Build quality

[Mattis]

I’m new to the forum, so excuse me if this has allready been discussed !

I guess it will take a while before we europeans get to see Rivian in «real-life». To those of you who have seen the car; what is your first impressions regarding interior build quality? Hard plastics or more of the premium feel ?

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[jfrench]

I suspect no one on the forum will be able to answer your question. Those of us who have been in the presence of the trucks have been roped off from touching anything, let alone sitting in the cab to get a feel for quality. Further, as these show vehicles are early prototypes, they aren't exactly built the way the models coming off the production line will be. I asked a Rivian employee to shut one of the doors firmly for me so I could hear it and he said he couldn't because of this.

 

[Hmp10]

Hard plastics or more of the premium feel ?

This might depend on what you mean by "premium feel". Rivian has said it is going to use high-grade materials in the interior, and I have no reason to think they won't. However, this is not a typical luxury vehicle, and it doesn't look like one. From all the photographs I have seen, the look of the interior is -- by design -- somewhat utilitarian. Things such as the door panels, the pockets behind the front seat backs, and the woven floor mats seem aimed at reinforcing the hard-use mission of the vehicle. I would describe the visual cues of the interior to be striving for more of a robust feel than a premium feel.

For instance, there's been a lot of press chatter comparing the R1S interior to a Range Rover. For my money, the R1S is closer in vibe to the interior (and exterior, for that matter) of a G-class Mercedes -- where premium materials are used to create a utilitarian look and feel.

 

[Mattis]

Robust with a premium touch (like G-class) would be perfect. I just hope they put enough effort into the interior build quality. In the TMX, an otherwise perfect driving experience is a bit ruined by all the rattles and squeeks. Good thing that the Rivian doesn’t come with falcon wing doors !

 

[Hmp10]

I have a Model S and have twice test driven a Model X. One had to cross over a railroad track to get to the dealer, and I, too, found noticeable flexion in the body of the X. The cowl shake going over the tracks was something I had not experienced since the 1980's.

I have a deposit down on an R1S and hope to have an opportunity to drive it on a rough patch of road before having to commit to the order. Its body-on-frame design that will give it so many off-roading capabilities is also going to reduce the torsional stiffness for roadway cornering and raise the specter of more squeaks and rattles in the body. (The 2019 G-class Mercedes only has about 40% of the torsional rigidity of the unibody SUV's in the Mercedes lineup. That was over a one-third increase of the torsional rigidity of the 2018 G-class, but it indicates how even the newest chassis engineering and materials still make it very difficult to build a rattle- and squeak-free body-on-frame vehicle.)

 

[Mattis]

One had to cross over a railroad track to get to the dealer, and I, too, found noticeable flexion in the body of the X. The cowl shake going over the tracks was something I had not experienced since the 1980's.

Those totally silly and unnecessary FWDs effectively «cuts the car in half» and the torsional stiffness in the TMX is really exceptionally bad. Every bump creates a new squeak! Lets hope the Rivian team gets it right!

 

[Lmirafuente]

I’m new to the forum, so excuse me if this has allready been discussed !

I guess it will take a while before we europeans get to see Rivian in «real-life». To those of you who have seen the car; what is your first impressions regarding interior build quality? Hard plastics or more of the premium feel ?

Hi,

I am new to the forum as well.

I did want to participate in the forum and wanted to share with you my experience thus far with Rivian. All great by the way!

I was able to fly to Flagstaff, AZ for the Overland Expo West to see the RT1 a couple of months ago, specifically to check out the truck, even though I am a RS1 reservation holder.

To my pleasant surprise, RJ was there and when I checked in at the booth, when they found out I was a reservation holder, they introduced me to RJ and allowed me and my wife to check out the truck behind the ropes.---so that was cool!! I spent over 30 minutes with him.---WOW he is great and got my wife excited about the car and company.

As far as assessing the quality of the vehicle...I can only provide visual commentary. From what I could see, touching the car it was rock solid. The vegan leather of the seats felt good. If you are use to BMW, Mercedes, Land Rover, etc luxury seats, these are not the same from a tactile perspective, but the appearance and feel was good. I did not get to sit in it but it looked comfortable and would keep you in your seat for off road activities. The truck/SUV are built for you to be outdoors and they made it easy to clean, mud, snow and what not from the floorboards.---and from that perspective these trucks are great! The steering wheel is nice and thick. Door panels and interior looked great.

The pull-out kitchen from the storage tunnel was cool and a little temperamental---but it was a gen-one prototype that the kinks it may have had would be resolved.

I also met Charles, the VP of Dev and Integration (formerly with McLaren) and I was asking about ride quality. Both RJ and Charles, simply said you need to experience it your self as I told them I am a BMW guy and ride and feel quality was important to me. Charles went into detail about the different ride modes and heights the care will adjust to which was cool as well as great detail of the mechanics of the suspension---a little over my head but his passion for excellence was clearly there for the car.

