[R99]

I came across this post on the Rivian Facebook Group from a guy who attended the recent even in Atlanta. He shared a bunch of information that he learned and I figured I'd share it on here as well.

Based on this list of info, flat towing will come in handy for a lot of people, scenic route GPS would be a nice touch, and here's hoping for an strong warranty from Rivian.

- 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.

 

[wbdamron]

In regard to roll out, my recollection was the 180 would come first. I saw this in Rivian media:

Pricing for the R1T starts at $61,500 after Federal Tax credit. Deliveries will begin in late 2020. Fully-equipped vehicles with the highest performance level and largest battery pack will enter production first. The 180 kWh pack (400+ miles range) and 135 kWh pack will be available at launch, with the base variant (250+ miles range) to follow within 12 months of the start of production.

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I will be waiting on the long range version, so this point caught my attention.

W

 

[JimmyEV]

In regard to roll out, my recollection was the 180 would come first. I saw this in Rivian media:

Pricing for the R1T starts at $61,500 after Federal Tax credit. Deliveries will begin in late 2020. Fully-equipped vehicles with the highest performance level and largest battery pack will enter production first. The 180 kWh pack (400+ miles range) and 135 kWh pack will be available at launch, with the base variant (250+ miles range) to follow within 12 months of the start of production.

—-

I will be waiting on the long range version, so this point caught my attention.

W

That makes a lot of sense, Rivian has to go big with its launch so they can show everyone how good the R1S and R1T are. Especially when the 180 kWh battery pack is one of their most important options.

 

[thrill]

Has anyone asked about upgrading the battery packs after purchase if what one ordered was insufficient? It doesn't seem that it'd be hard to drop the pack, open it, put new batteries in, reseal, and drive off. The 135/180 might be even easier, since the 180's extra capacity comes from trading off the rear seat storage in the R1T and the rear seats in the R1S (I think). These seem almost like plug and play capabilities. One thing this'd do is allow the 180 buyers an option of getting a vehicle sooner (assuming battery availability is going to be a limiting factor for awhile) by getting a 135, and then if they wanted to later they could add the additional batteries. Delivering more 135's up front would make the numbers look good for the company too.