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Apparently they will be using resistance heat in this thing rather than a heat pump system. Combine that with towing even a small trailer, and you'll have very limited winter range.
While I think heat pumps are a good idea and there's probably a fair chance that they will make their way into future iterations, I think that probably isn't a huge deal when the battery pack is of a very large size. Heat pumps are much more efficient than resistance heaters, but there's only so much of a temperature differential you'll need to make up for a set amount of volume and occupants before you shift to just maintaining the temperature. This makes a huge amount of difference if you need to spend a few kWh on a cold day for a vehicle that has only a couple to a few dozen kWhs, but should proportionally be far less of an issue when you're talking about batteries that are well above 100 kWh.
This was one of the attributes I was referencing for why it's possible for EVs to have become so much more usable in such a short amount of time. The battery improvements have generally been greater energy density for lower costs which also sometimes makes sense that these happen in tandem in that less material and less shipping and schlepping of material and parts with greater density. This means it becomes financially and technically reasonable to keep putting in larger and larger capacity batteries without ballooning costs and weight.
So what comes with larger battery capacities? Well, the obvious one is that you get more range directly on having more kWh you can store, but that's not all of what you get. A higher capacity battery also generally corresponds to higher max charge and discharge rates. The max discharge rates don't really need much improving as a lot of EVs already have more than enough pep for acceleration though EVs with ever faster acceleration and more kW/hp motors keep coming out, but that max charge rate is interesting in a couple of ways. One is simply being able to safely handle higher max charging rates for refueling which is pretty reasonable. The other is that with a higher max charge rate and with motors capable of acting as generators for braking, it also means that there's a potentially higher ceiling in terms of the battery for how much power intake from regenerative braking can be done so that's more max stopping force from that and more energy recovery which also helps with range in a roundabout fashion though at this point the max charge rate is high enough that improving this is really for stomping the brakes. Battery longevity also generally gets measured in terms of duty cycles and the larger capacity batteries with their greater range generally also mean fewer duty cycles for any given miles (for example, fewer duty cycles for the vehicle with the larger battery with greater range to cover 1,000 miles versus one with a smaller battery with lesser range) which is also a bonus. Finally, we get back to what you mentioned which is powering up auxiliary uses like heating or lights whose power use don't really increase much or at all with a larger battery capacity so they end up being proportionally far less of a drain and so less of a thing to think or worry about.
Anyhow, it's good that an American company is placed to ride this change fairy well. Here's a recent segment on Rivian's plant in Normal, Illinois which was a formerly defunct Mitsubishi factory:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DM4uUjXGM4
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 10-31-2021 at 07:39 PM..
The all-terrain-tired R1T was up first. It launched from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds and covered the quarter mile in 11.7 seconds at 111.2 mph. The street-tired R1T was unsurprisingly even quicker, rocketing to 60 mph in a staggering 3.1 seconds and through the quarter in 11.6 at 110.8.
That's significantly quicker than what's now the second-quickest pickup we've tested in our 72-year history, the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX. That truck, boasting a 702-hp supercharged V-8, needed 4.1 seconds to hit 60 mph and 12.7 seconds to run through the quarter mile at 106.3 mph."
This is from the Motor Trend website, open to anyone with Internet access.
I realize truck buyers have other priorities than drag racing, but doing burnouts on the way to the Home Depot could be fun. The biggest problem I see with Rivian is the lack of a dedicated sales and service network.
Probably not the target market for this as this doesn't seem like they're going for a work truck segment, but instead a good daily commuter that's also great for off-roading and camping.
Of course, that doesn't mean they can't in the future have something that's a lot more utilitarian and cheaper. They are after all also making a work van for Amazon that will likely share some components, but a eight-foot bed utilitarian work truck for the mass consumer probably doesn't make much sense until they've got a lot of production capacity and experience on hand so that they can go for higher volume, lower margin units. I think that'll be much later in this decade and when batteries have at least halved in cost per kWh and battery packs have significantly increased in energy density.
Very few trucks have an 8 foot bed - most find a crew cabin of much more use - too long for most garages and terrible turn radius to have 8 ft bed and crew cabin. Most just fold down gate if carrying something 8 ft long. The market says something between 5 and 6.5 ft is preferred configuration by most users.
Requirements for a vehicle that performs well on road are very different from those for a vehicle that performs well off road, which is why normally a vehicle that's very good at the one use case is quite poor at the other.
Here is a Motor Trend article that digs into the details on the Rivian's advanced suspension with air springs and hydraulic dampers under electronic control, that give it great performance both on and off road.
"2022 Rivian R1T: Novel Suspension Makes It the McLaren of Off-Roaders - Marrying cross-linked adaptive dampers with air springs for world-class ride, handling, and articulation." https://www.motortrend.com/features/...ion-explained/
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R1T Suspension Design
