- Supercharger access/utilization: not ruled out but nothing in place. The few engineers we spoke to about this unsurprisingly didn’t seem too optimistic. Biggest issue seems to be the proprietary charge connector Tesla uses.
- Level 3 autonomy is all that is promised now, but higher levels of autonomy are not ruled out and certainly the hardware is there. The engineer said they would rather underpromise and overdeliver.
- As others have mentioned from the event, I was told by two engineers that the auxiliary
battery is just a patent. As of right now that patent is only for the R1T, but again it was stressed that this is not something they are saying is part of their product line right now. Only a patent.
- “Extensive consideration” has been given to “Scenic Route” GPS maps. I clarified this to mean, you want to take a road trip from Atlanta to the Grand Canyon. You can choose scenic route rather than shortest trip. He did not say explicitly that this will be a feature, but given his response I would say it is very likely.
- Max charge speed for first generation is 150 kW.
- Charge port will be only on the driver side in production vehicles. Not on passenger side like in the vehicles we saw today or both sides as has been speculated based on pictures from Argentina.
- Likely get to configure starting early next year.
- Adjustable regenerative braking: the engineer I asked couldn’t tell me for sure, but said it is very likely as it is only a software setting.
- No specifics on vehicle warranty but stressed that they understand how important a good warranty is to the success of the company as a new startup. So I was told to expect an excellent warranty.
- Similarly, I was told that the 1st day they start delivering vehicles they will post an international service map. They also said that all service will be handled by Rivian. Based on further explanation my understanding was that you would initially deal with Rivian and then depending on your location they would either directly service your vehicle or arrange for service one of their partners. Engineer also said that the vast majority of the time the vehicle will alert you and Rivian at the same time about service needs and what those needs are. He also said that most service would be done by mobile service similar to Tesla’s mobile service. Cox Automotive’s investment was also mentioned as a big plus in this regard.
- Flat towing behind an RV: yes.
- Plan is for the R1T to roll out first with the 135 kWh
battery. R1S will follow in about 2-3 months. 180 kWh will be after the 135 and 105 will come later the following year. I was unclear if the order would be R1T 135, R1T 180, R1S 135, then R1S 180 or R1T 135 then R1S 135.
- The
battery engineer we spoke to said they are expecting their batteries to last 20 years. He also said that they are engineering them for minimal degradation over time and expect to have at least as good and likely better capacity loss over time than Tesla. Lastly, he said that they have solved the issue of efficiency loss in cold weather. He hinted at a big development in this regard but could not go into specifics right now.
