On a drizzly morning drive into Boston last week, I spotted strange headlights advancing in the left lane. Hummmmm…this isn’t something I see every day.
Why, it’s a Rivian R1T! Otherwise, and probably quite optimistically, known as the Electric Adventure Vehicle. In this case, the adventure seemed to be the typical Greater-Boston-area commute — characterized by short busts of crawling along at 5mph, interspersed by full-throttle blasts to 90mph. It was during one of the former that the Rivian popped up in my mirrors. I was able to get off a few shots before other traffic intervened.
Even here in one of the urban corners of the country where Teslas now seem as ubiquitous as VW Bugs were in the late 1960s, it is unusual to spot a vehicle of which (as of this writing) fewer than 2000 are registered in the entire country. This is the first Rivian I’ve seen in the metal (so to speak).
Looking to me a bit like the vehicular love child of Eve and WALL-E, I can’t yet say if its lightbar-meets-cartoon eyes lighting arrangement is cute or simply goofy. I’m leaning toward goofy, but I’d have to see more Rivians in order to really develop an opinion. (Riiiiiiiiight) I’m also curious to hear what the illuminating Mr. Stern has to say about whether…distinctive…lighting like this is any improvement on existing technology.
At any rate, the Rivian was a weird and unexpected sight on what would otherwise be a routine morning drive. I do not suppose I’ll be able to say that for too much longer.
That’s a good catch. Similarly, I just ran across the first Lucid I’d ever seen; stunning vehicle in person. It’ll be very interesting to see whether that company and Rivian can succeed.
I disdain Teslas (really the people who drive them more than the vehicles). With that said, Musk and Tesla may be remembered as the person and company that revolutionized personal transportation by ushering in the EV age in earnest (which actually began with the 2nd generation Toyota Prius). The success (or failure) of Rivian and Lucid may very well tell the ultimate tale.
Even GM holds the potential of eventually going ‘all-in’ with EVs (beginning with Cadillac division).
A very good catch.
A few weeks ago I saw an auto-carrier full of Rivians. Couldn’t help but wonder about their destination.
If it was headed west, San Francisco. If East, Boston. 🙂
(But given your location, and the fact that they’re made in TN, right? I’d say San Francisco.)
They are made in Illinois st a former car plant.
Thanks! I’m not sure where I got TN from…
Yep, the former Diamond-Star, then Mitsubishi Motors North America plant in Normal that built Eclipses, Talons, Lasers, Galants, Avengers, Sebrings, Endeavors, Lancers and Outlanders.
I too have seen one Lucid Air and zero Rivians. Oddly, I’ve also thus far seen only one Mustang Mach-E (I decided to be nice to Ford and not put “Mustang” in quotes)
I rather like the front end appearance when the lights are off, with those four stacked round lights behind a clear lens, looking like something off a 1939 art-deco train, or the lights from a GM Futurliner bus turned sideways and miniaturized, or a Tatra 603 turned sideways and miniaturized. Or something like that. But I was expecting those vertically-stacked LEDs to light up and not the surrounds. Maybe that’s just the DRL look and at nighttime the round lights in the center come to life.
Why put Mustang in quotes? After all, Ford owns the Mustang name, builds anything and everything called a Mustang, and if they decide something is a Mustang, it’s their decision.
Not a bunch of boomers reliving their high school days.
I agree with Syke that there are two for-and-against camps about Ford tacking the Mustang name onto their new BEV. While it’s true that a name can impact sales and there are boomers who decry a debasing of the original ponycar’s name, no one else much cares.
It’s seems more like an excuse for a geezer’s refusal to buy a Mach-E (which doesn’t seem like the most intelligent rationale).
FWIW, I agree with Syke, and also think Ford was smart in moving the Mustang name to an electric crossover. Mustangs are iconic, but Thunderbirds were iconic too and they’re long gone. Ford sold several hundred thousand Mustangs yearly into the Fox body era, but not even close to that number today. Ford looked at the sales curves of 2 door coupes compared to the sales curves of CUVs and concluded the Mustang would go the way of the T-bird if it didn’t become a crossover soon.
Early Mustangs were invariably described as “youthful”, but I wonder how many of today’s younger set considers Mustangs to be youthful. I’m guessing their image of Mustangs is like my image of Harley-Davidsons, a car/bike for enthusiasts but mostly older enthusiasts. Many also worry about climate change and don’t want an ICE in their next car if they can help it, and Ford want those people to consider Mustangs in the future.
