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G. David Felt

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Everything posted by G. David Felt

  1. G. David Felt
    Lucky for them, Mitsubishi left the Normal manufacturing plant fully intact and the city sold it dirt cheap to Rivian. They have a fully setup robotic assembly line that RJ says will speed up their assembly of their EVs and with a full paintshop that is already operational along with many other departments, it is coming down to minimal tweaking of the robots in assembly of the Rivian truck and SUV. Should be easier than what Tesla has done since it uses the same skateboard platform for their auto's. I love that RJ in his interview with Bloomberg stated there was no reason to attempt to reinvent the manufacturing wheel when the existing competition has already shown how to quickly build auto's. So with that, buying an existing auto assembly line with paint shop and just adjusting it to build their auto's should speed up their time to market. Yes they are expecting to start production after the 1st of the year and tweak and then go full production for sales starting after the first of the year in 2020. I can easily see them delivering this sooner than later. I honestly do not expect any slippage in dates unlike Tesla.
  2. G. David Felt
    Loving this Sexy Green AWD with Torque Vectoring SUV. The live reveal was cool. RJ is so much more relaxed and clearly knows his stuff more than Musk. Rivian Automotive should rival and I expect beat Tesla as they are going full size trucks / SUVs compared to cars.
  3. G. David Felt
    Yea, I am thinking that is a mistake as the Escalade is only 116" wheelbase and ESV is only 130" wheelbase. The doors do look long and if it is correct that should just glide over the road soaking up bumps.
  4. G. David Felt
    Yup, super smart guy, clearly all about roomy performance SUV / Trucks based on my reading today. This guy so rocks more than Musk. I am really excited. See they have the preorder page up, Starting price is $65,000 after Federal rebate. So in essence, $72,500 is starting price and the preorder page says the top performance and largest battery pack models will be built first. Then the base model available starting 12 months later or in 2021 available for sale. If RJ can hit his projections and right now I see no reason not too, this will hurt the Detroit OEM and Tesla. GM I believe can handle this but Ford and FCA I am not sure they can handle a strong driven, focused, educated man like RJ that has done his homework on building a better Truck and SUV. I will say that this will put both Asian and German auto companies on alert to move their ass in building EV auto's. $1,000 down is all for a preorder of the SUV or Truck. https://preorders.rivian.com/2322956400/checkouts/400a67d6ffcc711a452e2d3fbd79251f
  5. G. David Felt
    @ccap41 Rihanna is 5'8" So based on this picture at the Nov 26th reveal of the truck that she attended, he is right around 6' tall http://www.zimbio.com/photos/RJ+Scaringe/Rivian+Unveils+First+Ever+Electric+Adventure/VyhC3NG6EI7
  6. G. David Felt
    So the air suspension on this goes from 230 mm to 380 mm. For this reveal they had it at 260mm. So it can still rise up more or as RJ says, can be dropped down to 230 for maximum performance handling and airstream. So at full ride height, the SUV would be 5 inches taller than it is right now. http://www.autonews.com/article/20181029/OEM06/181029762/rivian-scaringe-lean-manufacturing Good read on Rivian.
  7. G. David Felt
    Loving the live Reveal of the SUV and Truck. Stupid Lunch break, but hopefully we still get to see the interior of the 3 row full size SUV. I am loving that it is NOT A COUPE design. LOVE the Green SUV! 800 HP, Torque Vectoring AWD activity vehicles. These will Sell way better than Tesla Cars!
  8. G. David Felt
    I just found a dig at Tesla in their tech section. They say the following about their battery: to give you the confidence to go further regardless of terrain or temperature. I cannot imagine with all the known issues of Tesla be it outside in extreme temps like death valley or at the track racing where their battery tech overheats and shuts down that this is not a dig at them. LOL
  9. G. David Felt
    As an option over touching the screen, I could be happy with telling it to set the temp at 68 degrees. At least they will have touch capable as well as voice.
  10. G. David Felt
    Yes, from what I can gather from their website, it is. They seem to be connected in the center of each wheel section like a differential. I suspect this gives them a very solid center of gravity and ride quality with the weight of the battery pack too.
  11. G. David Felt
    You got me curious about the surfboard statement. The width of the truck is 79.33 inches. According to the web site the length of that storage compartment is 78 inches or 6 feet 5 inches long. The guy looks to be about 5'8" tall to 5'10" tall and when he goes into the water you can see the surfboard is the same size as he is in length. This appears to be a real life board that can store there. Now at the end there is two boards as both he and the woman go into the ocean to surf, so I do question where the second board was stored. No matter what, you nailed it in your statement that the whole packaging of these EV auto's is going to offer flexibility that we have not had in a long time if ever in ice auto's. So in reading of the Rivian web site news section and technology section, they are stating that the auto will be voice controlled via connection with your phone. So Apple Siri or Ok Google will be used I would think to adjust all that. Like you both, I would be happy with a couple knobs for the most commonly used items, but I could be totally touch screen if it has voice control to turn things on/off or adjust while driving.
  12. G. David Felt
    Come visit and if you come north enough to the seattle area let me know and we can connect up.
