The Tesla Killer?

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Dylan Cambian, Staff Writer

Even if you are not into cars there is a chance that you have heard and know what a Tesla is.

It is hard to not know a company that is worth almost a trillion dollars and a CEO that happens to be the richest man in the world. Tesla’s are so popular on the road that you can’t take a short 5 minute drive without seeing at least one of their models.

With the obvious success and skyrocketing worth of Tesla, other companies have taken their own shot at an electric car only brand. The result? Other companies made similar cars to Tesla in a market where the trillion dollar company already dominated. There wasn’t a lot of individuality or uniqueness of the other companies cars. But that is about to change. An upcoming company is creating their own market of electric vehicles.

Rivian, an American based company, is taking the car industry by storm with their R1T pickup truck. Rivian was the first electric company to take a shot at the offroad truck market. And their first try at it is amazing. The Rivian R1T comes with 4 electric motors powering each wheel. In total, the electric motors make 800 horsepower and 908 lb-ft of torque. The standard trim of the R1T is able to go 300 miles on a full charge and the range model can go for 400 miles.

The R1T has also proven to be an amazing offroad performer. It can go up steep hills, over small bumps, and go extremely quick on dirt easily. The base model also comes with a multitude of accessories such as, an integrated flashlight in the driver-side door, a 16 inch touch screen, and extra storage space behind the seats and in the front trunk. You can get a new Rivian R1T for just under $70,000. For a family truck that also counts as an offroad performance beast, that is an amazing price.

Rivian’s founder, RJ Scaringe, aimed the truck at the offroad adventurer market. He grew up exploring the outdoors and caring deeply about nature, which is why he chose to pursue electric cars. He combined the two things he loved most and started his own company. The R1T is one of the brand’s two production ready models. The R1F is a family SUV that is also expected to sell very well. Tesla has dominated the electric car and luxury sedan market for a few years now, but Rivian aims at a different vision where Tesla has nothing to offer.

Currently there are no other brands trying to make electric off road performance cars which is why Rivian is projected to do so well. And with the sedan and car market slowly decreasing as the SUV market thrives, the R1F looks to be up first in that market. Although Rivian is devoting a lot of time to these two vehicles their main focus is elsewhere.

In September 2019, Amazon announced that they ordered 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian. Prototypes have already started to show up in 16 different U.S. cities. As the world slowly tries to transition to more sustainable energy, the first signs of a company’s attempts should be non-civilian vehicles so they can influence the electric car market to grow.

Rivian is smart for making this order their main priority. If people see these futuristic electric vehicles delivering their mail it would for sure influence them and the people around them to start or consider the switch to all electric or even hybrid vehicles. Rivian is taking the U.S. electric vehicle market by storm and with Tesla’s only somewhat competitor being a controversial concept car, it doesn’t seem like anything can slow down the American based company that started from an adventurous kid who just loved nature.