If I have a problem with the Mustang Mach-E name personally, it’s more because I don’t see myself as a Mustang owner. I like Mustangs, but never could see myself in one. Too impractical. I’m guessing it was for many others too which is why the new electric Mustang is also a practical choice and not an EV sports car.
The people up in arms about the Mustang name being used for a 4door EV seem to for the most part not buying EVs of any kind anyway. I don’t know if they were going to be buying a new non-EV Mustang either for that matter, so likely no net loss for Ford. It’s more just something for them to get worked up about, whatever. The people that have purchased the Mustang Mach-E generally tend to like them a lot, so good for Ford. I myself quite enjoyed my time with one. Beyond dealer-specific issues, it seems (from where I sit) that the launch went better than many of Ford’s other recent launches.
And as was pointed out, the free publicity aspect of it was genius. Lots of tongues wagging about the Mustang Mach-E made a lot of people aware of it that otherwise might not have been, a lot less was said about the VW ID4 for instance that more or less is in the same market space, same-ish price, similar volume/availability, similar release timing, and same general name recognition/reputation (Ford/VW).
Boomers, boomers, geezers, amazing. Just amazing how selectively ok despairing and name calling groups of people based on their automotive preferences is here at times.
And, hey, you kids! Get off of my lawn!
Same as Dodge making a ‘Charger’ sedan.
Where I am the Mustang Mach is an indicator species. A few weeks ago I looked at Wall St in Bend Oregon and saw two Mustang Mach Es and no Teslas. I take this as a sign that competition is catching up and Tesla has jumped the shark. I’ve also seen the odd Porsche Taycan and a Lucid Air at a car show. Fingers crossed fo ran F150 Lighnting
Interesting timing, since I just saw a Rivian last week as well. Since I don’t really keep track of cars like this, I simply thought “Hmm… I didn’t know these were being sold yet.” Well, I guess they are.
Though not my type of vehicle, I’ve got to say that headlight design is mighty distinctive – I knew exactly what it was from a few blocks away.
We live in amazing times. From the end of WWII until the end of the century, there were approximately zero successful, brand new, from scratch, car manufacturers created in the US. (If you want to call Bricklin successful, be my guest.)
Say what you want about Tesla, but they’ve done something that hadn’t been done for 50+ years. Now Rivian. Now Lucid. Amazing times.
Actually, I can’t think of any US car company from even the 1930s, and possibly the 1920s, that started from scratch and was successful. Postwar, the only real contender pre-Tesla was Kaiser which did quite well for a good part of a decade before merging with Willys to become Kaiser-Willys (later renamed Kaiser-Jeep), one of many predecessor companies of today’s Stellantis. But I don’t think it qualifies because (a) Kaiser-Frazier didn’t exactly start from scratch, rather being partly rooted in prewar Graham-Paige, and (b) despite the Kaiser name surviving though 1970, their vehicles by that point all descended from the Willys side of the merged company.
Chrysler (b. 1925) also didn’t start from scratch, as it was built on the ashes of Maxwell.
Rivian’s success is far from certain. In fact, they face some serious headwinds, their stock is down 71%, and they have massive cash burn.
More worryingly, some experts claim that there’s no way their vehicles can be remotely profitable even after they jacked up their prices considerably. They buy all the electric motors and related components from Bosch, at some $20k per car, and their battery packs cost them over $22k each, for the limited range version. It appears that they would have to charge over $95k to be profitable.
And there’s other headwinds too. A good article on all them here:
https://www.autonews.com/retail/rivian-grapples-distribution-headaches-customer-complaints-grow
I priced one out just to see and the absolute cheapest one I could configure rings in at $79,500 with several forced options adding a lot to the published “base” price. (Just adding the larger battery to take it from 314 to 400 miles of range is yet another $10k for example and I’d probably want that so now you’re within spitting distance of that profitability number).
I think they’ve made it too complex with too many build options to start. There’s a reason Tesla still only has five colors available instead of nine. It’s annoying people that ordered early to see people that ordered later getting their cars first but that’s just logical build efficiency, especially with a new crew – group equivalent cars and options together, although well established Ford did the same thing with the Bronco (and annoyed their customers as well).
The one thing they have going for them over the likes of the F150 and the E-Silverado is precisely that they aren’t Ford or GM, they have a little buzz about them and the somewhat premium pricing may draw its own customer base. That along with looking a little more distinctive and the interior more premium-looking than the lower level cheaper (and cheaper looking inside for basic models) F150 for example, but at that price it better be.