  13. G. David Felt
    @Robert Hall @ccap41 So the video is very easy to identify where they filmed. Started in Downtown Portland, they then drove up to and over the last bridge going over the Columbia River called "The Bridge of the Gods" into Washington state and the beach where they go surfing and camping is just south of Westport on the coast and Yes, those roads are always very sparse with traffic like that. Common to only see a few cars at a time. 1hr and 32min till the Rivian reveal of their SUV the R1S! Good reading stuff in their newsroom https://www.rivian.com/news
  14. G. David Felt
    That Rocks, Thank you CCAP41 for finding this. I have been reading good things on the off-road capabilities of this truck. I could actually see myself buying this as a family hauler and for yard duty. My wife wants a truck big enough to haul us and our two grown kids occasionally plus let her go to Home Depot or the Nursery and buy stuff and throw it in back. Her final request is it be EV, so this truck would fit all her desires. Exciting for sure. Have to say this video gives even more space and room that this truck offers. Love the Surf board that fits in the funky storage between the cab and bed. I love the sizing of holding a full size cooler in the Frunk. Clearly cup holders are there as CCAP41 points out.
  15. G. David Felt
    Unlike true concepts that barely move around on their own, Rivian has shown the truck out in the woods actually being driven off road, going through rivers, etc. I think while some of their pictures have been from the initial concept they built, many are also of what should be a production near ready truck and I think we will see this at the autoshow once media have access to it. I would think they would have cup holders by then. I could be wrong through. Still exciting times for auto's.
  16. G. David Felt
    Very true in most cases, but this guy also has degrees in business, has the connections and is backed by some big investment companies and MIT. Just like @Robert Hall had not heard of them till now, they really worked hard on a quality product with not wasting money for look at me crap like Faraday or Tesla did. I am excited to see the Rivian SUV that is to be shown at LA. They had teased so much on the truck, then early release info and pictures. Now we will get to see the final info on the truck, hands on people checking it out and their production ready SUV that is supposed to go into production at the same time as the truck at the Former Mitsubishi plant. Unlike so many others, I actually think this has a great chance to succeed in the market. I am also hoping that GM will finally show off at least 1 if not 2 of their EVs at the LA show.
  17. G. David Felt
    This is the FUTURE of inner city delivery. Electric vans that do not have exhaust and are quiet is what should be here now.
  18. G. David Felt
    Be interesting to see what they end up doing as I had read that they were considering going all electric and just forgoing ICE all together.
  19. G. David Felt
    Unlike Faraday Future which was thought up on a napkin and then went marketing flash with vaporware for an auto to raise cash till recently, Rivian Automotive was founded in 2009 by RJ Scaringe. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rj-scaringe-58355716 He has a PHD and Masters in Automotive Engineering from MIT. This guy is not going to fail. I think this will be the next Tesla of the auto world. https://www.cargroup.org/person/rj-scaringe/ RJ Scaringe founded Rivian in 2009 and led the company through a tough economic climate to secure substantial financing, recruit and scale an exceptional team, and establish the company’s product and technology platform. Mr. Scaringe excels in analyzing highly complex systems, combining deep analytical capabilities with a system-based development methodology. Mr. Scaringe earned his MS and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a member of the research team in the Sloan Automotive Laboratory. In leading Rivian, Mr. Scaringe works to maintain a highly collaborative environment, and his hands-on approach drives innovative thinking into all aspects of the business and company culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivian To say this guy has done his homework, secured his funding and gathered multiple government grants and secured the full manufacturing facility at Normal, Illinois which was a former Mitsubishi Motors auto plant which has 2.4 million sq ft of manufacturing room along with a functioning paint shop, robotics, stamping machines and other production equipment. This will allow Rivian to potentially leapfrog ahead of Tesla in ramping up production using established and tested manufacturing methods from the auto industry. I honestly expect them to ramp up and deliver auto's for sale much faster than Tesla has done. The keep quiet skunk works project till they had a production ready product was the smartest thing RJ did for Rivian Automotive.
  20. G. David Felt
    While I do believe we have a major correction coming for the stock market and a recession that is overdue, I do not think it is that dire when you see a company properly managing by adjusting what they need in manufacturing sites and jobs to survive and make a profit. GM has had poor mgmt for so long that now that they have a hard as nails CEO, it scares people. Yet this is how and what is needed to survive long term.
  21. G. David Felt
    I give ya all my yucky beefsteak tomatoes too, your welcome to that nasty fruit.
  22. G. David Felt
    Glad this is dead, the coupe thing is so overdone and just needs to go away!
  23. G. David Felt
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/11/27/mary-barra-gm-general-motors/2116833002/ This is spot on and I agree CEO Barra is doing the right thing by GM. We cannot keep making the same stupid mistakes of the past and she has grown GM while Ford has fallen 44% in value and is about to implode on debt. All politicians are idiots that cannot seem to exert self control and live within a balanced budget. What Potus 45 said over and over attacking companies, CEO Barra is making sure GM will not have to go back to the GOV for a bailout in our oncoming next recession. Rock on Barra!
  24. G. David Felt
    Ya know he is just about numbers, maybe we are expecting too much in regards to understanding how torque and HP work together to move an auto.
  25. G. David Felt
    I almost got a 1991 Chevrolet Beretta GTZ but then drove the 1991 Ford Escort GT built by Mazda and it rocked and destroyed the Beretta for less money. 1991 Beretta GTZ 1991 Ford Escort GT Had the GT for almost 100,000 miles before my wife was rear ended by a DOT truck and totaled it.
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