Rivian CEO issues strong statement about people who purchase gas-powered cars: ‘Sort of like building a horse barn in 1910’::“I don’t think I would have believed it.”
Mans just mad people arent buying his cars.
How much does it cost to repair a fender bender on a Suburban? Cus on an R1S, well…
$42,000 rear bumper
Yikes! Are you supposed to just throw the truck away when someone hits it?
In my state the minimum legal auto insurance coverage is something like $25k per vehicle. So it’s very possible, at least here, that your rivian gets a parking lot bump from Jim-Bob in his 30 year old Civic, and his insurance just won’t cover it. And if he’s driving around in a car that’s old enough to run for congress that’s covered by minimum liability, Jim-Bob probably doesn’t have any money you could sue him for. I doubt they would garnish wages over a traffic accident, either.
Insurance and parking are two deeply costly aspects of subsidizing roads and cars over mass transit that simply aren’t accounted for. Imagine thinking an effecient industrialized society would have strip malls and cars.
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in before, “but I need my enormous vehicle because once every 13 years I haul 3 2x4’s and am too dumb to use a roof rack or rent a truck for the day!”
I win!!!
My enormous eletric vehicle (plug-in Rav4) is powered from my home solar panel system, and I use it to transport my dogs to the park a couple of times a week.
I’m completely guilt free!!!😃
Man I can haul 3 2x4s in my Camry
The rivian truck (I call it “froggy”) is actually a pretty small pickup truck, by american standard … have you seen a F150? (including the electric “lightning” version)?
Even a subcompact automobile takes up an entire traffic lane and an entire parking space, and providing such spaces is what ruins cities.
The future is designing our cities for walking, biking and transit, not replacing our disastrous car sewers of gasoline cars with disastrous car sewers of electric cars.
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Rivian truck
It’s like buying a small house!
A small house for 74,000? Lol, you’d need at least double that in the Northeast part of America.
I was being facetious
still use plenty of fossil fuels from coal plants
This is disingenuous as fuck and you know it. Updates to the grid are by far the most effective means of limiting carbon release. Tying engines to the grid maximizes gains in solar, wind, etc that not doing so does not.
There is no serious plan for climate change mitigation that does not involve EVs.
Not disingenuous. True. Grid power is still dirty so electric cars are still dirty. Probably about a 50% improvement in carbon emissions based on the most common fuel mix in the US for an e car.
Clean transportation by car is a luxury that we do not yet have.
You don’t engineer for what you currently have. You engineer for where you want to be.
Renewable energy is the fastest growing segment of the energy market by a mile, growing exponentially.
I don’t have my numbers at hand, but renewables account for something like 80+% of new energy growth in the US.
Yes. The OP is about how TODAY it is silly to use ICE. Today it is silly to pretend that electric cars are clean. They will be at some point. At that point, I will agree with the obnoxious CEO from the article. Today, he is wrong, very heavy (7-8k lbs) coal powered trucks are not clean.
Make them smaller!
Purchasing EVs sends price signals. Big trucks are in demand, and it’s easier to cater to demand than shape demand when you’re an emerging market.
Seriously the epa doesn’t even bother to rate mpg in vehicles that approach rivian weight. An f250 probably gets a combined 15mpg. It weights 6k lbs vs the rivians 7k. if your only seeing a 50% cut in emissions with the switch to electric. A rivian truck is pretty much the same as an ICE car that gets around 30 combined.
There are a million reasons that drive them to make these monsters. But the climate isn’t one. I don’t care about the market forces. I care about cutting CO2 emissions. These vehicles do not help that mission today. The CEO is wrong. His vehicles don’t make sense TODAY except as a luxury product for rich people to signal their virtue. That’s it.
I don’t care about market forces
Then you are not serious about impacting climate change.
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Bruh I can’t even afford a EV.
Cant afford a horse either. Double screwed.
Definitely can’t afford a horse 😞
Horses are cheap; horses you can ride are expensive.
