Hi Allegedly,

I've seen a few of the Rivian trucks around Southwest FL last few months, I haven't seen the SUV yet. Where can you go see them? I'll be Defenderless this afternoon, dropping my 90 off at the dealership. Really bummed out actually, the Defender has been simply wonderful, sans the gas mileage and premium fuel.

 

Whether anyone here is a fan or not, EV’s are here, more are coming. And I hear similar statements, “EV’s are coal powered”. So is nearly everything we eat, sit on, drive in, sleep in, wear on our bodies, etc, because this country is behind many other countries in breaking away from carbon producing energies. You know, politicians and lobbyists have to eat VERY well, and live VERY well, in multiple homes. Once we have renewable energy, EV’s will not be coal powered. You know, good old, beautiful clean coal, as someone once claimed, as he claimed he would be opening new coal mines. Well, it sounded good to those people in West Virginia who voted for him. But then there is reality, unfortunately for some. I’ll put my faith in technology, it always prevails in the long term. Smart, educated people, working on a solution, will bring us out of the dark ages. Remember, we stopped using whale oil lamps a long time ago, and you no longer need to hand crank your car to start it.

 

I don't know if any place to see one. The R1T has launched and they've delivered a couple thousand. The only person I've ever heard say they saw one in person is @NoGaBiker. Believe he said there's one in his neighborhood in ATL.

My preorder is somewhere around #18000. They tell me to expect it next year and it's fully refundable if I decide to walk away. I'm locked into their original pricing so, worst case, I flip it.

 

Great heads up, @_Allegedly . We all have our toys and we all play with them in different ways. I've said it before, I love the variety of ways folks use Defenders, even if it's not something I would ever touch. In my case, I LOVE to go camping and consider myself more of an Overlander than a Rock Crawler. I rarely take day trips when I vacation, I prefer multi day outings that are off-grid. I haven't found the charger yet that will allow me to do my "hobby" use!<g> Once they have solar charging or swappable batteries, maybe I'll be in for an EV SUV/Truck. Right now, my dream EV would be used solely for commuting. My M.O. is to get a comfortable, beater that I don't mind laying miles into. I am sure I will soon be a customer or candidate.

 

This is basically my issue with all-electric right now - I like to do longer trips and I want to get off-grid where the range would be severely limiting. I'm also not OK with the current charge times. While "fast", I can gas up, hit the restroom, grab food, and get back on the road so much faster, and that's assuming it's not a time of year (holiday) where EV chargers have lines.

I'm sort of envious of our European counterparts with the Defender plug-in hybrid. I think that's the best way to go in the near-term until the tech improves more.

 

Makes complete sense and you know, it's funny you mention range as Merc casually drops this today.

https://www.autonews.com/automakers-...ch-boost-range

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I saw a Rivian in person a couple weeks ago - it caught me by surprise as I was walking my dogs at the local fields and it was parked in the grass at a local baseball game. I actually did not like it as much in person, it's not bad at all but the novelty of the front end has already worn off on me. The hype has been around so long that it feels like its ready for a refresh already...

I'm not ready for EV anyway, I still can't get past the fact that the range of an EV is going to steadily decrease and after 7-10 years the batteries will need replaced at some crazy cost where with a traditional engine I would go just as far on a tank of gas then as I would today. I guess I'm not the early adopter type, I would never have paid $1000 for a VHS recorder or a CD/DVD player when those technologies were brand new. I'm still fine with my 720p plasma tv's too, I must be getting old.