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Rivian starts production on cheaper dual-motor R1T, deliveries in June

The first customer dual-motor R1T, with Rivian’s in-house designed Enduro drive unit, rolled off the production line at the company’s factory in Normal, IL, today.

Rivian has been working on its new “Enduro” drive unit for some time now. Currently, Rivian buys motors for its quad-motor powertrains from an external supplier, but the in-house designed Enduro drivetrains should help the company significantly reduce costs.

The drive units started production in February, but most have made their way into Rivian’s EDVs, the electric delivery vans that the company currently makes for Amazon.

Now, the first R1T truck with Enduro drive units destined for customer delivery rolled off the line today.

Rivian shared the news on its Rivian Stories page and posted some photos and videos on Twitter:

Tim Fallon, Rivian’s VP of manufacturing, said of the news:

“I’m unbelievably proud of what all our teams have accomplished. Introducing our Dual-Motor variants is a major milestone in ramping our facility to its full capacity, and they have done a great job working across so many functions to make this happen.”

Top comment by Gene

Liked by 33 people

I changed my Quad motor R1T reservation to the dual motor version just a few weeks ago. The electric consumption of the quad motor version is off the charts, even empty! So, I am hoping for greater efficiency. It makes a big difference as far as charging time on road trips.

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Now that the first customer-destined R1T has rolled off the line, we can expect deliveries to customers to begin imminently. Rivian says deliveries of dual-motor vehicles will start next month in June, starting with both R1T and R1S dual motor large pack configurations, while base model standard pack vehicles won’t start delivery until 2024.

The reduced costs of the Enduro drivetrain are reflected in the price of Rivian’s vehicles. The new dual-motor variant costs $8,000 less than the current quad-motor powertrain, bringing the base price of an R1T down to $73k with the “standard” battery pack. Importantly, this puts the base model of the dual-motor R1T under the $80k MSRP cap for the US EV tax credit, which means qualifying vehicles/buyers can get an additional $3,750 back from the government.

So Rivians are still pricey, but the dual-motor variant is significantly more affordable.

This is important because Rivian’s main challenge at the moment is bringing volumes up and costs down. Being able to build its own motors and using fewer of them per vehicle will help simplify supply chains and boost output. And, of course, a cheaper vehicle means access to more customers who can more easily justify the lower price in their budgets.

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Avatar for Jameson Dow Jameson Dow

Jameson has been driving electric vehicles since 2009, and has been writing about them and about clean energy for electrek.co since 2016.

You can contact him at jamie@electrek.co