Will Rivian’s new all-electric truck the R1T be a success against the Tesla Cybertruck?
Rivian just opened the order configurator for reservation holders, and will soon open the order page for the general public for their R1T electric truck. and also their R1S electric SUV with deliveries of the launch edition R1T slated to begin June of 2021. right now, if you access the Rivian order page you can see that the launch edition of the R1T will start with an MSRP of around $75,000 and offers around 300 miles of range. a less expensive explorer model that starts at $67,500 will ship in January of 2022. and if you’re willing to pay an extra $10,000 you can upgrade to the max battery pack, not for the launch edition, but future editions, and get 400 miles of range.
Rivian also plans in the future to offer a 250-mile range version which will cost a little bit less. on top of all that the Rivian R1T and the Rivian R1S are eligible for the full 7,500 u.s federal tax credit which does help bring the price down as well. but can the Rivian R1T stand up against and compete successfully against the Tesla cyber truck, which costs quite a bit less and in many ways has better performance. well let’s dive into the details and I believe the Rivian R1T will be a success, and I believe it will sell well even against competition like the cyber truck.
Now when you do a direct price comparison of the Cybertruck versus the Rivian R1T, it is clear that the Rivian R1T costs quite a bit more. the single motor version of the cyber truck starts at forty thousand dollars and the tri-motor version of the cyber truck starts at seventy thousand dollars. whereas a Rivian R1T the lowest version you can order right now costs around $67,500, and you can go up to over $85,000 if you equip the vehicle with a max battery pack.
However, when you compare the Rivian to other trucks in the adventure segment the premium adventure segment like the ford raptor the RAM TRX, and even the Jeep gladiator, it’s not that extreme. and it offers a lot of specs that these trucks don’t offer. for instance, when you compare the price of the riving R1T to the hummer ev which was unveiled recently, it’s quite a bit less expensive. the Rivian R1T price also falls right in line with the Ford Raptor, and the RAM TRX. and it offers greater towing capacity. the Rivian R1T has a better payload capacity than the ford raptor and the RAM TRX. on top of all that when it comes to the stats that matter for off-roading approach angle, departure angle, and break over angle you can see that the Rivian R1T will outperform the ford raptor and the TRX handily.
The Rivian R1T is also able to forward over 36 inches of water which beats the ford raptor and the ram trx, and also the hummer ev. and going back to the cyber truck price comparison when you subtract the 7 500 federal tax credit, you can see the cost per mile of range for the Rivian R1T launch edition or the riving R1T with the adventure package or explore package the actual cost per mile of the range is not that much extremely higher than the Cybertruck. yes, a cyber truck is a better value.
But the Rivian R1T pricing is not that bad. the Rivian R1T model has the best value when it comes to cost per mile of range. is the R1T with the explore package and the max battery pack. and when you subtract the federal tax credit of 7 500 that gives you an MSRP of around 70 000 with 400 miles of range and a cost per mile of range of only 175 dollars. so as I’ve shown the price of the R1T is not that crazy, yes the cyber truck is less expensive. but the R1T will compete very well against the ford raptor and the ram trx and in my opinion it’s a much better vehicle. another reason why I believe the Rivian R1T will succeed against the tesla cyber truck is because of the cyber truck style.
While I personally really like the cyber truck and I like the style of the cyber truck the stainless steel exterior and the planar lines. there are a lot of people that don’t like it and the R1T will appeal to these truck customers. the Rivian R1T is a very nicely designed truck but it also looks a lot more like other trucks on the road. while tesla decided to go a different direction with their truck Rivian decided to stick more with what trucks normally look like. I believe this will help riven in certain markets where people don’t want something that looks like a Cybertruck.
Another reason why I believe the Rivian R1T will do well is that they have put out a very impressive vehicle the R1T and this vehicle falls into one of the biggest segments currently for the u.s auto market. for instance, in the u.s, the leader in trucks ford sold around 1 million trucks in 2019. and Rivian is not only targeting a truck market but more the adventure truck market where the jeep gladiator, the ford raptor, and the RAM TRX fall, and these trucks are even more lucrative because the price is quite a bit higher and the margin on these trucks is quite a bit higher for the manufacturers.
All in all the truck market is a very large market and there’s plenty of room for both tesla and Rivian to succeed. and I believe Rivian will help take market share of the ford raptor and the ram trx and will take market share away from ford and dodge. another reason why I believe the Rivian R1T will be a success even against the cyber truck is that it has some very cool and unique features, one of the most unique and useful features of the Rivian R1T is the gear tunnel. the gear tunnel which is located behind the rear doors on the Rivian R1T provides a very useful and unique place to store a lot of equipment or tools.
The side doors of the gear tunnel also double as a step to help you load gear to the top of the truck and these flip-down doors can hold around 300 pounds. another unique and cool feature that you can pay an extra five thousand dollars to add for the Rivian R1T is the camp kitchen. this portable kitchen slides out of the gear tunnel and includes an induction cooktop, a sink with a four-gallon water storage tank countertop space, and also storage compartments. the Rivian R1T will also be able to receive over-the-air software updates to update the software of the computer and add new features. and according to Rivian the interior of the R1T is made with adventure proof materials that can be easily cleaned and not ruined with mud and dirt and debris.
The Rivian R1T has a built-in air compressor as well as four 110 volt outlets and also three 12 volt outlets. the Rivian R1T also has a quad motor system which gives you extreme control off-road and impressive torque vectoring. also when it comes to autonomous driving features the Rivian R1T does have quite a bit of hardware including 11 cameras 5 radars and 12 ultrasonic sensors and the Rivian R1T comes standard with their drivers plus software. while Rivian software will not be able to do quite as much as tesla software I believe in the future Rivian will be able to add quite a bit more features and it does have a lot of good hardware.
So as I’ve shown the Rivian R1T is going to be a very impressive and capable truck that I believe will compete very well on the market. however, the company Rivian is also very impressive. they have not made a bunch of wild claims and they have backed up these claims with actual working trucks that have performed very well in actual real-world situations. Rivian also is well funded with huge investments from ford and amazon and other companies which allows Rivian to have enough cash to make this work.
So in conclusion, although the Rivian R1T does have a higher price tag than the cyber truck when you compare it to other trucks currently in the adventure segment of trucks a premium adventure segment like the ram trx as we mentioned the ford raptor and the jeep gladiator. it’s not priced that high it falls right in line with those trucks. and also when you look at the specs and the off-roading performance, I believe it’s going to win a lot of people over to electric trucks. the Rivian R1T is going to be great for the market. it’s going to take market share away from ford and dodge and I believe it will compete very well.
Video Credit Goes to Cleanerwatt
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