The employees that were there all had an energy of pride about the car and the company.

I am just another data-point for this forum, but the vibe I got of my time with the Rivian team I felt can easily translate to their drive of building quality and success for Rivian.

I learned a lot from RJ, both on and off the record stuff. We had a reporter that joined the conversations and he had some interesting questions--and we got candid answers.

All for now...

 

[ElectricTrucking]

Thanks for the insight. As a reservation holder I'm getting concerned about a 100K battery on a poor quality vehicle.

 

[Lmirafuente]

Thanks for the insight. As a reservation holder I'm getting concerned about a 100K battery on a poor quality vehicle.

I agree and I share your concerns too. Only a test drive can provide us some early feedback and I hope the test drive include city and off-road tests to challenge the framework of the car. I know the conversation I had with RJ at Overland was they were grappling with the "how" to get the vast amounts of reservations owners from all over the country/world to test drive. It is a logistical problem they are solving.

Also, any opportunity I can chat with a Rivian exec, the more confidence one can have with the company and product. They get one-shot at this with the owners and if the car starts to creak on a test drive you will know. Beyond that, I am sure the first owners will be vocal on the car. Bad news travels faster than good news. To my point, they have one shot at this.

Being that they took nine to ten years before coming out of stealth-mode helps build trust. I can tell you many of the employees want the truck too and these are people from other car manufactures that have come to Rivian--the advantage they have is they have driven the car themselves.

Time will tell.

Thanks,

Lionel

 

[ElectricTrucking]

Lamirafuente, years ago GM would have events where you could drive their products and the competition. They even had a small off road coarse to get the feel for the Hummer 2. This was at the old Alameda Navel Air Base in 2004. I don't expect Rivian should go to this extent but as you say on and off road would be quit doable. They even had a short track where I was able to drive the Corvette.

 

[Salty Sailor]

This new info (https://www.greencarreports.com/new...fer-four-roof-options-but-no-sliding-moonroof) regarding roof options brings to mind some questions, such as will there be a roof rack option? If so, will it be available with all roof options? Personally, I'm leaning towards a plain, old steel roof and would love to have a rack to expand storage options.

 

[ajdelange]

Those totally silly and unnecessary FWDs effectively «cuts the car in half» and the torsional stiffness in the TMX is really exceptionally bad. Every bump creates a new squeak! Lets hope the Rivian team gets it right!

Now you are the second guy I have seen mention this and so I went out looking for these and found none. The car was tight as a drum over some pretty rough terrain. It was suggested that perhaps Telsa had taken some steps to correct a problem of this nature that did exist in earlier models. The obvious question is "How old is your X?". I'll also say that if I make a habit of driving the car the way I did the other day it may well develop rattles and squeaks eventually!

I'll also note that IIRC I saw an interview with one of the Rivian folks in which it was stated that the construction of the battery pack adds to the stiffness of the vehicle. Torsional stiffness was not mentioned in particular but the battery pack is substantial in dimension and so should have a pretty substantial section modulus.

 

[timf]

This new info (https://www.greencarreports.com/new...fer-four-roof-options-but-no-sliding-moonroof) regarding roof options brings to mind some questions, such as will there be a roof rack option? If so, will it be available with all roof options? Personally, I'm leaning towards a plain, old steel roof and would love to have a rack to expand storage options.

The R1S is supposed to have adjustable roof rack bars as shown in the various action photos shown at the top of the forum pages. I'd expect it to be designed in a way that will be compatible with all roof options.

 

[ajdelange]

A web search turned up a torsional stiffness figure of 19,000 N-m/° for the Tesla S. Another website stated that the torsional stiffness of the NIO ES6 is 44,930N-m/° which, the president of the company bragged is twice that of the Tesla X. This suggests that torsional stiffness of the X must be about 22,500 N-m/° which is higher than that of the S.

 

[Hmp10]

I'll also note that IIRC I saw an interview with one of the Rivian folks in which it was stated that the construction of the battery pack adds to the stiffness of the vehicle. Torsional stiffness was not mentioned in particular but the battery pack is substantial in dimension and so should have a pretty substantial section modulus.

Rivian is going to use an assemblage of modular battery packs (7, 9, or 12 depending on the kWh you choose) packaged between cross rails. In terms of the "battery pack" adding to stiffness, I assume the Rivian people really mean the cross-rail structure and metal and kevlar plates above and below? Or maybe the individual packs are extremely rigid and have very strong attachment points to the cross rails?

If the battery modules themselves are significant contributors to chassis stiffness, that would imply that torsional stiffness increases with battery capacity in both vehicles.

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