Rivian Will Bring Electric to Off-Road

[Jay&Shonna]

Forge Overland submitted an Article on the main site!

Rivian Will Bring Electric to Off-Road

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text="Electric Truckland"...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[smritte]

Not bad, 400 mile range tops anything I've seen. Running the 4 hub mounted motors is smart. I cant remember the company that makes them but, when I looked at them I was impressed. I'm guessing 200 ish miles off road with very little if any power regeneration. I have been watching and waiting for Tesla's truck to come out. Should be nice to see how it compares. I'm not too keen on the "futuristic" head and tail lights. To me they made the truck ugly. I would also like to know what battery's and charging times. Price is about what I would expect.

Scott

 

[TimmoJa]

Not bad, 400 mile range tops anything I've seen. Running the 4 hub mounted motors is smart. I cant remember the company that makes them but, when I looked at them I was impressed. I'm guessing 200 ish miles off road with very little if any power regeneration. I have been watching and waiting for Tesla's truck to come out. Should be nice to see how it compares. I'm not too keen on the "futuristic" head and tail lights. To me they made the truck ugly. I would also like to know what battery's and charging times. Price is about what I would expect.

Scott

Hey Scott, the motors are centre mounted which means lower unsprung mass than (Proterra) hub motors and also allows for long half shafts/ large range of motion for swing arms. When it comes to overlanding I’d hazard a guess that recharge times aren’t going to be an absolute priority.

Also at the end of this article extra batteries was mentioned. I doubt this will be a thing, more likely will be high efficiency solar panels. These wouldn’t necessarily be for car Charging but to run accessories like night lighting and refrigeration.

The more remote charging locations will likely be at long stop destinations; eateries/outfitters, trail heads, swimming holes. This will negate the need for “fast” charging. Level 2 or 3 charging will get the job done in an hour or two, no need for expensive infrastructure, that “ultrafast” (15-30mins) chargers will only need to be on major highways. And even in really remote places around the globe if you’ve got fuel to pump you’ll need electricity to pump it. That rare use case of hand pump fuel depots is not going to effect too many overlanders.

Personally I love the idea of roaming around the world on stored sunshine.

If you need evidence of overlanding in an electric car check out “plugin adventures.” On YouTube.

 

[Winterpeg]

The biggest issue I've seen with electric vehicles is heat. Electric cars/trucks use electricity to produce heat... and not very efficiently. As we all know producing heat with electricity takes a lot! This greatly reduces the range... but is rarely mentioned.

And I can only imagine how it will (or won't) start and drive in -40.

 

[MOAK]

This is great. The advent of electric vehicles will keep the price of gasoline competitive. It is all about cost per mile. If these electrics can be operated for about 15 cents a mile then gasoline will be forced to compete or become irrelevant. So, I'm looking forward to sticking with my 80 series. :)

 

[Lunch Box]

And I can only imagine how it will (or won't) start and drive in -40.

I'm curious about this too. I know lead acid batteries suffer in extreme cold, but are lithium-ion batteries the same? On the other hand, electrical conductivity increases as temperature decreases, so some parts may even work more efficiently in the cold.

That said...

My son: "Dad, we ran out of power!"
Me: "Set up the solar panels and grab me a beer."

 

[Kevtd]

I'm curious about this too. I know lead acid batteries suffer in extreme cold, but are lithium-ion batteries the same? On the other hand, electrical conductivity increases as temperature decreases, so some parts may even work more efficiently in the cold.
."

I'm no expert but i know the lithium ion batteries we use at work really seem to suffer in the cold AND can become unstable at very high temps as well. That said, if they pull off better batteries I would happily do my traveling in an electric.

 

[Lunch Box]

I'm no expert but i know the lithium ion batteries we use at work really seem to suffer in the cold AND can become unstable at very high temps as well. That said, if they pull off better batteries I would happily do my traveling in an electric.

Me too. I know I keep my Li-Ion batteries and chargers for tools in the house over the winter. I don't have any science to back it up, but I *think* I killed a pair of new 18v batteries by leaving them in the unheated garage over 3 winter months.

 

[TimmoJa]

The biggest issue I've seen with electric vehicles is heat. Electric cars/trucks use electricity to produce heat... and not very efficiently. As we all know producing heat with electricity takes a lot! This greatly reduces the range... but is rarely mentioned.

And I can only imagine how it will (or won't) start and drive in -40.

That’s the thing with electric motors, one moving part. It just needs to turn on if the oil is frozen, the motor will heat it up (very efficiently) and off you go. Thermal management of the batteries is next level, it’s not like the Lead acid batteries of old. Admittedly your going to loose range in the cold, I guess all that lost heat energy in internal combustion vehicles can be useful in sub zero temps but hey it’s hard to produce a single vehicle for every use case.

 

[smritte]

Hey Scott, the motors are centre mounted which means lower unsprung mass than (Proterra) hub motors and also allows for long half shafts/ large range of motion for swing arms.

