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Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

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Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#161

Post by mauvehaus »

Angostura wrote: post #145
dbcurtis wrote: post #130

Am I the only one who finds the spare tire location an absolute deal breaker? You have to unload the payload, and lift up the payload bed floor in order to access the spare. Now, I suppose this doesn't matter much to Amazon. But I have had the experience of being out the back-country where cell phones don't work, miles from a highway, changing a truck tire by myself. If I had to spend 1 or 2 hours unloading the truck…

I understand your annoyance, but these days I carry a can of spray-in gloop for punctures.

Your local tire shop will not be delighted about this. I'm told the spray in gloop gets everywhere and makes changing the tire (removing it from the rim and installing a new one) hell for the techs.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#162

Post by Gibbon1 »

cameldrv wrote: post #114
Gibbon1 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The genius about the Tesla Roadster was it was competitive at the price level of very expensive toys.

Yes. Musk has been exceptional at figuring out markets to drive a tech up the experience curve that aren’t his ultimately desired market. Often it takes multiple companies to do that.

Maybe five years ago I observed that Nissan and Tesla were homing in on the same market from opposite directions.

Tesla built the Roadster which is a toy. Then the Luxo Model X and S Sedans followed by the affordable Model 3. Nissan built the affordable but limited range Leaf and just kept increasing the range every other year or so.

They basically started each with one type of suck (Tesla=Price, Nissan=Range) and worked to reduce over time.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#163

Post by olivermarks »

perardi wrote: post #137
trenning wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some friends used to make an annual trip down there. It was where the DSMs were built so it was a fun drive down in our loud rattleboxes. Neat they're using the plant again.

Oh man, the old turbo Eclipse. Now that was a car. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Eclipse They don't build them like they used to. Probably for a reason. My dad heard gossip at the plant they had to move away from the racer boy turbo platform because they were just too astronomically expensive to insure–because they were invariably driven by 20-something guys who wrapped them around trees. And as an adult m…

Wonderful car

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#164

Post by rsynnott »

xxpor wrote: post #31
ducleonctor wrote: post #13

For once, mighty Amazon comes late to the show. Germany's parcel service DHL builds up a fleet of small electric delivery vans since 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StreetScooter Living in Bavaria, I see these drive around everywhere now.

These seem like they'd never work in the US. They aren't fast enough to go on the highway and their range is limited to 62 miles.

The US has cities, I believe.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#165

Post by dbcurtis »

MisterTea wrote: post #149
dbcurtis wrote: post #130

Am I the only one who finds the spare tire location an absolute deal breaker? You have to unload the payload, and lift up the payload bed floor in order to access the spare. Now, I suppose this doesn't matter much to Amazon. But I have had the experience of being out the back-country where cell phones don't work, miles from a highway, changing a truck tire by myself. If I had to spend 1 or 2 hours unloading the truck…

Honestly in this day and age, Amazon is better off having a service company come and change the tire so as to avoid workplace injuries and other liabilities. Most companies are able to bring spares from their stock.

Oh, sure, absolutely. An Amazon driver just calls service and goes about his business. That is different from the average truck-user case.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#166

Post by rsynnott »

paulsutter wrote: post #151

Are they including the carbon footprints of their employees and all products including of their vendors? And if not, how meaningful is it? > The commerce giant will seek to meet its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040

Their employees would still exist if they didn’t; they’re not cloning them somewhere. And people would still buy stuff.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#167

Post by dbcurtis »

_AzMoo wrote: post #142
dbcurtis wrote: post #130

Am I the only one who finds the spare tire location an absolute deal breaker? You have to unload the payload, and lift up the payload bed floor in order to access the spare. Now, I suppose this doesn't matter much to Amazon. But I have had the experience of being out the back-country where cell phones don't work, miles from a highway, changing a truck tire by myself. If I had to spend 1 or 2 hours unloading the truck…

Can't be too hard to just mount a wheel carrier in the bed, or swinging on the rear, and just use that spot as extra storage though. I don't know a single off-roader who doesn't mod their vehicle in similar ways to make up for perceived shortcomings.

> Can't be too hard to just mount a wheel carrier in the bed

Um... yeah. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a truck.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#168

Post by rsynnott »

isostatic wrote: post #82
zelos wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For ICE vehicles production and disposal are about 15% of the total carbon footprint, the rest is fuel and servicing. Lat time I saw the figure the total impact of producing an EV was more, but the lifetime impact was about 30-40% of an ICE. EVs really are a lot more efficient. When I worked it out for an EV charging from 'average' UK electricity, it was about 25% of my (already small and efficient) ICE car.

Petrol is a large tax source in the UK -- every mile you drive in a petrol car funds your local school.

I mean, at one point fireplaces were a major tax source in the UK. Later on, windows.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#169

Post by jethro_tell »

magduf wrote: post #119
delfinom wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I've always wondered what long term issues one might encounter with a Volt. It's a Chevy...so expect some pretty bad engineering defects with everything but the engine/drivetrain.

Yeah, it does seem like Chevys have some pretty robust engines/drivetrains, installed in some pretty lousy bodies.

I have a truck that has 300k miles on the original engine and transmission but I have to change the headlight switch every 50 to 70k miles. I also have to replace the interior door handles every 100k. So, 6 door handles (right and left), 6 light switches, a fuel pump, radiator, and she's ready for a suspension. But rocking the same engine.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#170

Post by dbcurtis »

Angostura wrote: post #145
dbcurtis wrote: post #130

Am I the only one who finds the spare tire location an absolute deal breaker? You have to unload the payload, and lift up the payload bed floor in order to access the spare. Now, I suppose this doesn't matter much to Amazon. But I have had the experience of being out the back-country where cell phones don't work, miles from a highway, changing a truck tire by myself. If I had to spend 1 or 2 hours unloading the truck…

I understand your annoyance, but these days I carry a can of spray-in gloop for punctures.

That can work for punctures. The back-country that I go to regularly has granite rocks that can sometimes have a sharp edge. The particular tire I was changing was a 4-steel-ply contractor-grade truck tire, two weeks old, that somehow got cross-wise of a piece of split granite that put a 3 inch gash in it. Goop will not do it in that case. I am still amazed at the damage that rock did. But hey, that's life in the mountains.
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