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Rivian Automobili Teases Electric Pickup Truck and Seven-Seat SUV

Remember Rivian Automobili? Don't worry, it's not the end of the world if you don't. After all, the company has only recently come out of stealth mode, and even after it did, it wasn't particularly talkative.
Still from Rivian Automobili presentation video 8 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
Still from Rivian Automotive presentation videoStill from Rivian Automotive presentation videoStill from Rivian Automotive presentation videoStill from Rivian Automotive presentation videoStill from Rivian Automotive presentation videoStill from Rivian Automotive presentation videoStill from Rivian Automotive presentation video
Not everyone has a CEO that masters Twitter as if it were second nature, but we've already established back in January 2017, when Rivian released a video about the company and its mission, that this one is more work, less talk.

Well, it would seem it caught a light case of Tesla as it too failed to meet its promises. Last January, Rivian Automobili claimed we would get to see a bit of what it's working on by the end of the year, but much like Elon Musk's coast-to-coast autonomous trip, that didn't happen.

We don't exactly have a new deadline, but at least the startup has opened up a little about the first two products it plans to bring on the market. Back in 2009 when the company started, the intention was to build a mid-engined rear-wheel-drive sports car, but plans may have altered in the meantime.

We knew Rivian was looking to enter the EV business, something which already represented quite a departure from the initial designs, but now it turns out that sports car has also morphed into a five-seat pickup truck and a seven-seat SUV. It's almost as if the brief was to make something completely different to that performance vehicle.

Except these two high-riding models won't be short on that - performance, we mean. The company claims they will be capable of reaching 60 mph in "under four seconds," which is pretty fast for a pickup truck. They also talk about SUV-specific traits such as wading depth (three feet, if you're curious), superb off-road abilities and competitive towing capacity.

They will also be able to "get you to the mountain and back on a single charge" thanks to a battery pack of undisclosed capacity or nature. The entire presentation of both vehicles seems centered on adventure, placing them in a rather unpopulated segment where they might only meet the Bollinger B9.

Sadly, Rivian doesn't give any clues on when all this will be available. We know the company had bought the former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois, and it planned to start production of something there in 2019. However, that timeline seems overly-optimistic now, so we're probably looking at 2020-plus until we'll have something palpable.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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