[St00k]

Interesting quote from Rivian's CEO RJ Scaringe

Basically you'll be able to charge a Rivian using another Rivian. I guess it's kind of like having a winch to get someone out if a tight spot when you're out exploring... or even just somewhere remote.

It also looks like Rivian will offer additional battery packs.

"You're starting to get into the long tail of use cases, but even there we've designed the vehicle so you can have auxiliary battery packs. You can also charge Rivian-to-Rivian, which is a neat thing. You connect the two vehicles and then I could hand you some electrons. That takes us to the limit, and of course you can always find a corner of the world where it won't work, just like you can't find a gas station in Antarctica. You won't be able to find a plug in Antarctica, so there are natural limitations."

 

[R99]

That interview Scaringe did with thedrive.com was a very interesting read, especially when we don't hear a lot about him.

Charging a Rivian with another Rivian would definitely be helpful for offroad enthusiasts that go out mudding in the woods together. I'm not sure how many people would use it in daily driving situations.

Another part of the interview that I liked was when he was asked about selling his vehicles to someone who enjoys combustion engines and manual transmissions. Particularly when he describes the differences when driving electrics.

"I grew up restoring classic Porsches and I had all kinds of crazy projects. I built engines, I'm an absolute car person. It's like the heart of my life. I love cars. But, I don't view electric and combustion as being at odds with one another. It's just a very different and new flavor. I've been driving electrics for a while and it's a completely different experience and, I think, in a positive way. You lose the manual, you lose some of the noise, but you gain incredible smoothness, incredible torque response, and precision with throttling that torquing in and out. I find it more enjoyable, but I think it is a process. People that grew up with something, it’s always a transition, just like anything else. There are all the cliché analogies, that the combustion engine with being a manual transmission is like a horse in the 1930s. There are people who grew up around it like it and appreciate that, but it is absolutely not going to be a long term part of the transportation system. It just simply can't, for a variety of reasons."