Rivian. I've been excited about Rivian's pick up trucks for a while but wasn't aware they were getting into delivery vans. This will give them some serious street cred in the EV world. This represents the largest order of electric delivery vehicles.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/19/amaz...tric-vans.html

 

Amazon is one of their bigger investors, so I'm sure they're happy to develop the van topper for their skateboard architecture and get them out there. Wonder when Mercedes will feel get their Electric Sprinters to market, as they dominate much of the commercial van space, along with Ford Transit.

 

Didn't know they were doing Vans either. R1T Truck and R1S SUV are the only two models I was aware of.

 

Looks like it cost $60k~$70k each

 

Rivian is headquartered in the central Illinois city of Bloomington in an old Mitsubishi plant. This will be good for the local economy and possibly add some credibility and attention to their pick ups and SUV.

 

You don't mean the old Mitsubishi Diamond-Star plant, do you...a couple of miles away at Normal? If so, I'm not sure I'd want to work there....the place is probably haunted LOL. That plant had problems up the Gazoo. I remember some of the 90s-vintage Eclipses that came out of that plant...they looked like they had been assembled by drunks (probably were). They apparently didn't keep the paint-room clean....the paint jobs actually had what looked and felt felt like small burrs in them from particles trapped under the paint. Hardware and panels rattled and squeaked, and were sometimes loose, brand new, right off the assembly line. The plant was notorious for disgruntled employees, labor/management issues, racism/discrimination cases, alcohol/drug-abuse, sexual harassment...you name it. In fact, although I don't remember their names, I think some Mitsubishi execs and/or those in charge of the plant actually served prison time over scandals at that place.

 

Anyone can do nice renderings. Delivering is another story as Tesla found out.

i don’t know why there’s so much investor interest in rivian... why them? Do they have some secret sauce in their electric platform? Do they make batteries?

 

Will it take 2 days for full charge LOL
Pure marketing news since Amazon owns part of Rivian.