Automotive Engineering - January 2019 - 2

EDITORIAL

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Bill Visnic
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EDITORIAL

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Ryan Gehm
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Rivian out-innovates the Detroit 3
The plugged-in vehicle that graces this
month's cover answers the ongoing
question: Who will be first to produce a
battery-electric fullsize pickup truck?
Because unless one of the pickup incumbents springs their own BEV surprise before 2020, that answer is most
likely Rivian.
Skeptics snort that Rivian is yet another upstart OEM with outsized ambition. Read my colleague Bill Visnic's
insightful reporting on p. 18 and judge
the truck and its technologies for yourself. Regardless of whether the naysayers are right or not,
Rivian's R1T electric pickup is a milestone. I'm betting that five years from
now, other OEMs will have
followed suit.
Of course, automotive
history is littered with
milestones that failed in
the marketplace. Is the R1T
more akin to the 1934
Chrysler Airflow, itself a
commercial flop despite
pioneering a unibody
structure and forwardlooking aerodynamics? Or
is it the pickup analog of
the Tesla Model S-a disruptor whose success
spurred an entire industry
toward BEVs?
My first chance to inspect the R1T
was at its official L.A. show debut. The
truck and its development team, led by
ex-McLaren program director Mark
Vinnels, were mobbed all day-but no
more so than the Jeep Gladiator, which
serves as the R1T's counterpoint. While
on the Rivian show stand, I ran into operatives I know from the Detroit 3. They
were examining the new entry with
their competitor's steely eye-and a few
measuring devices.
"Did you notice that the electric bed
cover is production-ready?" asked one.

"What do you think of the cab's integral
cargo tunnel?" another queried.
I noted that these features-along
with the R1T's "skateboard" chassis/
battery pack, unit-construction traction modules and robust suspension
system-appear to be impressively
engineered. The bed cover and unique
cargo tunnel have immediate showroom appeal.
Thus, my response to my OEM
friends: Rivian beat you!
Why haven't your companies, I
asked, bothered to show an electricpickup feasibility exercise-at least to inform
the public that you're on
the case? Why not Ford,
which built electric
Rangers back in the
1990s for ZEV compliance. Why not GM, the
skateboard pioneer
whose EV engineering
"bench" is among the
industry's deepest. Why
not FCA, now breaking
ground with 48-volt hybrid trucks and Jeeps?
Shaking his head, one
replied: "Many of us internally are asking the same
question."
As happened with the
Model S, the OEM pickup kings allowed
themselves to be out-innovated by a
scrappy start-up. Its engineering chief
hails from a British supercar boutique.
Much of its design talent was recruited
from the kings' own studios.
Rivian still needs to prove basic pickup durability-how waterproof is the
battery pack? How does payload and
trailer towing affect battery range? But
its real challenge is bringing the R1T and
its SUV spinoff to sustained volume production, with high quality. They have
much to prove before 2020. But Rivian's
historical milestone is established.

Why haven't
the Detroit
3 bothered
to show an
e-pickup-
at least to
inform the
public that
they're on
the case?

2 January 2019

Jennifer Shuttleworth
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AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
Automotive Engineering - January 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - January 2019
