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Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

techcrunch.com

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Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#251

Post by wil421 »

dao- wrote: post #182
leesec wrote: post #103

Honestly this is a good move, I just have a quick question: Does anyone anywhere have video footage of a Rivian actually being driven? Like, not in a commercial, someone genuinely driving it. I just want to know if they are anywhere close to having a production vehicle. If they have a single production vehicle that does what they say, then OK they "just" have to figure out scaling up the manufacturing. If they don't…

> If they don't have a single vehicle, they are years and years away, to the point that Tesla truck may beat them to mass market. StreetScooter, a DHL subsidiary, managed to ramp up the production of electric delivery trucks much quicker. They also sell to third-parties (mostly in Germany I suppose). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/StreetScooter

I think those will only work well in a very urban environment. The amazon warehouse is about 23 miles from my house. 50-60km range or even 100km will not work from home deliveries. 100km seems a little short even for USPS.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#252

Post by tssva »

icebraining wrote: post #240
dao- wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check their website, they sell to anyone willing to place a large enough order (it seems that the exact price is subject to negotiation). Let's step back for a moment. DHL is replacing Volkswagen Caddy delivery trucks. The 100,000$ estimate is entirely off for this kind of delivery truck that I think is comparable to what Amazon needs.

So StreetScooter seems to be selling a van with a 40kWh battery for about $50000. Rivian is talking about building vehicles with batteries between 105-180kWh. That alone will raise the price quite a bit. Maybe it's overkill for a delivery van, but it's also very possible that Amazon has a need for longer trips than the DHL.

The StreetScooter has a range of 31 - 50 miles. This may be enough range for an urban delivery route but not near enough for the large number of suburban or rural delivery routes in the US. In comparison Rivian currently claiming a 410 miles range for their pickup truck. I don't expect the vans to get that range but 250 - 300 is probably reasonable to expect.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#253

Post by Angostura »

mauvehaus wrote: post #161
Angostura wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My local tyre shop is used to it because sadly (in the UK) the majprity of fmily cars are sold without a spare wheel.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#254

Post by rorykoehler »

qroshan wrote: post #198
cloudwalking wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Tesla truck will almost certainly beat them to mass market. Look how long it took Tesla to scale up production -- the Model S shipped in 2013. It wasn't until 2018 that Tesla built their 200,000th vehicle. Rivian hasn't yet shipped a single truck to customers; they're in for a long and difficult road ahead building out their production lines. All that said I do hope Rivian is successful. I would absolutely buy an…

Tesla took so long for production because Charlatan-In-Chief didn't want to use any of the lessons learned about Auto Manufacturing the past 100 years and decided to do it his way. Charlatan-In-Chief also assumed he knows more about A.I and Robotics than many who warned him about his 'Alien Dreadnought' vision. Rest assured people who are focused on building mass cars won't have the same hubris

The irony of criticising entrepreneurial risk taking on HN. Especially considering thus exact approach has lead to all his successes, which are innumerable.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#256

Post by travisporter »

evo_9 wrote: post #175
leesec wrote: post #103

Honestly this is a good move, I just have a quick question: Does anyone anywhere have video footage of a Rivian actually being driven? Like, not in a commercial, someone genuinely driving it. I just want to know if they are anywhere close to having a production vehicle. If they have a single production vehicle that does what they say, then OK they "just" have to figure out scaling up the manufacturing. If they don't…

They are wintering testing in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Looks pretty legit to me. https://electrek.co/2019/08/31/rivian-r1t-winter-testing-tie...

Is this common practice? I assume they’re being built closer to the arctic.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#257

Post by Cthulhu_ »

apexalpha wrote: post #228
arcturus17 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charlatan-in-Chief is putting spacecraft into orbit and yet here you are in an internet forum posting a barely-reasoned critique of his work?

Let alone that it lands... If there's one thing I love about people calling Musk a 'charlatan' who build his company on 'government subsidies' and 'fairytales' it is that you can just reply with a video of a double 80m orbital booster landing vertically after putting a massive payload into orbit.

And having achieved that in just about ten years after putting their first craft into orbit. And their first commercial launch was only in 2013.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#258

Post by josefresco »

leesec wrote: post #103

Honestly this is a good move, I just have a quick question: Does anyone anywhere have video footage of a Rivian actually being driven? Like, not in a commercial, someone genuinely driving it. I just want to know if they are anywhere close to having a production vehicle. If they have a single production vehicle that does what they say, then OK they "just" have to figure out scaling up the manufacturing. If they don't…

I could not find a single video of a 3rd party test drive. Only commercials, and walk-arounds.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#259

Post by w457uiw4gftyi »

travisporter wrote: post #256
evo_9 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are wintering testing in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Looks pretty legit to me. https://electrek.co/2019/08/31/rivian-r1t-winter-testing-tie...

Is this common practice? I assume they’re being built closer to the arctic.

But if they want to do winter testing in August they have to go to the hemisphere that is experiencing winter.

Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian

#260

Post by stetrain »

danans wrote: post #37
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #9

Wow, 100k is no small change. Hoping this accelerates the "tipping point" for electric vehicles - in my mind that's when the infrastructure for EVs (e.g. charging stations, or something in the future like battery swaps) actually makes it easier to own than a gas vehicle.

It's already easier with a plugin hybrid. You can drive electric for a huge amount of the typical 20 mile daily commute, and rarely having to visit the gas station, with most of your miles being powered by the grid. If you're interested in that route, there are a ton of used Chevy Volts on the market now for $15-20k. And PHEVs are great for people in areas without good public charging infra, or who can't afford the c…

To build a PHEV with all the performance characteristics of a Battery Electric Vehicle while running on battery, you need a motor, battery, and inverter that's almost as large as those on a BEV.

So the best PHEVs tend to be those that look more like BEVs with an accessory motor/generator, which is the Volt (sadly now discontinued) and the i3 Range Extender (Range extender models discontinued in EU).

I think at some point things might flip around, with non-plugin hybrids being the economy option, pure BEVs being the mid-priced option, and BEV with a range extender being a premium option for those who want all the advantages of both.

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