I agree. In Europe some not mega big electric cars are already on par with their gasoline equivalent
It’s important to read the full quote from Rivian’s CEO before complaining about $75k electric trucks:
“I think the reality of buying a combustion-powered vehicle … is sort of like building a horse barn in 1910,” he said. “Imagine buying a Chevy Suburban in 2030 … what are you going to do with that … in 10 years?”
He’s comparing buying a Rivian truck with buying a Suburban, which has a base price of $57k for the lowest tier configuration (LS) and a $76k price on the High Country configuration.
Proof that very few read the article
It’s still a fair complaint though. What about those of us who can’t afford to spend $75,000 on a car?
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Let’s see how those battery packs are doing in 10 years you fucking wank stain on humanity.
Fuck rich people.
Either still driving perfectly fine or found a second life as static energy storage before ultimately being recycled.
Where I am the price difference between a base model Camry and a Model 3 is 21%. A difference I’d make up in lower running costs within two years.
But you’re comparing new cars. I don’t buy new cars, probably never will. There are no electric cars worth their salt in my price range, which is in the 10yo second hand range.
Absolutely sensible choice. You’ll benefit from a lower capital outlay now, and will realise the savings once second hand EVs hit your price point.
Anyone buying new would be wise to consider an EV (if available).
Are all EVs garbage when it comes to repairs? Seems like no EV manufacturer considered repairability when it comes to collisions.
Actual (chopped up) quote from RJ:
“I think the reality of buying a combustion-powered vehicle … is sort of like building a horse barn in 1910,” he said. “Imagine buying a Chevy Suburban in 2030 … what are you going to do with that … in 10 years?”
This article is clickbait garbage.
what am i gonna do with a chevy suburban in 2030? Ez. live in it…because that’s all the House i can afford 🥲
This comment resonates with me deeply and I don’t like it.
How to tell the entire world that you’re rich and entitled.
Have you seen the price of electric cars it’s ridiculous. No way I can afford one.
Also never mind the fact I have no way of charging it because I only have access to on-street parking. If they really wanted to help they should bring down the cost of their massively overpriced vehicles and also invest in distributing charging points around the country.
Isn’t the ultimate plan supposed to be that they’ll be at least one charging point and every highway at least every 8 mi?
A new Renault Zoe is about 23 000€, which has a driving range of about 400km. Second hand they go for about 10 000€.
Yeah, there are many luxury EV brands, but those aren’t the only ones existing.
It depends where you are and what market segment you’re looking in. In NZ you can buy a fully electric MG ZS EV (7 year warranty) for almost the same price as a base model Toyota Camry.
I think hydrogen fuel cell cars are the future. Batteries are by accident, planned obsolence. You have to buy a new car every 5 years due to batteries losing their charge over time.
Tesla’s battery warranty is 8 years and between 100-150K miles. I’m not sure about other manufacturers.
Hydrogen is interesting for remote use cases, but the 10-15 year old used Leaf and Volt market argue against your second point. Most battery issues will be discovered in the first few years and after that it’s minimal (1-10%) loss after a decade, using far older tech than today’s models. The industry does need some standardization on battery modules to ensure less e-waste, more mechanics, and better pricing.
There is a common misconception that EV batteries die within five years, forcing owners to buy a new car. However, this is not the case.
Battery technology has improved significantly, and new types of batteries, such as Li-S batteries and lithium titanate batteries, have the potential to last the life of the car or even outlast it[1].
Many EV manufacturers offer warranties for their batteries, typically ranging from 8 to 10 years or more, indicating that the batteries are expected to last for a significant portion of the vehicle’s life[1].
With proper care and maintenance, EV batteries can last for a considerable amount of time, and ongoing research and development efforts aim to further improve battery performance and longevity.
Citations: [1] https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bf453504da210fe289e61421933334ee811026b4
Show me any car using Li-S or Lithium Titanate batteries that is sold and on the roads today.
Have you even bothered to do the most basic Google search before posting this BS?