However the pre-order numbers are likely quite deceiving for all of the players, I know more than one person that has reserved a spot for a Rivian, an F150 Lightning, and a Cybertruck. When they actually get to see one and get offered a firm delivery date is when they will decide which (if any) will actually be their choice, nobody is buying all three options. Well, one guy might but only if he believes that he can flip it for more to some sucker as soon as it arrives…
Very sharp. The Richmond area has a service center established, and there’s one or two trucks running around town, but they’re all company cars, not private ownership. Yet.
In my area, if you’re adventurous into RV’s, you’re driving that new Kia (KV6? I believe?) which is an incredibly sharp looking vehicle. There’s three or four of them that I’ve seen locally, all under private ownership.
The future is slowly coming into focus. And right now, you have no idea how happy I am that I bought that Bolt last January.
It’s the Kia EV6, and, along with its cousin, the Hyundai Ioniq5, have gotten good reviews as two of the latest, best, reasonably priced EVs, right up there with the Ford Mustang Mach-E. If not for Tesla’s Supercharger network, their sales would be hurting (especially the Model Y).
And, yeah, plug-in owners are now feeling pretty smug (just like Prius owners during Hurricane Katrina). It’s the same old story; getting a plug-in isn’t seen as a particularly economical act ‘until’ gas prices spike. Then, we’re all financial geniuses and, suddenly, there’s a big renewed interest in them. If there’s a silver lining to high gas prices, that could be it.
Same here in this corner of Los Angeles with literally two Teslas per block, I have only seen one Rivian on the road.
I still haven’t seen one here in CT but I’m sure it’s coming. Teslas are everyday, Mach E’s are very common, VW ID4’s are now everywhere too. The various Hyundai and Kia EVS are getting common.
Some of the people I know in CA are saying these are every where in LA and SF, apparently they are the new hot thing if you work in Tech.
I’ve seen two Rivian’s here in town, one of them several times so I’m sure it’s a local. And one Lucid, over on the Silicon Valley side of the hill. Mach E’s, while not exactly common, are a regular site, ditto the Hyundai Ioniq.
Full disclosure: I have deposits on an R1T, a Cybertruck and F150 Lightning. I’ll do a COAL update – in a few years, at the earliest.
Came up on one of these on a SoCal freeway a couple of weeks ago. A good looking truck, but the headlights on the front were a bit startling. Looked like something out of “Tales From The Loop” from the front.
Excellent capture. First impressions do mean a lot. And they might have worked harder to produce a more endearing, less anonymous ‘face’.
I’ve seen two Rivian’s in central Maine. The first one was parked with California plates on it. The second one was driving through a parking lot and I’d have missed it except for the strange sound that it made as it drove. I’ve seen several Mustang Mach-E’s and was behind one getting onto I95. It took off like it was launched from a slingshot. I still see Little Orphan Annie eyes in the headlights of the Rivian.
One Rivian in town here as well, a white one, quite sharp, the front end is as disctinctive as the Kia Telluride with its orange DRLs is.
Multiple Polestars, the KIA EV6 seems to be multiplying like rabbits, and a couple of the new Ioniq5 which to me is the best looking of the new batch. And Teslas are ubiquitous while the Mustang is holding steady at a regular rate, just like the VW ID4 and the Bolt. With gas prices being what they are, someone has even dusted off their iMIEV, what I used to see regularly I’m now seeing again.
I’m sure I’ll see Hummer in the next few months, and the F150 should be popping up any day now as well.
I cant put my finger on exactly why I believe this but I do think that the EV proliferation is doing a bit of a shuffle in potential buyers – I believe that there are a lot of people looking at and buying the EV products from Kia, Hyundai, Ford, and VW that would never have looked at their conventionally powered products for whatever reason.
And that Tesla’s success has really opened the door to a lot of the new makes; say what you will about build quality etc (no issue experienced here, it’s far exceeded expectations in that regard) and all the other apparently more fake than real news, just seeing that many out and about and very rarely parked at the side of a freeway for getting on to a decade now I think has shown that it is in fact very possible to start a brand new automaker and actually build a product that works great, day in and day out.
Tesla fan here, though not an owner, but I will say that I actually have seen one by the side of the road. Ironically it was on I-880 just over the wire fence from the factory, but judging by the family with kids standing around it was not a manufacturer’s car. Hopefully someone there noticed and helped them out. Given the hundreds if not thousands I see on those roads every time I drive there, it’s not a reflection on Tesla reliability but was memorable due to the ironic location.
