Tacoma Vs. Rivian

It was just a funny picture and clearly one to trigger EV owners. I like the Rivian, but I like the Tacoma more for its individuality and overall reliability over the years. 25% of my family and friends have EV’s and they are great, just not for me yet…

 

What are you driving these days?

 

Me too, like I need another hole my head.

 

A Ram 3500. A definite downgrade but handles all my weekly towing with ease. Done a few cross country tows that would’ve sucked in the Rivian and about to tow all the way up to Alaska which is impossible in an EV.

 

That sounds fun.

 

Same, not quite there yet for me though. The transition from horse and buggy to petrol vehicles didn’t happen over night either.

Do like RJ Scaringe more than Musk, as he had more humble beginnings than that ass Elon. The amount of effort to build a vehicle from the ground up is mind boggling. There was a time I was hot for kit cars, (Porsche 356) and all the engineering was already done for you, all you had to do was assemble it, which is a ton of work, can’t even imagine building a vehicle from scratch.

Posted this article before, but it is a good read.

https://www.ft.com/content/1cab9637-5135-4da8-b0af-a0b56bab84a5

 

What sense does that make?

 

There was one of those thing in a parking lot the other day, that thing should be afraid to sneak up on a mirror!

 

Need to tow long distances? Not stopping to charge for 45 minutes every 120 miles is precisely where the Ramcharger comes into play. Or when you daily drive on all cheap electricity (140ish mile range) but want to do a quick cross country drive and not worry about charging stops or added time. Just top of the tank like a normal truck and go.

 

Sounds perfect.

 

Checks about all the boxes, tow rating and payload is stellar. Afraid to hear what that thing costs though, can only I imagine, easy $100K if not more.

 

The price is going to be the problem.
I’m seriously thinking about getting a Lightning with the smaller battery pack now that they are under $40K. It would be useless on long trips but fine for commuting and everything else. I’ll see how low the prices get later this year.

 

That was my wild guess, quickie google search: Car and Driver is thinking $60-78K depending on trim.

https://www.caranddriver.com/ram/1500-ramcharger

$40K for a Lightning is reasonable, makes more sense than 4G pricing, and never have to put gas in it. The frunk would be handy. Not a bad looking truck either, only subtle differences from a regular F150. Should ride great with the independent rear suspension. All the reviews have been positive other than range while traveling. Seeing a bunch of them running around here.

 

They seem pretty reliable too.

 

Lightning also gets a NACS adapter, which enables charging at the much more reliable and available Tesla Superchargers, in the next couple months.

 

Kind of defeats the ideal behind a hybrid using a gas generator to charge the battery. Navel yes and it will increase the range but it will take a fairly hefty generator to charge the battery bank and keep it rolling.

 

They look fine to me

 

It’s a much better implementation of a hybrid than the typical gas/electric coupled drivetrain. In Ram’s case they took the easy way out and are just using their standard 3.6l V6 but that’s overkill and just a means of saving money through economies of scale.

 

It’s basically a truck version of the Chevy Volt. People that owned them loved them. Not sure why Chevy stopped making them.

 

Ram is doing it much better than Toyota’s truck hybrid system that only increases power and no other benefits, no increased mpg thus no increased range, plus lowers payload and towing capacities. Don’t really see the point of the Hybrid Tundra or Tacoma other than power bragging rights. Which is an odd move for Toyota since they are the king of hybrids with great fuel efficiency.