Tacoma Vs. Rivian

From my perspective, in your place I would justify an R1T purely on performance versus the TRX given your location.

At 6,000’ of altitude, your 700 HP TRX is about 100HP down as NA engines lose about 3% of HP for every 1000’ of elevation over sea level.

The quad motor R1T can max at about 800 HP (according to Google) without being effected by altitude.

 

Eih, a Tacoma easily touches on that price point and the rivian has better towing, a more upscale interior, more technology, air suspension, and MUCH MUCH higher performance.

I'm not saying it's worth the asking price but for what you get it is much better than the tacoma

 

The R1T is noticeably quicker but lacks the soul of a screaming loud supercharged V8. Overall I’m happy with the Rivian but I do miss that.

 

That TRX sounds amazing. I grab some headphones and hit a YouTube video of the TRX if I ever need some energy, better than coffee

 

I’m still of the mindset that while you CAN pay up to $50,000 for a Tacoma, you should offer them starting at around $25,000. Mine was $28,000 before taxes.

I have had some nice cars, but I like the opportunity to be to buy cheap trucks as well.

I don’t like the idea that in the electric paradise everything starts at $60,000 unless you can live with some Korean city car GM shoved a refrigerator motor into.

 

Not every EV starts at 60k. You can get many for under 30k or even under 25k.

 

Yeah, I dropped $40k on my Tacoma and have a hard time finding that worth it. Granted, that was AT MSRP in COVID so no discounts. Still, with a few discounts and some haggling our 19 Highlande was ~$35k and that has leather and a sunroof.

EV trucks are still very very new. I was having this discussion with a friend today. The Rivian is great, but expensive. The Tesla looks to have good specs and will probably be priced right for a full-size, but is MEGA ugly. The Chevy, at the cheap price, looks like dog crap. The Hummer is a GM halo vehicle, even more than the vette. And the Ford looks great but has crap specs for the price, especially considering they just raised the price AGAIN.

Not even close in the truck space yet though.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/03/13/rivian-amazon-exclusive-agreement-ev-delivery-trucks.html

 

Yeh Amazon would be saving themselves too. I see nothing but benefits for both if they do this.

 

Do you have crank windows and a rubber steering wheel?

 

Nope. The driver’s window even goes down automatically.

And they decided to include ACC, PCB, and intermittent wipers.

I don’t know what the steering wheel is made of.

 

You bought the cheapest base model Tacoma available, of course it was low cost. I’m sure at some point there will be cheaper electric trucks. Right now a big constraint is the cost of the battery pack required to power a truck vs a car. My battery pack is double the size of a Tesla 3 in order to drive the same distance.

 

And no one sees an issue with that?

There will be no secret battery technology that defies the laws of physics that’s going to one day store all that electricity in a significantly smaller form factor.

 

There are a lot batteries in development that are much smaller, lighter and store more energy than current technology.

It’s no different than a lead acid 12v battery that is twice the size and double the weight of a LiFePo4 with double the capacity.

 

Despite what the Mars daddy Elon has been telling Tesla fans, lithium is been around for a long time.

What has made it usable today is better micro processors that allow us to monitor the charge and drain of the batteries carefully without blowing them up, because that’s essentially what they are, highly reactive and flammable bombs. Your iPhone has a bomb that you keep in your pocket and next to your head.

The demand for high drain devices, like smart phones, laptops, and electric cars fueled the need for lithium batteries, but they are hardly revolutionary and they have not been getting smaller. They’ve just been getting more creative with the form factor.

 

That is not true, not at all. The storage capacity of lithium has been increasing since it was first invented.
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1234-april-18-2022-volumetric-energy-density-lithium-ion-batteries

The energy density is increasing regularly while pricing is falling dramatically. We are seeing near exponential growth in Li-Ion batteries right now.
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...no-batteries-are-improving-under-your-nose/3/

We are now seeing changes in chemistry designed to address other issues, namely materials and lifespan, but they are also still working towards capacity.

There is also no reason to expect that "lithium" batteries are the only solution. The new sodium batteries seem to be moving along. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised to hear in a year or two of a graphene "capacitor" that is just a holding grid for electrons.

 

And Lithium/Cobalt/Nickle recycling is increasing. So reuse will be the norm.

https://www.dw.com/en/a-second-life-for-e-car-batteries/video-64953789

 

Some say even better than new!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...n-batteries-can-perform-better-than-new-ones/

 

You might want to go research some facts before posting.

 

I drop in here every now and then to see what the new discussion is.

Every time it shocks me (I don't actually know why) that so many people think the tech that exists now is the same tech that will be around decades from now. Do people actually think Teslas and Rivians are the pinnacle of EV? Rhetorical question of course.

We are how far into ICE engines? They are still getting more efficient. All that and a gas tank has always, and will always have, the same amount of energy stored in it. Energy storage isn't just an EV issue. Neither is efficiency.