Rivian R1T First Drive - Is It Any Good? | 01 Sep 2021

Episode 1197,   Sep 01, 2021, 12:00 AM

Show #1197.

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Wednesday 1st September. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.

FIRST QUARTER-MILE TIME SLIP FOR THE QUICKEST FORD MUSTANG MACH-E

- Electric vehicles have one major performance advantage over their ICE-powered forebearers, and that's torque. Electric motors can deliver peak torque from a standstill, giving EVs a serious edge when it comes to acceleration.

- Many owners thus enjoy taking their EVs to the drag strip to lay down some fast times. One owner of the new Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition did just that, and posted the results online for your reading pleasure.

- The GT Performance Edition boasts 480 horsepower, a hefty bump over the 346 hp of the Premium AWD model.

- a 12.657 second quarter-mile time at a trap speed of 100.02 mph, and 0-60 mph in 3.89 seconds minus the 1 foot rollout.

- The runs were taken with the car at a 72% state of charge

- acceleration past 100mph was slow, to the point they suspected some sort of governor was in play.

- The runs were made with the "Unbridled Extend" mode turned off, a feature which intends to balance power output for lap-to-lap consistency when racing on track.


RIVIAN R1T IS THE MOST REMARKABLE PICKUP WE’VE EVER DRIVEN

- the R1T is unlike any pickup we've ever driven—part truck, part sport sedan, and 100 percent amazing. It's been speculated that pickup buyers are too conservative to embrace electrification, but after our first drive in a pre-production Rivian R1T, both on-road and off-, we think this is the electric truck that will turn them into believers.

- The standard on-road drive mode is aptly called All-Purpose, and if you never switched the Rivian R1T out of this default setting, you'd still find it to be remarkably swift and sure-footed.

- the R1T can be switched to two-wheel drive—only the front wheels are powered, making it front-wheel drive

- The R1T has a separate set of drive modes for off-roading, and they allow the driver to raise the suspension and ease throttle response in various degrees.

- Unlike an internal combustion off-roader, the Rivian has no low-hanging bits like driveshafts and differentials and exhaust pipes, just a smooth, flat undertray from which the wheels and their attachments protrude.

- There is no crawler gear ratio to engage, no differentials to lock, no anti-roll bars to release; just steer and apply appropriate throttle,

- The R1T has four user-selectable levels of regeneration.

- We loved the screens' crisp graphics and smooth animations, but the menu system has a high learning curve. On several occasions we found ourselves unable to adjust the cruise control speed because the steering wheel buttons were still set to adjust the mirrors and steering column.


TESLA SURVEY SHOWS TAKE RATE FOR FULL SELF-DRIVING PACKAGE IS SURPRISINGLY LOW

- A large survey of Tesla owners gives us probably the best idea of the take rate for the Full Self-Driving package. It’s an important metric for Tesla and it is surprisingly low. Or… is it?

- Tesla has increased the price of the FSD package to $10,000 in the US.

- Now a survey of over 17,000 Tesla buyers shows that the Tesla Full Self-Driving take rate worldwide is only at about 11%

- Also, the increase in sales in China and Europe could be factored in since the FSD features are less useful, and the true full self-driving capability is further out in those markets than in the US.

Unsurprisingly, the take rate for Model S and Model X is much higher than for the less expensive Model 3 and Model Y


SUPPLIER FOR AUTO INDUSTRY PREDICTS MASSIVE SALES BOOST FOR ELECTRIC CARS

- Magna CEO Swamy Kotagiri had some interesting things to say about electric vehicles and more when I participated in a conversation that will air beginning Sept. 9 on “Autoline This Week” on PBS.

- By Mark Phelan - Detroit Free Press

- The world’s third-largest auto supplier by sales, the Canadian company makes products that range from electric drive systems to body panels - basically everything it takes to make a car but tires and the windshield. Magna even assembles complete vehicles for other manufacturers, including Jaguar, for which it currently builds I-Pace and E-Pace SUVs.