Ha, well your “one” qualifies as my “very rarely”…Perhaps they were going for a family photo with the factory background! 🙂 I’m sure they do break down (or more likely get a flat without a spare) and perhaps even run out of juice now and again, but it doesn’t (anecdotally) seem to be any more often than any other modern mass produced newer vehicle.
My eyes beheld one of these in a parking lot nearby @ 3 weeks ago. I certainly had not expected to see one here in northern Indiana at this time. However, despite the light pea greenish color, it did look as clean and striking in 3D as the pictures and cgi images seemed to show.
I’m not a fan of pickups simply because I have no need for one. Likewise given our Country’s marginal electric grid, I find DEMAND$ by the “eleet$$” that EV$ be forced down our throats…….just a wee bit off putting.
OTOH, this EV pickup based on its design and engineering-given what I’ve read-might indeed be a worth while vehicle if one has the money and needs a so-so ranged pickup. My son-in-law is passing on EV pickups for now as none have the range he needs when pulling one of his business trailers. Of course, he realizes that despite the left’s hype……….they are NOT that green, at all when compared to a modern ICE pickup. DFO
I very loosely know the owner of a new Rivian, parked next to it at a local cafe not knowing it was his and took a gander at it. I can see the appeal, they look unique without being a cartoon. They wear the same Pirelli off road tires as I put on my 4Runner. And with examples going for $120K on Bring a Trailer, those tires are as close as I’ll ever get to Rivian ownership.
Next time I run into him I’ll have to ask his full opinion on it. I personally think the acceleration is completely excessive for this vehicle type, I’d rather have a similar package with a 5.5 second 60 sprint and greater range–particularly given its off road ability. Range anxiety on the freeway is nothing compared to range anxiety 15 miles from the nearest paved road.
I feel the same way about the power, as a pickup truck owner who doesn’t tow and is a (mild) off-roader, but I don’t know if a less powerful motor would actually offer more range. I think the secret is to avoid using the acceleration to help conserve range, but the aero drag of a truck vs a smaller car may be the bigger range factor. What I haven’t seen in any of the Rivian or Lightning tests is a real world assessment of off-road range; slower four wheeling involves a lot of idling and low speed driving where an EV could shine. Doug DeMuro did note that he thought the lightning was almost overpowered, as it still basically just handles like a truck.
Acceleration and range are very much not mutually exclusive, unless you use that full acceleration potential a lot. In fact, the two tend to go hand in hand, as it requires a larger battery to be able to accelerate very quickly as well as have long range. And because the electric motors are so efficient (~95%) it doesn’t really make any difference as to whether it has 60 or 600 hp potential. It’s just in how much of that power is actually used.
The key to longer range is simply to drive it more gently, like any car. Actually, in an EV, the relationship between those two is even greater, due to the greater efficiency of the electric motor. Range drops off quicker at higher speeds than it would for a gas car, because a gas engine has much lower efficiency, hence it’s always wasting a lot of fuel at any speed, wheras with an EV it’s closer to a 1:1 relationship.
This is why EVs are especially ideal for city driving, and somewhat less so on fast highway driving. Even more so when pulling a trailer or such. Range drops proportionately faster.
Do EVs lose range in very hot weather? A few weeks ago, I saw two Teslas stuck alongside the highway, in two different areas, with the families standing around them, looking forlorn. Both were during a week-long mid-summer-like hot spell.
I’m not sure how running out of juice could sneak up on the operator of a car that is supposedly rather communicative on the subject of the state of the charge. But if they are used to a certain range and then they don’t get it, and they aren’t really paying attention…
Not really, except to the extent that heavy a/c use makes some impact.
Teslas and other EVs make a major point not to die on the road from a dead battery. Lots of warnings and then they slow down more and more, in hopes of extending the last bit of juice out of their batteries.
You’d have to be pretty dumb to let it run totally out on a highway.
I have seen a few of them going maybe 30 in the slow lane or on the right shoulder on the freeway, too. Unnaturally slow. The number of issues I have seen appears fairly high, but it is amazing the market share of Teslas on the road in and around North County San Diego. It is not uncommon to see three or four or five in a row, traveling the two-lane highways in the other direction. Every third car around here seems to be a Tesla. Kids could count them during their travels like my sister and I used to count Beetles in the late ‘60s, where the numbers would go very high, quite quickly.
