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#News(Startup) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]
After rumors earlier this week that GM and Amazon were interested in Rivian, an electric pickup and SUV maker, the company has now confirmed that they are closing a $700 million round of funding led by Amazon.
Amazon is leading the round and Rivian confirms that it includes “participation from existing shareholders”, but there’s no mention of any involvement by GM as previously rumored.
We reported last week that Amazon invested in self-driving startup Aurora.
Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer, commented on the new investment in Rivian:
“We’re inspired by Rivian’s vision for the future of electric transportation. RJ has built an impressive organization, with a product portfolio and technology to match. We’re thrilled to invest in such an innovative company.”
Last year, Rivian unveiled its first two electric vehicles, a pickup truck and an SUV built on the same platform.
Rivian’s trucks are expected to be pricy: the startup is taking pre-orders, and it said in November that, when the R1T and R1S go on sale in late 2020, they’ll start at $61,500, and $65,000 after the $7,500 IRS tax credit. (Rivian has sold no trucks to date, so vehicles from that company would still be eligible for the full electric vehicle tax credit. The full tax credit begins to phase out after a company has sold more than 200,000 electric vehicles.)
We took a closer look at Rivian’s R1T all-electric pickup truck, which is equipped with 4 electric motors, each a 147 kW power capacity at the wheel, while the total power output can be configured to different levels from 300 kW to 562 kW (input to gearbox).
The different power levels match different choices of battery packs, which are another impressive feature since they have the highest capacity of any other passenger electric vehicle out there: 105 kWh, 135 kWh, and 180 kWh.
Rivian says that it will translate to “230+ miles, 300+ miles, and 400+ miles” of range on a full charge.
They’re talking about a charge rate of up to 160 kW at fast-charging stations and an 11-kW onboard charger for level 2 charging.
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