Our pals over at the presciently named Rivian Owners’ Forum have been going through old man Rivian’s trash and discovered some interesting stuff. Stuff like the electric truckmaker’s first official pricing information, and a patent on a removable auxiliary battery. The age of electric trucks is happening. But, they’re not cheap, at least not yet.
It looks like the cheapest you can get into a Rivian is $67,500, for the Explore trim level on the pickup version, the R1T. The lowest-spec R1S (the SUV) starts at $70,000. The Adventure trim level and the Launch edition both go for $77,500 for the SUV and $75,000 for the truck.
Here’s Rivian’s full breakdown of the trim levels for both SUVs and trucks:
It looks like June of next year is when they’re planning to release the Launch Edition of the truck, with the SUV following in August. For everything else, you need to wait until 2022.
Even more interesting than how much money this company will take from you in order to exchange for a vehicle is this removable battery pack Rivian has patented.
The idea is really pretty simple and, if I may say so, is basically the same concept as the “trunk battery” idea I floated back in 2017. Essentially, it’s a big battery pack, with integrated thermal management, that sits in the back of the pickup truck.
Based on the patent drawings, it seems to fit in the bed sort of like those behind-the-cab toolboxes you see in pickup trucks:
If a truck like this is intended to go on road trips of any kind or off-roading, something like this is pretty much essential. If Rivian is smart, they’ll work deals with gas stations to have a supply of charged battery packs and some kind of battery swap/rental system so people could swap packs as they drive on trips and always be confident of having enough reserve power to get back, especially in areas where charging stations are rare or nonexistent.