Mind boggling. Some people are buying Teslas without having access to a home charger, which frankly, is pretty stupid. That forces you to rely on Supercharging, which when done repeatedly reduces battery life and of course drastically increases the chance of running out of range. If you leave home every morning with with a full charge, you have to drive pretty far (~250-300+miles) to run out.
But apparently folks do that, because of the herd mentality about Teslas. Not very smart; but what else is new?
Local workplaces often subsidize the charging in their parking garages. My understanding is that people rely on the “charge-at-work”, and compete for opportunities to charge at work. There is a limited, but substantial and always filled, supply of chargers in the office building parking garages. This is instead of charging at home, particularly for renters and apartment-dwellers (who often have no access to a charging station where they live), which is a huge proportion of even the wealthier people around here.
Could the “charge-at-work” be an accelerated or incomplete charge that creates these problems? I am going to ask around, on the “in-the-office” days of my hybrid work. Will report back.
It’s pretty difficult to actually make a Tesla run out, you have to be somewhat willfully ignorant, especially in daily driving with predictable routing and destinations. Or more likely just lazy and hoping to “beat” it, the same way you might sometimes think you can make it to your preferred gas station while the low fuel light is on instead of stopping at the next one. Sometimes that doesn’t end up working out…
For longer distances, i.e. a vacation trip, as long as you enter your destination into the nav system, it will route you (and actively update itself along the way) to tell you where and when to stop and for how long and how much to charge to achieve the shortest possible travel time without letting you run out – this is not the same as just running to empty and then filling to full, that would take longer. If you face something unexpected such as a strong headwind enroute that increases your use rate it will actively change your stops (i.e. instead of telling you to skip the next four Superchargers, you may need to stop at the third one instead or whatever). It will also do the inverse if you for example have a tailwind instead or perhaps end up driving slow for a long period of time in for example a highway construction zone in the midwest. This aspect is not something that’s particularly common knowledge to non-users, but brilliant in real life and one of the things that makes the whole Tesla infrastructure so appealing and addictive once you get used to it.
In other words, it won’t let you run out if you let it help you. And no, there is no need to interface with the touch screen, just hit the steering wheel button and tell it to navigate to 123 Main Street in Yonkers, NY from wherever you are in the US and it will route you there. If you decide to change the route for whatever reason it will simply recalculate. If you decide to drive into the wilderness where there are no Superchargers it will tell you to stop and turn around in order to charge. If you ignore it, well, then that’s more on you I guess…
In a more normal non-vacation use case example, my wife for example frequently goes to a mountain destination. Her Tesla can make it there and back on one full charge. Usually. It’s weather and traffic dependent to some extent. So if she decides not to charge while she is there, on the way back she just tells the car she is heading “home” and it works out if she will make it and if not, where and when she should stop for what period of time as there are several Supercharger stations each with 8 or more “pumps” on the way.
Dutch: the ‘charging at work’ scenario is something that, if planned out correctly with a decent sustainability advisor, can be a real boon to the EV movement. A terrific example I’ve seen can be found at a couple of parking garages in Jackson, MI. There are actually three different power level stations: 60A, 40A, and 20A, with a corresponding declining number of units, i.e., one 60A, several 40A, and many more 20A.
The idea is that downtown EV owners will gravitate to the stations that best line-up with how long they’ll be there. IOW, someone working at least eight hours will best be served by a 20A station. Conversely, someone just there for a brief period would benefit most by the powerful 60A unit. Not to mention that the lower power stations are a whole lot cheaper to install and maintain than those that are more powerful. Someone had clearly thought this one through.
The point is, depending on the situation, going with multiple lower power charge stations can be better than far fewer, higher power ones.
Unless I’m misunderstanding something (could be), those charging units are not particularly adequate for much of anything besides maybe someone with a plugin hybrid.
For example, that one 60A circuit won’t deliver more than 48A (the NEC requires you to not use more than 80% of the rated capacity), which is what for example my Tesla home charger has. In that case it’ll add about 44 miles of range for every hour its plugged in, ie. it’ll easily fill up overnight. But even plugged into a 60A circuit in your parking garage scenario while shopping or working for an hour is unlikely to replenish the miles used to get there and back, also assuming you’re the only one there that wants to use it.
The 20A circuits (are they just 120V?) add about 3-4 miles of range for every hour they are plugged into. So 25-35 miles of range for a full work day.
