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Two months after Rivian began delivering EVs with its long-anticipated Max battery pack, we’ve seen our first real-world vary comparability, and the outcomes are… simply okay. Regardless of over 50 miles extra EPA vary than the Giant Pack, the primary real-world checks present that the hole is considerably narrower.
Rivian ($RIVN) is exiting 2023 loads higher off than it started the yr. After pausing EV manufacturing to optimize its meeting traces early on, the American automaker has continued to scale in Regular, IL, because it erects its second plant in Georgia.
The automaker’s Q3 report provided better-than-expected manufacturing numbers, alongside regular curiosity from US shoppers, permitting Rivian to preserve its value factors whereas persevering with to ramp up manufacturing of EDVs and R1 EVs.
Rivian is at the moment contribution margin optimistic on each its EDVs and R1 automobiles, and firm CFO Claire McDonough expects the automaker to grow to be gross margin optimistic in 2024. A few of the enchantment to shoppers eyeing a brand new Rivian R1T or R1S buy has been the arrival of the Max battery pack, which lastly began reaching prospects this previous October.
Promising an EPA vary of 410 miles on a single cost, the Max Pack appears to be like like a monster on paper in comparison with Rivian’s different battery choices. Nevertheless, a current video displaying a real-world vary comparability with the Giant Pack would possibly quickly have shoppers considering twice.
Is Rivian’s $10k Max battery pack improve value it?
Till October 2023, Rivian prospects may solely get hold of supply of their shiny new R1S or R1T in the event that they opted for the Commonplace or Giant battery packs, delivering 270 and 352 miles of electrical vary, respectively.
Nevertheless, many reservation holders held out for an electrical truck with Rivian’s Max pack, promising a whopping 410 miles of EPA estimated vary. Kyle Conner and the workforce at Out of Spec Critiques took two R1Ts – one with the Giant Pack and one with the Max Pack – and put them by the identical checks, solely to discover a marginal distinction in real-world vary, regardless of the $10,000 value distinction.
Whereas the EPA vary distinction between the Giant and Max Packs is listed at 58 miles, Out of Spec’s comparability detailed a a lot nearer race – a mere 22 miles. For the reason that Max Pack is considerably dearer (a further $16,000 in comparison with $6,000 for the Giant battery), it begs the query whether it is value it to would-be Rivian prospects.
Right here’s one other kicker. We’ve realized the Max Pack is similar measurement because the $6,000 choice, simply extra environment friendly and energy-dense. A spokesperson for Rivian advised Electrek that the automaker doesn’t expose battery capacities in its EV specs however did verify the Max Pack provides a complete battery capability of 149 kWh – all in the identical footprint because the Giant Pack with out including weight.
The spokesperson shared that Rivian’s engineers achieved this by implementing a proprietary battery administration system distinctive to the Max Pack that optimizes and will increase its usable power from a brand new model of Rivian’s 2170 battery cells. The result’s greater power density and absolute power with out requiring extra modules or considerably extra weight.
That, once more, sounds promising on paper, however the real-world outcomes seem way more marginal because the Max Pack provides 11-12 extra kWh of battery capability that interprets to 22 miles of vary. That is clearly one check and never gospel, but it surely does beg the query of whether or not Rivian’s Max battery pack is value shelling out an additional $10,000. Following the real-world checks, the Out of Spec workforce even questioned whether or not their Max Pack R1T check automobile was faulty. Or maybe it wants a software program replace to see the total benefits of the brand new battery?
What do you guys suppose? Tell us within the feedback beneath.
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