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A Look at the Rivian R1T and R1S "Skateboard" Chassis

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Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe spoke to GLT after stepping off stage at the Designing the Future Summit in Michigan. He spoke to the lean product and process development conference about Rivian’s role in the future of mobility. For show-and-tell, Scaringe revealed the chassis on which Rivian’s vehicles will sit—nicknamed the skateboard. The thin base includes the braking, suspension, and cooling systems, with the battery in the middle.

“When there’s no body on the vehicle, it looks a lot like a skateboard,” Scaringe said.

Rivian R1T R1S A Look at the Rivian R1T and R1S "Skateboard" Chassis Rivian_skateboard_platform


Rivian R1T R1S A Look at the Rivian R1T and R1S "Skateboard" Chassis rivian-skateboard-chassis-2
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ElectricTrucking

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My main interest is in the R1T but the R1S is 17 inches shorter and appears to have more volume in storage space especially with folding down the back seats and not having the third row.
 

ElectricTrucking

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Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe spoke to GLT after stepping off stage at the Designing the Future Summit in Michigan. He spoke to the lean product and process development conference about Rivian’s role in the future of mobility. For show-and-tell, Scaringe revealed the chassis on which Rivian’s vehicles will sit—nicknamed the skateboard. The thin base includes the braking, suspension, and cooling systems, with the battery in the middle.

“When there’s no body on the vehicle, it looks a lot like a skateboard,” Scaringe said.

Rivian_skateboard_platform.jpg


rivian-skateboard-chassis-2.png
The more I look at the chassis the more I see the simplicity of maintaining such a fabulous design.
 

Mr_funnypuns

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The more I look at the chassis the more I see the simplicity of maintaining such a fabulous design.
I think that the modular design of the car has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of maintenance. It appears to me that the “skateboard” is designed for manufacturability, and designed to be produced reliably in high volume. If the quality control follows good practices, it should be possible to produce a vehicle with a highly reliable power train that lasts for 500k+ miles.

I’d like to see more technical details on the design of that frame. But, they are holding that data closely... I suspect I wont see that until much closer to launch... if not afterwards.
 

Hmp10

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It's interesting that the front discs and calipers are so much larger than the rear on this chassis, according to the pictures. That is typical of ICE vehicles with their higher centers of gravity and more pronounced forward weight shift during braking. Tesla uses rear brakes much closer to the fronts in size, claiming that their vehicles have such low centers of gravity that more braking load stays on the rear.

While the center of gravity of the Rivians will certainly be lower than ICE equivalents, I wonder what it will actually be. The center of gravity of the Model S sedan is 14" above the ground. Rivian has said only that the all the weight of the chassis is below the wheel height. I wonder where the center of gravity will lie once the bodies are on the chassis.
 

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skyote

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A lot of the center of gravity will depend on payload inside the cabin w/ potential for 7 passengers in the R1S and/or the bed of the R1T.

Regardless, bigger brakes are never a bad thing. I would also think there should be less weight transfer to the front with the adaptive hydraulic suspension, but it could still easily warrant the larger front brakes.
 

Hmp10

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I was thinking not that the front brakes seemed too large but that the rear discs and calipers seemed small for a vehicle that weighs almost three tons without passengers. Maybe Rivian is relying on regenerative braking to take some of the load, but so does Tesla, which still uses large discs and rotors for a sedan.
 

Estolworthy

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I just saw the red brake calipers. I really hope those are an option.
 

skyote

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I just saw the red brake calipers. I really hope those are an option.
Brake caliper colors are supposedly tied to different trim packages. Prototype vehicles have all been yellow & that will apparently be for the offroad package.
 

godfodder0901

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Brake caliper colors are supposedly tied to different trim packages. Prototype vehicles have all been yellow & that will apparently be for the offroad package.
I asked about this specifically in Seattle and was told that the current vehicles have yellow because "that's what the supplier sent us"... However, I was told that they are strongly considering this.
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