Sure, it’s nice to have (especially if at no charge), but doesn’t make it particularly useful for most people.
Far worse though, by being in a public location, all of those chargers are used by makers such as MINI and Ford in their advertising that tout something like “over 25,000 chargers around the country” while only in VERY fine print if at all explaining that some 70% of that number is the lowest level charge point (3-4 miles per hour) and maybe 20% is the mid-levels (up to 40mph) and the balance is mostly Tesla Superchargers, i.e. currently not even usable by them and making charging on the go a bit of a hindrance for anyone else as even in places that have multiple chargers it’s usually a very low total number. By being located in a parking garage (that usually charges admission) it adds another incremental cost for those that are just looking to “fill up”.
Is it a huge issue? Perhaps not, as the vast majority of driving is done within 50-100 miles of the home and range in modern EVs is usually enough to generally obviate the constant need to fill up, but all of these manufacturers bar one are doing their buyers a huge disservice by not being completely up front about their own lack of charging infrastructure, or just actually building out their own in order to be convenient and save money for their customers – Every third party charger is a for-profit enterprise in business to charge the user with a profit for the energy used, Tesla currently about the only one not adding a surcharge to actual cost (or if they are, it’s miniscule). The best third party one that works is probably Electrify America, the company set up by VW after the diesel court decision. Those have been found to be generally decent with some serious teething problems at the beginning but are still lacking severely in availability and ubiquity.
Don’t think that reports of Tesla opening their system to others will solve the issue either. If you look, most of their stations require a Tesla to back into the spot, every once in a while there’s one spot that works for a parallel parker. That’s fine, and if you have a Leaf you’d just pull in headfirst (and hopefully have the correct adapter with you), but there is pretty much NO way you can get an F150 Lightning for example in there if you’re towing a trailer without blocking the road or driveway they are generally situated on (the Lightning’s charge port is in the front fender, good luck backing out across a road with a trailer attached). I don’t even know if the cord would reach, the Supercharger cords are pretty much optimized to just reach the Tesla’s extreme rear corner of car charge port, I’ve backed in to several spots only to find I need to back in even more in order to “reach”.
In Europe some oil companies are finally waking up to the potential demand and installing chargers on their gas station premises, Shell being in the forefront of this. That (at a very slow rate) is starting to happen here too, but usually just with one or two pumps. Those oil companies are rebranding as “energy suppliers” which is smart but again, it’ll be at a cost to the consumer far in excess of the cost to the supplier.
I’m not a compete Tesla shill, far from it, they have plenty of things I don’t love while other “problems” are completely overblown or non-issues, but on the aspect of their customers charging away from home, they have absolutely nailed it and show no signs of slowing down in this regard, generally keeping up with and upgrading/enlarging stations quite quickly as demand increases. This, probably more than anything else, is what will likely keep us in the fold.
Yup the battery is the source of power and the larger the battery the larger the current it can supply and thus more HP, it can also accept a higher current.
Of course you could pair that high output battery with a smaller motor but the size of the motor also plays into the regen braking capability. The larger the motor the higher the potential regen current. So that big battery/small motor combo could do worse, in typically day to day driving, than the big battery/big motor combo if both were driven in the same manner.
I personally haven’t seen on in the metal, but my son saw one charging at the local EA station.
What I have seen is one of their vans in Amazon livery, of course, about a month ago.
Been in the UK recently and where we live (on the Southern Coast and not in a large city) there are many Polestars, E-trons and VW IDs as well as Teslas (mostly Model 3s and Xs). The Ev6 looks striking on the road and Ioniqs are seen regularly. There are incentives to buy electric, but the tipping point seems to have been well and truly reached….
Love it or hate it, Tesla has achieved something we haven’t seen since the Model T: an American passenger car that sells well in Europe. And I suspect most of those were exported from the California, as the German factory is still ramping up.
I rather like the Rivian front styling – it gives it a unique face without resorting to a fake grille which seems silly on an electric car, just as it would on a rear or mid-engine car.
Same here, the approach to EV front ends it reminds me of the original Taurus with its “grilleless” look and the Mercury Sable with the lightbar filing the area, I much prefer the ladder as the more interesting design to explore, and with the proliferation of reliable LEDs this seems like an interesting area of styling to be explored rather than vestigial grilles, which just look cheesy to me on EVs
The front end styling on both the ’86 Taurus and Sable was more commercial, and closer to conventional, than this example. The vertical oval ‘headlights’ can almost be perceived as a ‘glare’ to some. As the author noted. Nothing seen in the Taurus/Sable.
