It’s almost time for customers to get behind the wheel of the Rivian R1T.
After production and quality control struggles, Rivian has confirmed the R1T rolling off the line is up to the standard it wants for customers.
“I am excited to report we have started producing vehicles that reflect all of our quality iterations and design refinements,” Rivian CEO, RJ Scaringe, told reservation holders.
“We are currently working with various governing agencies on the final approvals needed for us to make the first deliveries to preorder customers in September.”
In other words, Rivian needs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Transport Safety Agency (NHTSA) to okay the R1T and it’s ready to start delivering cars to customers.
Rivian says it will maintain cars at six service centres around the USA to start with: one each in New York, Washington and Illinois and two in California.
It’s also continuing its charging network rollout, although there’s no guarantee on when it’ll be complete.
“We also remain focused on building out our charging network – this includes our fast DC chargers that are part of our Rivian Adventure Network as well as our Level 2 AC chargers/connectors that are part of our Rivian Waypoints network,” Mr Scaringe told reservation holders.
“Key to delivering on our goal of more than 3500 DC chargers (at 600 sites) and 10,000 Waypoints is securing a portfolio of great locations for these chargers. You will start to see more of these pop up over the next few months, and by the end of the year the buildout will start expanding quite rapidly.”
The R1T Explore is priced from US$67,500 (A$93,301) in the USA.
Standard equipment includes vegan leather upholstery, heated seats, and matte-black interior finishes.
The Adventure (A$103,668) adds ventilated seats, ash wood interior finishes, a panoramic sunroof, and an off-road upgrade package that includes a reinforced underbody shield, front tow hooks and an air compressor.
The R1T Adventure also adds a powered tonneau cover.
The Launch Edition, priced the same as the Adventure, is painted in Launch Green and adds either 20-inch All-Terrain wheels or 22-inch Sport wheels.
All prices are before government incentives. US Government tax credits, for which Rivian buyers are eligible, shave just over A$10,000 from the price of an electric vehicle.
Rivian has previously announced its two-model range will offer a choice of three different battery packs, with capacities of 105kWh, 135kWh and 180kWh.
Early technical specifications revealed the R1T with the 105kWh battery are claimed to reach 60mph (96km/h) in 4.9 seconds. Total power and torque are 300kW and 560Nm, respectively.
The quickest Rivian will be the R1T equipped with the 135kWh battery. It will hit 60mph in 3.0 seconds, and produces 562kW and 1120Nm.
The 180kWh battery-equipped models are said to have an electric range of over 659km, but produce slightly less power (522kW) albeit the same amount of torque.
All models are all-wheel drive.
Both the R1T and R1S SUV can ford water up to 1m deep, while the R1T has a payload of 800kg and a 5000kg trailer weight rating.
