The Rivian R1T and R1S—an electric truck and electric SUV respectively—that have been in the development for years now, were originally supposed to be . But the coronavirus pandemic—and perhaps some more normal delays—have now pushed delivery dates back into mid-2021.
Rivian said Friday that the R1T will come first, while the R1S will get here a couple months later.
The R1T is, to put it mildly, a pretty important vehicle not only for Rivian but , which is using Rivian’s skateboard platform as the basis for the upcoming electric F-150. Pricing hasn’t been released, but the R1T is expected to cost somewhere north of $60,000, probably more like $75,000, and will be among the first fighters of the electric truck wars, with the , , the , , , and the all also in the works.
That means in a lot of ways it’s a pretty exciting time to be alive if you’re interested in electric trucks, but also if you’re interested in merely watching a horse race. Because half of those trucks are made by companies that haven’t mass produced a vehicle before, let alone an electric truck, while one is coming from a company that has plenty of experience mass-producing internal combustion engine cars but not electric cars, while another has experience in both but . The other one is Tesla.
All of which is to say that some of these will definitely succeed, some will succeed a little, some will fail a little, and some will be outright disasters. I mean there are some obvious clues as to who might fall into what category (I will believe the Lordstown Motors thing and Nikola Badger are sucesses when I see it) but others all seem like, for now, they have a shot. We’ll have a much better idea this time next year.