In the article it mentions "wheel mounted motors". In the chassis picture it dosent show a center mounted motor but, that could be a concept picture and what they really made may be different. When it comes to unsprung weight, again looking at the front strut assemblies, the size reminds me of the Bose prototype magnetic suspension. it never got out of the prototype due to cost and a huge weight factor. If the drawing is correct then their running a Macpherson Strut (probably not Bose) which has a bit higher unsprung weight then an SLA. Again, its possible the picture is incorrect.
What would be nice is if they were running regeneration shocks (not sure what the real name is). Using the kinetic energy from the unsprung weight to generate electricity.

When it comes to overlanding I’d hazard a guess that recharge times aren’t going to be an absolute priority.

I'll somewhat agree with this. When I take my sisters Tesla X out for a drive, it's nice having the fast chargers plotted out for me. Taking a several day trip, it becomes an issue though. My route may not take me by a fast charger. The wait time goes from about 45 min's to several hours. She wont let me take it on a multiday desert trip (or off the highway at all) but I still plotted charge points if I did.

If we could get solar technology to evolve a few more levels, all this will be moot.
We also need to realize, were looking at first and second generation with these cars. Motor and battery technology has evolved tremendously in the last decade. What will we see in the next two decades?

Scott

 

[SubeeBen]

IMO. & its just my opinion don’t mean to offend anyone but you can keep your electric/hybrid/whatever in the city. I really cannot understand where this vehicle would even make it in the real world I.E. overland world. Maybe when Moab & other areas have charging stations I still wouldn’t understand.

 

[smritte]

And I can only imagine how it will (or won't) start and drive in -40.

OW...."I" dont even start in that. Cold here is +40F. Brrrrrrrrrr. Im sure the range in my electric car would go to nothing as soon as I turned on my seat heater, steering wheel heater, plugged in my heated shoes, heated mirrors and defogger. Not to mention my coffee warmer plugged into the acc outlet.

Scott

 

[OutOfStep]

Cool

 

[Lunch Box]

IMO. & its just my opinion don’t mean to offend anyone but you can keep your electric/hybrid/whatever in the city. I really cannot understand where this vehicle would even make it in the real world I.E. overland world. Maybe when Moab & other areas have charging stations I still wouldn’t understand.

1: I'm not offended.
2: Full Disclosure: I drive an oilburner.

That said, I think once there are some growing pains ironed out, like charging availability, durability, etc., I'd love to rock an electric vehicle at Moab. Electric motors make ridiculous amounts of torque in relation to horsepower and would be much lighter weight than an internal combustion engine. If I could get a reliable, truly useable CJ-5 with ~500lbs of torque, I'd be all in.

That said, I don't see any of us doing Camel Trophy runs on battery power any time soon.

 

[CR-Venturer]

The biggest objection I see is running out of juice in the far flung wilds. What are you going to do when your battery runs dry 700 miles from civilization? Or if you get water ingress that fries your batteries or motors? We shall see.

 

[Musubie]

IMO. & its just my opinion don’t mean to offend anyone but you can keep your electric/hybrid/whatever in the city. I really cannot understand where this vehicle would even make it in the real world I.E. overland world. Maybe when Moab & other areas have charging stations I still wouldn’t understand.

No offense taken, but a hybrid would be great as an overlander. Jeep's new 48v architecture in their 2.0 turbo 4 Rubicon is starting to make inroads as a very mild hybrid.

To really make a difference, they're going to have to start looking at different hybrid architecture. The Prius-style parallel hybrid is too limiting. I'd love to see a real series hybrid overland vehicle. Shall we say 300 miles of pure battery range augmented by a diesel? Locomotives run this type of setup where the diesel engine doesn't turn the wheels but just charges the batteries. There are only a few series hybrid cars available, and frustratingly enough, Chevy's Volt is one of them (BMW and Honda also make them). Frustrating because GM/Chevy has experience in building a series hybrid, and their ZR2 shows that they have the experience to put together a serious overland vehicle, so why not just combine the two concepts together? A series hybrid ZR2? I'd be all over that!

 

[Berkshires]

These companies can run all the focus groups they want and we can all express our opinions here, but what I think is interesting is that these companies have the finances to experiment and see how their users react in the real world. Whatever Rivian releases now, it will be very different in five years when they learn how their user base modifies them, where and how they use, etc. The original Tesla Roadster was awful - ugly, small and overpriced. The model 3, which I think is ugly, is leagues beyond what the roadster was - it’s baby steps, and these companies are all learning. I’m looking forward to how this develops over the next few years.

 

[emonomics]

The biggest objection I see is running out of juice in the far flung wilds. What are you going to do when your battery runs dry 700 miles from civilization? Or if you get water ingress that fries your batteries or motors? We shall see.

So on a 410mi capacity battery, how did one get 700mi from civilization?

 

[CR-Venturer]

So on a 410mi capacity battery, how did one get 700mi from civilization?

You demonstrate my point admirably lol

 

[MazeVX]

To me it's not the time for electric yet.
These are the Pioneers and I think and they have to make the way for mainstream ...
I'm often a early adopter of new technology but this time I pass!
I'm involved in some parts of vehicle development and I think we are not ready yet we can build perfect commuters and daily drivers, we could build more efficient hybrid technology for semi trucks and commercial vehicles and earth moving equipment like excavators but to date, we don't have the technology for long range drive in relatively small vehicles and also not for overlanding or expedition.
We have to wait a few more years until the technology has evolved.
Thats my opinion.