Very cool, Im never likely to see one but then again I may, Teslas are remarkably regular sightings here now I’ll see a dozen or so every day and thats out on rural highways and around the city actually I;ll count them today just for fun.
Only saw 7.5 Teslas today but the 1.5 at the top of the Kaimai range was the best, model S towing a car trailer with a Nissan Leaf aboard, range anxiety over.
I’ve seen a couple of Rivians on the road, and got close to one in a parking lot in So Cal. I think that it’s an attractive design. I’ve thought that the Tesla truck’s extreme design was just to generate buzz. I could see myself driving a Rivian. I’m one of those old guys who doesn’t like the Mustang name plastered on a five door hatchback CUV, though the vehicle itself is fairly attractive and from the reviews that I’ve read, a competitive product. I’m not surprised that Mustang sales are down, Pony cars are not really that popular as they are kind of the last PLCs still available, which have been gone for over twenty years. I’d like to see a full electric Lincoln Nautilus and Aviator go up against the Cadillac Lyric.
OOI, why is there nothing on the registration plate?
I think someone blotted them out on the photo to protect piracy, or privacy (works better in American English).
Yep, I blotted it out. I honestly don’t know what I’m protecting the owner from, but blotting out plates seems to be a way of keeping ownership private…and in this case, when there may only be a handful of these things registered in the state, privacy seems due.
Thanks – I follow your logic
There’s no actual logic to it, as license plates are out there on the street and highway all day long, and folks have been shooting and publishing them since plates were first invented. The only way to keep your plates private is to keep your car behind a closed garage door.
But to each their own.
I just realized where I’ve seen those headlights: Little Orphan Annie.
Totally.
Arf!
Imagine that!
I have been seeing them with surprising regularity here in southeast Michigan. I suppose that has something to do with their headquarters being in Plymouth, which is right in between my daily commute from Ann Arbor to Livonia.
Haven’t seen one yet and you could say I am on the tech highway five days a week. That highway is 680 running from Martinez and points north all the way down to San Jose. In the middle is Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, Pleasanton and Fremont to name a few. My office is in Danville and while I see tons of Teslas in Danville with many Porsches, some Lambos, Alfas and Ferraris thrown in I haven’t seen a Rivan. In of of itself that is strange for the area. Maybe they are hiding?
I saw my first Rivian last week in a shopping center parking lot here in North Dallas. The look is stunning in white and I like the size compared to blocky profile of the current F-150/Silverado/Ram pickups, but the blank face is not to my taste. Interestingly, the driver was a middle-aged woman, who parked in front of Sephora for a quick makeup run.
If you had asked me five years ago which marque was most common in my neighborhood, I would have answered Lexus/Toyota and indeed almost every midsize CUV was well represented. Today, the mix of types and brands is far more diverse, and includes lots of Teslas, the new Hyundai Ioniq and Kia EV6, a few Mustang Mach Es and a VW id4. This is in addition to all the hybrids out there. This, in the heart of Texas, represents a real sea change.
The Kia EV6, the Honda e, the Lucid thingy, the Tesla sedans – and certainly not the fat and balding X – the Mustang E, they all give great hope, as they have all found the electrons to escape the shackles of the Great Angrugliness that has frowned out upon our thus-benighted since about ten years into this millenium. Good lookers all, and topped by the Kia Ionic 5, the best-looking mass-market car in a long, long time. (No, perhaps it’s not entirely original, but it it does that thing which is the essence of all good ideas, namely, is to join the familiar in a new way). Whilst on this theme, if Mercedes does not find a way build that EQXX electric concept, I will never talk to them again. It is simply gorgeous.
Alas, the Rivian is the exception that proves the rule, for it looks like a blind mole in too-small glasses.
At least I suppose it is not angrugly, being largely without any features whatsoever, but it is a gimmick, and will in time go the way of all such.
I posted, it disappeared, twice, and I give the hell up.
Good Catch, but what road were you on? As a lifelong resident of Greater Boston, my best guess is MA Route 9, or possibly MA Route 2, but I’m assuming no prizes (except one “Attaboy!”) for guessing which one! Collecting one-thousand “Attaboys!” allows you to be known as a leader among men! One “Aw Crap!” wipes the slate clean and forces you to start all over, LOL!