Rivians spotted in Auckland, NZ

[SoCal Rob]

There are probably other tests they want to run in winter conditions anyway.

That could be.

I may be reading too much into the fact that the R1T isn’t wrapped. I got my morning workout by jumping to the conclusion that they want it to be seen, unlike the ones running around for testing in the US.

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[Dark-Fx]

It's obvious to me why they are there. They need to test tank turn in the other direction for people that live below the equator.

 

[ATL_Canes]

It's really not worth speculating here. This is normal and does not in any way suggest that there was a problem with anything. Many, many cars are sent there, including the Tesla Model 3.

https://electrek.co/2017/06/26/tesla-model-3-spotted-outside-us/

For full comparison: That Model 3 was seen in Auckland at the end of June 2017. Production Model 3s started rolling off of the assembly line on July 7, 2017, and the official launch event and first delivery (30 cars) was July 28.

This article is an amazing pull - wish I could give bonus reaction score for this. ha!

 

[Theeman]

No wrap could also mean they are filming the units in action.

 

[DuckTruck]

That could be.

I may be reading too much into the fact that the R1T isn’t wrapped. I got my morning workout by jumping to the conclusion that they want it to be seen, unlike the ones running around for testing in the US.

Rob,

I agree with you. Part of my response in the other thread, Real Rivian Photos & Videos, included this thought: "While they could have performed such testing on a dyno, going to New Zealand may have allowed them two very important advantages: 1. Real-world, production-vehicle numbers that should easily be replicated by owners, and, 2. A foothold into the psyche of the Kiwis, and others down under. I have to believe that if a company gets a foothold in New Zealand, they're on the radar of everyone in Australia, as well. This is a photo-op to have these vehicles seen on their soil ahead of any other EV Pickup/SUV/Ficto-truck from other manufacturers. That should get some major buzz going."

While it cost the company a bit to ship the three vehicles to New Zealand for testing, the visibility and the photo ops will be priceless.

 

[Sdvictor]

Good comparison. We love our speculation around here mainly because there is nothing else to go by

I think many of us can agree that this delay induced panic in the forum is madness. Irritating that they delayed it? Yes. Life impacting? no. Still amusing to see.

That said, when I saw these pictures, all I could think about is visiting NZ again soon.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Rob,

I agree with you. Part of my response in the other thread, Real Rivian Photos & Videos, included this thought: "While they could have performed such testing on a dyno, going to New Zealand may have allowed them two very important advantages: 1. Real-world, production-vehicle numbers that should easily be replicated by owners, and, 2. A foothold into the psyche of the Kiwis, and others down under. I have to believe that if a company gets a foothold in New Zealand, they're on the radar of everyone in Australia, as well. This is a photo-op to have these vehicles seen on their soil ahead of any other EV Pickup/SUV/Ficto-truck from other manufacturers. That should get some major buzz going."

While it cost the company a bit to ship the three vehicles to New Zealand for testing, the visibility and the photo ops will be priceless.

Duck-

Sorry for duplicating your concept but with far less detail. I didn’t do a good job of following what was said in each of the parallel threads about the New Zealand pics. I completely agree with your other post, obviously. Thank you for wording that so well and for generally maintaining a sense of humor!

-Rob

 

[Kialoa]

@Kialoa there's some discussion on this over in the Real Photos thread too, starting here:

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/real-rivian-photos-videos.885/post-39534

Thank you - did not see this - but some great comments there…?

 

[DuckTruck]

Duck-

Sorry for duplicating your concept but with far less detail. I didn’t do a good job of following what was said in each of the parallel threads about the New Zealand pics. I completely agree with your other post, obviously. Thank you for wording that so well and for generally maintaining a sense of humor!

-Rob

Rob,

No need to say you're sorry. Great job of being more to the point! Friends tell me I'd be very wealthy if I had patented the run-on sentence. Clearly, I've mastered the ability of cramming 3 minutes of info into 20 minutes of material.

I'll stop now. We'll, for now, anyway.... ?

 

[Smithery]

No wrap could also mean they are filming the units in action.

Had this same thought.
If they're preparing media for the trucks to show how all around great they are it would make sense to show them running through deserts, forests, rocky offroads, freeways, **and snowing mountains**.

And you can't film all of those at home right now.

 

[0=====0]

I assumed it would be less expensive and lower profile to do this testing in a climate controlled dynamometer facility here in the US.

maybe this assumption is wrong?
What would it take to build such an climate controlled lab? Note that entire chamber has to be below certain threshold. How much would it cost for Rivian to build such a chamber and only use it twice a year?

from my experience with FCC certification for electronics, labs that provide isolation chambers for testing charge by the hour and it’s not cheap!

seems like Tesla and maybe other automakers have been there before!


let’s wait and see how the vehicles are rolled out! Not much long now!

 

[SoCal Rob]

maybe this assumption is wrong?
What would it take to build such an climate controlled lab? Note that entire chamber has to be below certain threshold. How much would it cost for Rivian to build such a chamber and only use it twice a year?

from my experience with FCC certification for electronics, labs that provide isolation chambers for testing charge by the hour and it’s not cheap!

seems like Tesla and maybe other automakers have been there before!


let’s wait and see how the vehicles are rolled out! Not much long now!

Maybe my assumption is wrong. I think it was established in another post on the forum that the testing is done on dynamometers rather than in variable on-road conditions. Before posting my message, I had searched for climate controlled dynamometer and wasn’t surprised to see a number of companies have such facilities for hire here in the US.

I suppose we could ask one of the companies which already have these in operation what it takes to build them. It never occurred to me that a manufacturer as small as Rivian would invest in building a facility when they could rent one.

 

[Pherdnut]

So they sent one to the other side of the planet before they sent one to Chicago now.

 

[jjwolf120]

So they sent one to the other side of the planet before they sent one to Chicago now.

They also sent two to Patagonia, no big deal.

 

[kanundrum]

As well as South Korea! Wonder if its the same vehicles just transported to NZ.

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