Yes, they do very informative reviews of basically any electric car you can name. They are self admitted EV fan boys of course but their reviews are interesting nonetheless. I've been subscribed for half a year or so and they seem to have good relations with a lot of manufacturers. E.g. they got an early test ride in a prototype VW e-golf recently. Also worth checking out their video on the electric land rover, similar to the Rivian product. It looks like electrical vehicles are going to be seriously competitive for off road stuff.
The Rivian product is extremely ambitious. The challenge for such a company is not going to be sales or marketing (like Teslas, these things should sell themselves) but the capital investments needed to go from the early product prototype stage to having the production capability to scale the business and serve their market. This investment makes a lot of sense for GM as they are essentially pretty far done with dismantling their combustion engine business and are now trying to ramp up their fully electric vehicle business as fast as they can before it is too late.
For those not familiar, the Rivian truck has tons of very practical features. Here's what I remember:
- Waterproof battery. This car can basically drive through a river without issues. The battery and engines can operate while fully submerged. The main challenge is stopping the car from floating or stopping the interior from flooding. When I was watching the review, I couldn't help wondering .... why not put a rudder and propeller on it already?!
-Individually operating engines on each wheel and they can even spin in opposite direction.
- Enormous torque. This car can pull enormously heavy loads. This is a big bonus since that is a common usecase for trucks like this.
- Huge amount of battery and a projected range of more than 400 miles.
- Tons of practical space, including front trunk, a storage space accessible with doors on both sides behind the cabin that you pull down that you can stand on to access e.g. the roof or sit on.
- A flashlight using one of the battery cylinders that they use internally as well that pops out of the door. Naturally, if you pop it back in it charges. This is a bit of a gimmick, but a clever one and it sounds super practical to always have a fully charged flashlight handy.
There was lots more but these were things that stood out to me. It seems like this should tick a lot of boxes for people interested in buying any kind of truck. Of course it remains to be seen if it lives up to expectations in terms of build quality, production volume, etc. But it looks like they are getting ready to ship in just a few years.
I don't actually own a car and doubt I ever will (I rent when I need one, which is a few times per year) but this one seems cool to me.