- Beyond 2025, 50% of Magna sales will be from electrified powertrains

- He also expects Magna’s transmission business to benefit, despite the fact that most of today’s EVs use a simple single-speed direct drive rather than the complicated gearboxes internal combustion engines need.


US ASKS TESLA HOW AUTOPILOT RESPONDS TO EMERGENCY VEHICLES

- The U.S. government’s highway safety agency wants detailed information on how Tesla’s Autopilot system detects and responds to emergency vehicles parked on highways. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made the detailed request in an 11-page letter sent to the electric car maker that was dated Tuesday.

- The agency wants to know how Teslas detect a crash scene, including flashing lights, road flares, reflective vests worn by responders and vehicles parked on the road.

- NHTSA also wants to know how the system responds to low light conditions, what actions it takes if emergency vehicles are present, and how it warns drivers. The agency also added a 12th crash to its probe in which a Tesla on Autopilot hit a parked Florida Highway Patrol cruiser Saturday on an interstate highway near downtown Orlando. In the crashes under investigation, at least 17 people were injured and one was killed.

- Tesla has to respond by Oct. 22 or seek an extension. The agency says it can fine Tesla more than $114 million if it fails to comply.

XPENG EXPECTS MONTHLY DELIVERY VOLUME TO REACH 15,000

- n Wednesday, Chinese smart electric vehicle company Xpeng announced that it had delivered 7,214 Smart EVs in the month of August, representing a 172% increase year-over-year. With its increased production output at the Zhaoqing factory, Xpeng now expects its monthly delivery volume to hit 15,000 in Q4

- Deliveries of the P7 achieved a record month in August

- In August, the company began to transition production for its G3 SUV to the new G3i, a mid-cycle facelift version of the G3



LI AUTO STOCK IS UP AS DELIVERIES SET A RECORD

- Li (ticker: LI) delivered a record amount of cars in August. Its result is far better than those of its peers, which tripped up because of shortages of semiconductors. Li delivered 9,433 vehicles in August, up from 8,589 in July. It was the second consecutive month that Li has delivered more cars than both NIO XPeng.

- Tesla’s Shanghai plant produced about 33,000 vehicles in July. Tesla shipped about 33,000 vehicles from its Shanghai facility in July, roughly the same number it shipped from China in June.


EXPERTS PREDICTED ALL CARS WOULD BE HYBRID BY 2020
- Twelve years ago, researchers for IBM asked 125 auto industry executives about their predictions for what cars would be like in 2020. The resulting report predicted every car by 2020 would be a hybrid.

- "Human beings are terrible at prediction generally, and maybe especially at technological prediction," Lee Vinsel, a historian of technology at Virginia Tech, told Motherboard. "We are just so bad."

- There was even optimism that affordable electric vehicles were just around the corner. In 2009, Chrysler said it was going to sell its first EV by 2010 and expected to have 500,000 on the road by 2013. Not only did this not happen, but Chrysler has yet to even reveal a future electric car for sale, much less put one on the market.

- At the end of 2008, NPR's Talk of the Nation held a roundtable about the future of electric cars. J.B. Straubel, then CTO of Tesla, was asked if all cars in the U.S. could be plug-ins in 10 years. "Well, I think all cars would be a bit of a stretch within 10 years," he replied. But, he added, "well over a quarter of new vehicles sold could easily be plug-in vehicles of one form or another within 10 years." In 2018, the actual number was less than 2 percent.

- Given how wrong most everyone was about what 2020 would look like, should we be equally skeptical of predictions of what 2030 or 2040 will look like? What should we make of widespread predictions of EV-dominated sales by 2035 or 2040?


FLEET ELECTRIFICATION IS THE KEY TO A GREEN FUTURE


QUESTION OF THE WEEK WITH EMOBILITYNORWAY.COM

As cars like the IONIQ 5 and trucks like the Ford F-150 Lighting arrive being able to draw power from the traction battery, what will you power from your EV in the future?

Email me your thoughts and I’ll read them out on Sunday – hello@evnewsdaily.com

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