ute and R1S SUV are both incredibly impressive machines, but it won’t stop there, as it seems the company has plans to introduce a new performance model that won’t fit the mould that you’ve already assumed an electric performance car would take.
No, it won’t be a sleek sports car. It’ll instead be a high-riding, all-terrain rally-esque machine, which Rivian boss RJ Scaringe describes as “bananas.”
“The third vehicle will have a smaller wheelbase [than the R1T & R1S], and will be the Rivian interpretation of a rally car with a lot of ground clearance. [It will offer a] combination of on- and off-road performance, and a level of functionality that’s unique in its space.” — RJ Scaringe, Chief Executive Officer, Rivian
In addition to this, Rivian says that part of its business will be offering its skateboard architecture and chassis to other automakers, both established and establishing, with the only caveat being that the derivative products must not compete with anything from Rivian.
This opens up a world of possibilities for prospective EV startups, being able to bypass the expense of developing their own architecture, instead opting for one that’s already been developed, tested, and approved (at least in the US). With that down, a ‘new’ carmaker would then be able to focus their efforts entirely on the upper-body and form factor, which thanks to the flexibility of Rivian’s design, could be anything.
“You could build a [600kW] R1T truck or a goods delivery van, or a shuttle bus.” — RJ Scaringe, Chief Executive Officer, Rivian
The company has big plans that stretch far beyond the United States, with other markets earmarked for introduction. The UK will be part of Rivian’s expansion plans come 2021, but Australia was mentioned explicitly, which made most of us jump a bit.
“California is a huge market here [in the US]. But China, Europe, North America too… and in right-hand drive [for the UK] and Australia, South Africa. I’ve had lots of requests [to go international] in the past 24-hours, it’s been a united nations of countries. We’ll offer direct sale in a lot of areas, where possible. In some markets where we can’t, we’ll have partners. Then, we’ll have partners on back-end things like servicing. We will own the customer service & experience, as it’s important to own that. Dealers understand how to manage scale and how to add value.” — RJ Scaringe, Chief Executive, Rivian
A timeline wasn’t offered for Aussie introduction, but given that the UK’s been earmarked for a 2021 introduction according to Autocar, we should expect to see our own Rivian R1T utes and R1S SUVs perhaps by 2022.
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