[R99]

Elon Musk appeared on the Ride the Lightning podcast and mentioned that their new pickup truck would have a starting price of $49,000, which is a significant difference compared to the RT1's starting price of $69,000. Based on the prices it seems that Tesla will be offering a less luxurious pickup truck compared to Rivian, but it hasn't been officially revealed yet.

Would you consider the Tesla over the RT1?

 

[archiboy]

How could you not consider it. But today there's no way to do so. All we have are a few off hand comments by Elon:

The price will start @ $49k (in fact to paraphrase he said he thinks it has to start there to compete with the other trucks)

The image was flashed as at the Model Y event was the front of the vehicle

He repeated this will not be for everyone, but specification wise will be hard to deny the ICE counterpart is worth the investment.

Personally I love Ryan's podcast and listen to it almost every week. I really liked that he was able to get Elon to share as much as he did. When Ryan jumped to the next topic I was like: wait, wait I've got another 50 questions I want you to ask about the truck. Then when I realized Ryan was given only an hour with Elon I forgave him... It was an amazing interview and one of the best Elon interviews I've heard in the last year or more. If you haven't heard it I'd highly recommend listening.

But all that said (and anyone following my posts on this forum will start to see a pattern). This isn't Rivian vs. Tesla. This is EV vs ICE. Rivian will be perfect for some people, Tesla will be perfect for others. There's lots of room for diversity within the PU market.

Until we know the real specs for the Tesla there's no way to compare it today. My guess is Rivian will beat Tesla to market by about a year. For that year there will be no comparison. After that the issue will be EV vs ICE first. Once a buyer has decided to make the jump to EV then they can start comparing R1T vs R1S vs Tesla vs what ever else is available. Bottom line is there are gonna be way more buyers than anyone can possibly manufacture for the next 4 to 5 years. Which is s good thing!

 

[R99]

The interview was very in depth given how much time that Ryan was able to work with. There's so much you could ask Elon and it can go down a million different paths.

My prediction is that aside from being electric pickup trucks, there won't be much to compare the R1T and the Tesla. Rivian is gearing towards a more luxurious and outdoor oriented demographic while I feel that Tesla is going to go for a more utilitarian vehicle for their truck given the initial price difference and the fact that they will release their truck after Rivian.

 

[eHauler]

Rivan basically carved out a new segment by targeting the adventure crowd
Tesla is after the F-150 crowd.

 

[kenoneal]

Rivan basically carved out a new segment by targeting the adventure crowd
Tesla is after the F-150 crowd.

If it looks like the model in the following render and actually performs better than the F-150. It will be on my list. If not, I will be waiting for Ford and/or GM to respond. Rivian... hopefully. They can use a more F-150-like pickup.

“It’s going to be a truck that is more capable than other trucks. The goal is to be a better truck than a [Ford] F-150 in terms of truck-like functionality and be a better sports car than a standard [Porsche] 911. That’s the aspiration.”