Frame Comparison : Rivian R1T vs. Ford F150 Lightning -- Munro Teardown YT

[wizard467]

^ thank you @KiloV, my thoughts exactly.

While the Rivian frame will do, there's tons of room for build improvement and cost savings due to saved labor time.

I did the factory tour and was able to watch them building the long side panels which is built up by welding small pieces together. The long side panels are built by machines, there is no person labor time involved. For the side panels there are two lines, left and right. Each starts with the pieces and progressively grows the side of the R1T/S. Once the two sides are complete they are merged together with robots lifting the full panels into position where another set of welding machines move in to join the pieces into the full frame (i.e. it now looks like a truck/suv). Changing to stamping the sides would not reduce labor time because the number of people was already 0.

I didn't see the specifics of the frame welding section of the plant, but I assume it is similar.

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[SASSquatch]

The best judge of Rivian in my view is not to compare to an auto manufacturer who has been in the game for 100 years, but rather ton a new OEM that also was starting from scratch and there is only one of those that has come along before Rivian - Tesla.

Last I checked, Sandy wasn't saying Rivian's first production vehicle had the panel gaps of a Kia in the 90's.

I think, to everyone's point, Rivian clearly has room for improvement - lots of improvement. But in terms of their first production vehicle, I think they are still light years ahead of any other new OEMS.