Influencer I
And what about the longevity? I have 200,000+ on my 98 Cherokee and have 0 issues and its been beat on since new, so I'll hold onto my old straight 6 and keep racking on the miles.
Rivian Will Bring Electric to Off-Road
- Thread starter Jay&Shonna
- Start date
Member III
Ive been following the technology for quite a long time. I have been to all of GM's Hybrid and electric vehicle classes as well as visiting the Edison research facility a few times to speak with the engineers. Right now, one could say were in the 3rd generation of electric car. In reality were not that far. The early vehicles were a joke and were only produced because they were forced to. The manufacture's who did produce these cars really didn't have the technology to do so. We saw the same thing in the late 60's when the feds said "you will make engines produce less emissions" The engineers didn't know how to do that yet and it took us.......until the mid/late 90's to figure it out? Just look at the fine 80's cars that were produced.
Battery technology flat lined a while ago when everyone put their money into hydrogen fuel cell research. The biggest issue has been the auto manufactures decided we don't want those vehicles. No one wanted to put the money into the research.
Along comes Musk and Tesla corp. He evolved the battery technology rapidly. He made changes and came up with new technology then did not patent it. He has said many times that his goal is to see everyone driving electric vehicles. His chassis are projected for a million miles and batteries for 250k plus. My Land Cruiser has 250k miles and I've put more money into refurbishing it then I would have for a new battery pack.
Right now there are several new companies starting up making these vehicles. While the technology is still improving and is still in its early stages. The biggest issue I see with these new companies is not "drive line" longevity or battery it's "your seat stitching has an issue" and the only place to deal with it is three states away.
Rivian is doing what Tesla did. Make a few vehicles for a niche market and ask a bunch of money. Hopefully selling enough to finance the next leg and bring in lower priced vehicles.
If I'm not mistaken, the Nissan Leaf has a 90 mile range. I'm 10 miles from work. If most commuters lived within range, they would benefit from vehicles like this. If you watch the world oil producers, you will notice that the price's have started to drop slightly. With the world adopting electric vehicle's were going to see an oil glut (producing more than used) within a few years.
It should be interesting to see what's going to happen when these companies start out doing each other. People who do remote camping where there is no place for a charging station will most likely still need fuel. Construction equipment and long haul will still need fuel also. At least for now.
The world as we know it is changing rapidly. These vehicles are the start. Power technology is evolving. It should be interesting to see what happens in the next decade.
Scott
