Tacoma Vs. Rivian

I like the Lucid. Way more luxury than a Model S. I'd pick a Lucid or Merc. EQS over an S if I wanted a luxury EV.

 

Fixed it for you

 

So this isn't personal experience. Due to our shortest days being 6.5hrs it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense up here, we also experience severe cold snaps, flash warming, and heavy snowfalls on a routine basis; in other words it doesn't make sense to put anything on my roof here. I'd require close-to-ground, maintainable panels that I could clean easily without the risk of damage that would also need to be telescopic in motion, if the sun is so low on the horizon that I can't see it over a 50ft tree on the other side of an acre for the majority of winter days, it's just nonsensical.

However, the stats are directly from BC Hydro if you'd like to give 'em a look through. Based on statistics from Victoria, the sunniest town in BC with a 7kW roof mounted array of consisting of roughly 500sq.ft of paneling. One thing they don't mention is the total cost of materials or installation... BC Hydro has a monopoly though, so I'd be curious to know whether they got an average cost of a large sample group of solar certified installers, or chose the highest to deter people from refusing their services. That being said I'm sure the math can be done backwards easily enough with their generation rates x years etc.

https://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/residential/building-and-renovating/switch-to-solar-energy.html

 

My solar is an older install with twenty-four 275W panels (6.6KW). I get ~10MWH annually and use it all so would not have surplus for an EV. Regardless, It rocks and completely paid for itself in 7 years.

My neighbor just put up a 9.5KW system and expressly oversized it to power an EV. They should get a little more than ~14MWH. I suggested an R1S, but they don’t want to spend that much.

I do like the R1S in green. Here is one I saw this week.

I like Rivian enough to buy the stock. Which means I hope they make it!

I personally have a reservation on a Bronco Wildtrak. I fully expect the Bronco (that I don’t have yet) will be my last ICE vehicle.

My better half has a hybrid Lexus and it rocks (RX500h).

 

I'm a residential builder in south coast BC and 2 of my last client builds installed 9KW grid-tied arrays and my current client build is installing an 11KW grid-tied array

 

Man 11k would be nice. I need a dang 26k to offset my usage and that would still give me an electric bill.

For calculating solar I like pvwatts as it calculates weather and average solar irradiance.

https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/

 

Talking about solar is like talking about propane, it's not that interesting.


I'm still waiting to see a Rivian van on the road. I can't recall seeing a single commercial EV on the road performing any task.

 

9 and 11 KW are not sized to take care of their total usage , they are the limit of the available roof area suitable for panels , they participate in net metering , producing excess power in late spring , summer , early fall and buying back power in the rest of the year

 

Figured that.

Certainly can scale a system. I'm debating doing that myself. The downside as I see it is getting matching panels in a few years if I wanted to expand the system.

We have net metering here as well but the sell back isn't at the same rate as the purchase price. We buy electricity at around $.06 now but the end cost after delivery is around $.14, when we sell back we get the $.06 not the $.14. It's reasonable since the power company still has to provide transport however it certainly affects payback, especially considering my usage is highest outside sunlight hours AND also in the winter

 

similar system here , costs more to purchase than the utility will pay you

plus here in order to do net metering you have to submit a total load calculation for your house / property and cannot install a larger system than you consume so you cannot become a net producer

 

I think we can do 125% however that is raw panel output (inverter rating) and average daylight hours. iirc does not account for weather.

 

I should add that maxing out now serves me well. I want to add a heat pump water heater (water heater is 30% of my usage) and with the teen leaving in a few years that should give a nice buffer for an EV at some time in the future

 

What if we talked about solar, and solar accessories???

 

Nothing yet here either, we even have a massive Amazon distribution center too with vans constantly buzzing around. (No pun intended) Was behind a Ford Lightning that was driving like an ass, whipping in and out of traffic cutting people off. Annnnd my slooow ass ended right beside at the next light. Seems like the Tesla drivers here mostly drive like asses too. One was following me on a two lane, I went into the left turn lane…they blasted by me, what he didn’t see was the person in the on coming traffic was making a left at the light, he damn near took them out. Thought I was going to have to call 911 on that one. They are very very quick, like you were saying earlier maybe too powerful for normal everyday street use.

Though there are plenty of assholes driving gassers. Bet it is hard to resist not flooring it all the time. Why the Tacoma being a bit underpowered is a good thing, keeps me out of trouble…

 

Depends on the area people live in I would think. I'm 20 Minutes from Philly and I see Rivian's pretty much everyday in 4 different colors. I also have seen Bolts, lots of Teslas, Polestars, Lyric, Leaf's, VW's, BMW, MACH E's...

 

I have an auto-body shop near me. There is always at least two if not three Rivian Amazon vans sitting in their "to repair" lot. Typically the driver has backed into something and the top back strange "bumper" is all cracked and removed for replacement. They need to remake those aero-shaped "bumpers" out of rubber. Funny, I never see them deliver anything, only in the repair lot!

 

Yeah EVs are everywhere here, neighbor just bought a Tesla, there goes my property value! (up! ).

We live 15 minutes from the Distribution center, plus see Amazon Sprinters all the time, no Rivian vans yet.

Some very cool features on them. Supposedly there is a smaller civilian one coming, perhaps a camper version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6lO2_2tyfY

 

Of course I saw a Rivian today being operated by the local electric company. I was like who buys a white rivian and what's that crap on the door? They were able to get a few traffic cones in the bed, suprised they weren't in a Lightning most of their light fleet vehicles are Ford.

 

I saw the same yesterday with a lightning. The thing was crazy fast but he was driving like an ass on a busy street with lots of pedestrians.

 

I can see the temptation with all that power on tap. Used to get a ton of speeding tickets in my muscle cars and street bikes. Driving slow ass Toyotas takes that temptation away. Though my 3G will get up and go, fairly snappy compared to my old truck.