'Internal rumors' from my mobile service tech (800V, LFP, new quad motor variant & more!)

[Runamok]

Rivian Brown. In reference to your pants at 2.6s.

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[DuoRivians]

Rivian Brown. In reference to your pants at 2.6s.

2.4 haha

 

[jebinc]

I had a mobile service appointment today and got to chatting up the tech. He shared some interesting items, that he called ‘internal rumors’ that I figured this community would be interested in hearing,

I’ll state the obvious: this should all be taken with a large grain of salt, but I’ll let you decide how much stock to put in it.

Internal rumor 1: the upcoming battery pack changes will include an upgrade to 800V architecture

Internal rumor 2: the battery pack changes may introduce LFP cells BEYOND being used for the standard pack. I.e. the large pack might also get LFP.

Internal rumor 3: a new quad motor variant will be introduced with the Enduro motors (which will all knew/expected) AND they’re targeting a 0-60 of 2.4 seconds.

I find some of these a bit surprising. So surprising, I can’t help feel that he may have been pulling my leg. But he genuinely seemed to be conveying the internal rumors. ?‍

I’ll leave it to all of you to decide what to take away from all this.

Time will tell…

 

[zefram47]

I was originally a Quad+Max holdout and settled for a Quad+Large when we were told a year ago we couldn't have Quad+Max. If we really do see an 800V Quad+Max (where Max is significantly greater than 135 kWh, not just 14 kWh more) with a heat pump, I would probably upgrade. A selectable mechanical connection between left/right motors for off-road would be nice too. I told the wife this when I switched to Quad+Large. There was always room inside the frame for at least two more modules without losing any storage or cabin space. The original modules were 15 kWh, yielding 135 kWh with 9 modules. The current Max pack appears to be 16.5 kWh per module, so 11x 16.5 kWh would be 181.5 kWh...or what was originally claimed where it would've used 12x 15 kWh modules before. With the weight savings that are claimed to come from this refresh, maybe they could justify the extra two modules again. That would likely give over 400 miles with 20s AT tires and probably 450 miles with 21s.

That said, I likely wouldn't upgrade until Rivian starts integrating the NACS port at this point. I'd also heavily weigh how much they would wind up decontenting (thanks Sandy) the truck vs what I currently have by then.

 

[Singletracker]

2.4 seconds! You have to be kidding. Jeez, my R1T QM is already stupid fast. Can’t imagine why anybody would really need more power. Talk about tire wear, OMG. Seems I saw somewhere that Rivian decided against a 1000hp version for safety reasons - like, it would literally do wheelies. Maybe I dreamed that.

 

[NineElectrics]

As does heat pump,

Well LFP is in the Polestar and over the years they have optimized it with Preconditioning and just overall management.

I would love a heat pump.

The Polestar 2 isn’t LFP. Are we talking about a different Polestar?

 

[Twitter Fingers]

2.4 seconds! You have to be kidding. Jeez, my R1T QM is already stupid fast. Can’t imagine why anybody would really need more power. Talk about tire wear, OMG. Seems I saw somewhere that Rivian decided against a 1000hp version for safety reasons - like, it would literally do wheelies. Maybe I dreamed that.

I believe the story was that they were working on figuring out how to stop it from doing wheelies, not that they were scrapping the ultra high performance trim.

 

[emoore]

I’m skeptical that LFP is going to make for a better product, especially in cold weather. Possibly a cheaper and less supply bottlenecked product. I’m hoping it’s some next gen magic, but I don’t think Rivian is going to get access to the magic before a bigger manufacturer will.

LFP batteries aren’t magic. Just cheaper, less degradation and can be charged to 100%. But lower energy density. I think the Tesla model 3 a Y standard range uses them.

 

[Singletracker]

I believe the story was that they were working on figuring out how to stop it from doing wheelies, not that they were scrapping the ultra high performance trim.

Then, I didn’t dream it - whew. STOP it from doing wheelies. Give me a break. What’s next? I’m with SDH, can we just get the darn manual tonneau cover. Once Rivian has perfected that deployment, then they can move on to wheelie management.

 

[Dark-Fx]

That is interesting. I had not seen that one before. Hard to know if this was incorporated into the new system or not…

One of the early engineering videos has a blurred out whiteboard that appeared to have information about how they are accomplishing pack switching on it. They pulled the video and re-uploaded it with the only change being that section even further blurred out. I didn't think to transcribe what I saw but I do remember thinking it was weird that was still pretty visible.

 

[R1TS]

Yea, that's gonna be a no from me, bud.

 

[PBRAZ]

1000hp is a toggle switch and maybe a few tweaks structurally. 1200hp will require some significant engineering changes to make sure a whole lot of sh*t doesn't break when you punch it.

 

[lefkonj]

I would be shocked this is all happening so quickly but it isn't surprising. 800v is a big deal especially when it comes to charging speeds. The battery changes will reduce cost and potentially increase range and the motor thing is obvious.

I could see myself trading my 23-R1S for a 26 version if all of this happens.

 

[COdogman]

One of the early engineering videos has a blurred out whiteboard that appeared to have information about how they are accomplishing pack switching on it. They pulled the video and re-uploaded it with the only change being that section even further blurred out. I didn't think to transcribe what I saw but I do remember thinking it was weird that was still pretty visible.

Is there any other manufacturer doing anything like that at this point? I’m not educated on battery technology as many of you are, but that seems like something new.

I just want to know if I should start preparing my “marvel of engineering” material for when it gets released

 

[supernu8]

I'm worried they'll price the new quad as high as the CyberBeast, which would be out of my desired price range. But, then I wouldn't have to worry about deciding between the Quad and Dual. :-/

Its already priced in the high end of the market they are targeting, I think the new quad will just take over where the old quad left off. Most of these improvements will reduce the material cost to make each vehicle, especially removal of the Bosch supplied motors.
It's a slap in the face to say we just made significant advances to reduce manufacturing cost so now we are going to charge you more.

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