And where would the hydrogen come from?
The two most common schemes are either producing it from natural gas, or wasting electricity to produce hydrogen via electrolysis.
Either way, hydrogen is a waste of resources for most applications.
A giant electric “luxury” truck is still a giant “luxury” truck. Buying one over the other is like buying a cruelty free synthetic beaver cap over a cap made from an actual beaver. Yes it probably is better, but you are still wearing an ass on your head.
It’s 2023, most people live in urbanized areas where a truck is similarly ridiculous, especially the modern “luxury” models. Those that actually use their vehicles for hauling things at a farm want real work trucks and tractors (regardless of engine type) with lower and longer beds.
If they had decent range ones for just a bit cheaper…
It’s minimum like $30k right now and that’s just too much for most
Plus a lot of people still don’t have anywhere to charge them.
Otherwise I’d have liked to have gotten one
A Bolt, after all the tax incentives, comes in at around $18k!
Really? Can you actually get them at MSRP in any decent amount of time?
And is that federal? I thought Chevy ran out of their tax incentives…
Not as of last January when I tried to buy one. I was able to test drive one and found it acceptable but it was the only one available, it was significantly over MSRP (it was Premier trim, so >$35k) and I could order one but they flat out told me I’d be waiting a minimum of five months.
GM did run out, but the rules changed in 2023, so there is no more cap. GM and Tesla get the incentives again.
That’d be fine if I didn’t have 3 kids with car seats! I need a soccer mom vehicle.
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But the problem is. It’s a bolt.
Am wondering if the new ones can actually fit someone who is 6 feet tall in the back seat without them having to hunch over
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At that price that seems like an alright car. It’s just a bit slow to fast charge.
CEO of an electric car company recommends that people drive electric cars.
Doesn’t really seem like much of a headline.
The statement might be more significant if it was a CEO of a car company that made diesel/petrol cars who said it.
It’s more the tone deafness. Most people couldn’t afford either a car or a horse barn in 1910 just like most people (in America anyway) can’t afford an electric car.
The value add for an individual is minimal to nonexistent in electric vs gas. Not so with a horse vs a car. This guy is delusional if this isn’t just hype (it is) and thinks the comparisons are comparable.
Meanwhile gas starts at $8.34 per gallon where I live, while I can charge my car for $0.42 per kWh.
While I’m sure there’s a large saving, a gallon of fuel is not the same as a kWh of electricity.
Agreed, most people don’t really know how far an ev goes on a kWh. In my experience: Trucks average 15-20mpg. Evs average 2.5-4mi/kWh.
Let’s take the high of the truck and the low of the ev for comparisons. 8.32/20=0.42/mile gasoline 0.42/2.5=0.17/mile electric
In my case both are cheaper as my fuel is~$4.30/gal, and the car I drive gets 38mpg. (0.11/mile) But also my electricity is 0.12/kWh and my electric car gets average 4mi/kWh. (0.03/mile)
My ID.3 does about 300km fairly reliably, for €25. My wife’s Mazda 2 does 650km for €71. But destination charging around the corner went up €0.10/kWh in my street, so it used to be cheaper. My home charger installation is still backlogged (ffs it’s been months).
To me it doesn’t matter really because my boss all of my charging as well as the EV car payment. I just pay a tax to be allowed to drive my company car privately without restrictions. Obviously my wife takes the EV when I don’t need it.
This guy’s a fucking airhead. They’re trying to rush out the cheaper smaller SUV model because they massively overestimated demand for their overpriced truck/SUV. It’s 80k base and by the time you get the AWD and increased range package I imagine everyone who is their target market wants it well over $110k.
This will probably be the last big EV startup we see. After this the real caranufacters are going to take over. Which I’m a bit sad about as they don’t seem to ever take any risks. I’d been saying for years there was surely demand for a small truck like the maverick, now everyone’s making one. Just wish Elon wasn’t so dumb and had made the cyber truck that with a electric drivetrain.
