Spotted R1S Charging in Fairbanks AK!

[mattgray600]

Too funny. Yesterday I was at the Rivian Service Center in Denver. Got back home to Fairbanks, AK, and look what is charging at one of the Fast chargers!

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[svet-am]

That's awesome! Perhaps AK is like us here in CO - favoring SUVs over pickups?

 

[Redline]

That's awesome!

Nothing against the R1T guys, but the R1S proportions are just perfect.

 

[lmr]

Too funny. Yesterday I was at the Rivian Service Center in Denver. Got back home to Fairbanks, AK, and look what is charging at one of the Fast chargers!

Fairbanks! My hometown... nice to see Rivian is testing up in Alaska!

 

[Guy]

Great find but cold weather testing would have been done on the R1T and that conveys over to the S since it is the same batteries, electronics etc. the differences are relatively minor with a third row and a larger tailgate.

 

[Mister Person]

Even the Rivian team removes the 21” aero covers.

 

[lmr]

Great find but cold weather testing would have been done on the R1T and that conveys over to the S since it is the same batteries, electronics etc. the differences are relatively minor with a third row and a larger tailgate.

Manufacturers don't just do cold weather testing once and call it done, they do it every year. I worked for a vehicle testing firm from 2002 -2009, we tested in Fairbanks, AK (Maricopa, AZ in the summers for warm weather testing) every year from October thru March for several vehicle manufactures, many times testing the same vehicles as years previous with little to no major changes. Some vehicles are whole car tests, others are just chassis tests, others are drivetrain tests where the manufacturer wants the vehicle driven to 100K or 200K miles and returned to be taken apart to see what the wear and tear was over that time.

 

[9527]

I wonder why it’s still wearing camouflage. Could they be testing a dual motor variant?

 

[paariv]

I wonder why it’s still wearing camouflage. Could they be testing a dual motor variant?

Probably just never took off the wrap. Would be odd to require a wrap for a dual-motor vehicle that is identical on the outside. And I imagine testing is still limited to launch configurations given how early in the process we are, especially for the R1S.

 

[crashmtb]

I wonder why it’s still wearing camouflage. Could they be testing a dual motor variant?

The r1T they use for LiDAR mapping is still wrapped.

the wraps used for camo tend to be stickier stuff than what’s used for graphics, and can be on for a couple of years can take pain with it on removal ?

 

[crashmtb]

Manufacturers don't just do cold weather testing once and call it done, they do it every year. I worked for a vehicle testing firm from 2002 -2009, we tested in Fairbanks, AK (Maricopa, AZ in the summers for warm weather testing) every year from October thru March for several vehicle manufactures, many times testing the same vehicles as years previous with little to no major changes. Some vehicles are whole car tests, others are just chassis tests, others are drivetrain tests where the manufacturer wants the vehicle driven to 100K or 200K miles and returned to be taken apart to see what the wear and tear was over that time.

Always fun seeing camo’d prototypes on the road to tortilla flat ?

 

[mattgray600]

I wonder why it’s still wearing camouflage. Could they be testing a dual motor variant?

That is what I was wondering too! It was locked with no-one around it. I regrettably did not peek underneath to see if there was a difference!

 

[COdogman]

There might be multiple R1Ss with that wrap on, but there are photos of the exact same wrapped R1S in Denver about 2 months ago.

 

[paariv]

There are two wrapped like this in Palo Alto today, per reddit.

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