New to the board and waiting for 400 mile max pack. My question is how?
1. Improved battery tech
2. Larger battery, if so where…..bottom of frunk or tire well?
second question, why is RJ or Rivian not discussing this?
I believe that the Large and Max battery pack use the same cells, but differ in the number to get the higher capacity of the Max. My understanding is that the extra cells are located toward the rear of the skateboard that uderpins the vehicle. By the way, the larger size seems to be the primary reason Rivian killed off the Max for the R1S; there is less room under the R1S due both to the SUV's shorter wheelbase and the intrusion of the 3rd row seat.
I agree with
@electricavenue as to why Rivian in general and RJ specifically are not discussing the Max pack. Rivian has streamlined production in an attempt to get their numbers closer to full-rate and is still struggling to get to the 2022 projections. Adding the R1S to the mix will have the effect of depressing the overall production rate, which is why I believe R1S deliveries in 2022 are likely to be fairly limited in number.
Another, perhaps bigger reason for the radio silence may be that Rivian does not want to call attention to the many delays associated with the Max. I think that there were a few folks who got delivery windows for late 2022, and more (including me) who got 1H2023 estimates. Neither is going to happen IMO; Rivian does not want further depress production of the R1T Adventure LR by adding the R1T Max to the mix at this point. Many folks, including me, expect that there will be a further delay of the Max to 2024.
Add it up and it's pretty easy to see why RJ does not want to highlight the larger battery at this juncture.