Rivian pickup gets huge quad-motor price hike
Rivian founder R.J. Scaringe last week offered an update on the electric truck maker’s production plans — describing the ramp-up at Rivian’s Normal, Illinois, plant, and setting an audacious goal of capturing 10% of the EV market share by 2030. But while he was painting in broad strokes about the future, the elves who run the product configurator at Rivian’s website were introducing big changes in the here and now. Rivian just revealed a dual-motor entry-level drivetrain, so that’s the good news. But meanwhile, the price for the existing quad-motor setup just got hiked by $12,000.
The R1T pickup dual-motor Explore package, with Standard battery pack, starts at $67,500. That price does not include a destination fee, which is unspecified on Rivian’s configurator. The Standard battery pack is a new offering and provides a lower range, at about 260 miles per charge. Rivian didn’t specify the Standard pack’s size.
Stepping up to the Adventure package with the same motors and same battery pack will cost you $73,000. It gains a nicer interior with ventilated seats and ash wood, plus some gear gains such as tow hooks.
The dual-motor setup offers more than 600 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque, with a 0-to-60 time of about 4 seconds — so it’s still a very quick truck. And it’s still all-wheel drive, with a motor positioned on each axle front and back, but clearly it won’t have some of the at-the-wheels quad motors’ capabilities and party tricks, like the flashy tank turn.
The step up to quad motors on either of those trims boosts the price to $6,000, and the 314-mile range Large battery pack is another $6,000. This puts 835 horsepower and 800-plus pound-feet of torque in play, with a 0-to-60 transit time of 3 seconds. Until now, this was the only configuration offered — at a base price of $67,500. So apples-to-apples, the same truck now costs $12,000 more.
And if you want the Max Pack battery option with 400-plus miles of range, it’ll be coming along in a year or so, and can only be had on the R1T truck. It will cost $16,000.
The R1S sport utility vehicle, which is not yet in production, meanwhile, starts at $72,500 in Explore trim and $78,000 in Adventure trim. That’s with the dual-motor setup and the standard battery pack. Upgrades to quad motors and the large pack are again $6,000 each, taking the price to $84,500 in Explore trim. Previously, that setup’s base price was $70,000. So the SUV’s getting a $14,500 increase, apples-to-apples, before it even hits the road.
The quad motors Rivian uses now are made by Bosch, but Roadshow reports that the dual motors will be made in-house by Rivian, which even intends to build its own battery cells. In addition to its Illinois factory, which will have the capacity to build 200,000 vehicles per year, Rivian is adding a Georgia factory by 2024 with a capacity of 400,000 units and a battery operation nearby.
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