Alex on Autos' Follow-Up After Selling His R1T

[zefram47]

Honest review of the highs and lows, including clearly identifying Rivian’s number one fatal flaw: The vampire power drain. (Refer to his earlier videos, it’s really bad)

Wasting power like that is against both the outdoors adventure theme and the carbon reduction theme which is driving the whole EV transition. It’s impractical when parked at a trail head or airport for a week or two. Not to mention the cost of wasted energy.

As he mentions, it will never be fixable because of the big processor architecture, a product of the software culture hubris driving design rather rather than a systems engineering approach. This problem also spills over into features like gear guard, something that consumes huge amounts of energy to do little more than a couple of GoPro cameras that can record hours of video using only tiny batteries.

I really want to like the R1, and there is a lot to like. But I cannot get past this intractable energy waste issue, so I’m probably going to walk as well.

I'm also in the camp that feels like the vampire draw is excessive. All the legacy manufacturers have no issue with this in their EVs. Telsa and Rivian just seem to think they know better on architecting their systems...so far, they're wrong.

It's worth a mention that Alex lives off-grid, so it's an even bigger issue for him if the truck is just sitting there sucking down electrons while doing nothing.

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[goldburger]

I wouldn't spend that much money on any car/truck either, not that I couldn't but IMO it's too much on a depreciating asset....

are you not buying a rivian?

 

[dleewla]

If you live off grid, why in the hell would you buy or own an electric car?

I love how he talks about his employees and his company buying a car, yada yada yada... Looks like the guy made 15 to 20 grand reselling it. Even considering the outrageous insurance and interest he had to pay.

I'm sorry folks, if you need to finance this truck, maybe it's not for you. You might be stretching a little bit.

If your choice is your wife using her hair dryer in the morning because you are living off grid or keeping a trickle charge on a great car, looks like you need the hair dryer.

Clickbait garbage. Go hang out with the dinosaurs.

calm down bro

 

[popoga]

It does seem irresponsible to own a bunch of EVs when you're 1. cash constrained and 2. off grid with limited access to electrons. And 3, I guess, looking to do a lot of towing.

Just not a good fit for this guy's lifestyle. Now, my mall crawling lifestyle on the other hand? Match made in heaven.

 

[lucent]

I personally don't think the vampire drain is the fatal flaw, at least not for me. the suspension related knocking, the unbalanced tire feel that causes excess vibrations to enter the cabin, the shaking steering wheel and pulling to the right all combine to ruin the EV driving experience for me.

My trucks does lose like 3% per day which is high, but i do plug it in every night other than when I wanted to test it.

My teslas were only slightly better, still losing 2% or so per night. I have had the opportunity to own or drive for several days other EVs from traditional automakers and they practically lose nothing.

I've really started to like so much about the truck including how it looks on the inside and out but man Rivian has some hard work to do to get it to drive the way EVs (and all other cars) are supposed to drive.

Losing 3% on a 135kWh battery is not comparable to losing 2% on a 75kWh battery. If you're comparing the two it would be like the Rivian losing 6% vs the Tesla's 2%.

 

[ads75]

It does seem irresponsible to own a bunch of EVs when you're 1. cash constrained and 2. off grid with limited access to electrons. And 3, I guess, looking to do a lot of towing.

Just not a good fit for this guy's lifestyle. Now, my mall crawling lifestyle on the other hand? Match made in heaven.

The guy made a business decision. Making money on selling the Rivian and probably the Lightning. He has a YouTube channel where he reviews cars and trucks. He made videos and generated content about the vehicles, and gets paid for it. He only planned on keeping one when he got them, and was upfront about it when he made his first videos about them. I guess we have different ideas about what it means to be irresponsible.

 

[Longreach]

I'm sorry folks, if you need to finance this truck, maybe it's not for you. You might be stretching a little bit.

Ahhh… The arrogance of wealth.

 

[Biturbowned]

Ahhh… The arrogance of wealth.

Got to love it

 

[Longreach]

If you live off grid, why in the hell would you buy or own an electric car?

What a ridiculous statement. There are plenty of people living off grid who have electric cars and charge them with off grid energy systems.

The point being made is the wasteful vampire drain of the Rivian, which makes it an unnecessary energy burden for anyone, whether on or off grid.

Rivian, in its current from, is not a good choice for energy efficiency or the environment.

 

[Scoiatael]

According to the charge point app, my truck loses 1 to 1.5kw a day when not in use. Was around 2 to 3 when I first got the truck in June. Not great, but not terrible at this point either.

 

[popoga]

The guy made a business decision. Making money on selling the Rivian and probably the Lightning. He has a YouTube channel where he reviews cars and trucks. He made videos and generated content about the vehicles, and gets paid for it. He only planned on keeping one when he got them, and was upfront about it when he made his first videos about them. I guess we have different ideas about what it means to be irresponsible.

You're totally ignoring the part about how EV trucks don't suit his use case at all, or his living arrangements, and he already owned vehicles that did everything just fine for him. And I know he came out on top here from a business perspective, but my response was mostly to his framing of the costs.

 

[ads75]

You're totally ignoring the part about how EV trucks don't suit his use case at all, or his living arrangements, and he already owned vehicles that did everything just fine for him. And I know he came out on top here from a business perspective, but my response was mostly to his framing of the costs.

You are completely ignoring the fact he is an auto reviewer on YouTube, and makes a living off of it (or at least a side business of it). He went and bought two of the more popular Evs available, made videos for them, for content for his channels. When he bought them both, it sounded like he would keep one and sell the other, and he knew the market for both of them. In his earlier videos about the vehicles, he doesn't hide the fact that he took loans out for them, and would be keeping one or both temporarily to do comparison videos, for his channel. He lays out why he is selling. He owns his own business, and I have no idea what current market conditions are doing for that business. And don't act like he's the first person to replace vehicles that already do everything just fine for him. Everyone replaces vehicles that work just fine.

 

[popoga]

You are completely ignoring the fact he is an auto reviewer on YouTube, and makes a living off of it (or at least a side business of it). He went and bought two of the more popular Evs available, made videos for them, for content for his channels. When he bought them both, it sounded like he would keep one and sell the other, and he knew the market for both of them. In his earlier videos about the vehicles, he doesn't hide the fact that he took loans out for them, and would be keeping one or both temporarily to do comparison videos, for his channel. He lays out why he is selling. He owns his own business, and I have no idea what current market conditions are doing for that business. And don't act like he's the first person to replace vehicles that already do everything just fine for him. Everyone replaces vehicles that work just fine.

Not trying to further antagonize here, but the argument in the video, at least as he lays it out, also ignores those points. So I didn't address them. Feel free to bring any other info you have about the guy to the table as I don't know him from Adam.

I didn't mean to strike that nerve in saying it was irresponsible, so apologies if I've offended you.

 

[ironpig]

I have zero interest in any of these YouTubers making money off clickbait videos. Who cares why this guy buys or sells a car? I'm generally baffled when people allow themselves to be "influenced" by these people.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Ahhh… The arrogance of wealth.

It's not arrogance, it's sound advice. The Rivian is unnecessary for anyone. You can't say that you couldn't get another truck that would work for almost anyone MUCH cheaper. I think that puts one into a luxury category. Personally I don't think it's necessarily bad to finance a toy, but it is a stupid idea to put yourself in a bad spot for an item that you don't need. I think that's all this guy was trying to say, if you can't afford a car and you know you can't afford it maybe it's not a good idea to buy it.

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