First videos of Rivian R2 and R3 driving on public roads show size comparisons
Rivian launched the much-anticipated R2 – and the surprise R3 – on Thursday, but at the time we only saw the cars on stage, in isolation. Now video has emerged showing these cars driving on public roads, next to other cars, offering a better visual size comparison, and a look at the cars in motion in the sunlight.
In the R2 unveiling, Rivian did tell us all the dimensions of the R2, so the comparisons there aren’t as important. We know it will be a little taller and a little less long than the Model Y, but otherwise pretty close in size (though quite different in shape, with a less aerodynamic but taller back-end).
But it’s still nice to see it on the road, driving under its own power, at more than 1mph, and with other cars around. While we already saw it on a stage and in person, it can be tough to really gauge the size of cars when you’re in a giant crowd of people and only looking at two new cars in isolation, without other familiar vehicles around.
The videos were taken in sunny Laguna Beach, just outside the Rivian South Coast Theater where the reveal event happened. The cars were driving on Pacific Coast Highway, just in front of Main Beach – which is an area that typically has heavy traffic with plenty of other cars around. This is annoying when you’re trying to get to an event on time, but nice when you want to see how cars look compared to other cars.
The first video was posted on reddit and then 2 more were compiled on Rivian Forums (though we’re not sure of the original source yet), and show both cars driving and the R3X loading into a car trailer. We’ve embedded them below.
The first video shows the R3X and then the R2 (the white car driving behind the R3X in the first half is an R1, not an R2).
The R3X is obscured for a lot of this video (partially behind a gas station sign showing gas at up to $5.49/gallon, quite a bit more than the 23 cents/kWh, or about $1/gal equivalent, which I pay when I charge off-peak at home nearby), and unfortunately we only get a shot of it driving away from us. It’s also on a heavily-crowned part of the road with nothing next to it until the end of the video, where we can see it looking perhaps a little shorter than the small truck across the road, and definitely a lot shorter than the trailing R1.
We get a much clearer shot of the R2 up close, which looks as expected – very close in design to the R1, just smaller. A Hyundai Tucson and Kia Soul drive by behind the R2, with the R2 looking a bit taller than both (when accounting for road crowning), but definitely in the same “mid-size SUV” ballpark (and note Rivian auto design chief Jeff Hammoud is sighted in the end of the video, taking his own video of the car driving by on his phone).
The second video gives us our best overall shot, this time of the R3 driving up and past, and then close-up on a smaller and flatter road. And it, or the crowd in front of the theater photographing it, certainly seems to be bringing a lot of joy to the lucky riders inside.
As it drives up, it looks quite imposing from the front, and in isolation you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it looks a lot like an R1.
But when looking at the other cars around, its smaller size is immediately apparent. It certainly looks dwarfed by the R1 behind it, and the Model Y beside as well. Moving further along, its “something between a hatchback and a crossover” form factor becomes even more apparent as it drives by sedans, small SUVs, compact vans and trucks. In particular, the comparison to a Scion xB is interesting – another quirky, boxy car that straddled the “small SUV/compact car” categories. And once again, at the end of the video, you can see how comparatively massive the R1S is to the R3.
Finally, we see the R3X being loaded into a car trailer – which is interesting, given that Rivian HQ is basically on the same road as the theater, just 10 miles up Laguna Canyon in Irvine.
This video doesn’t tell us as much (except that it fits in an enclosed car trailer – which is something the nearby R1S might have a harder time with). But we wanted to include it for completeness.
As for other size comparisons, another user analyzed a photo of the R3X and thinks it’s a bit taller, but much less long than a Golf GTI. This estimate suggests it to be a full ~20 inches (!) shorter than the Ioniq 5, a car which it has drawn many comparisons to due to its shape and proportions, and even shorter than the Volvo EX30 and Bolt EV.
While this comparison is only based on one official photo of a prototype, the photo is taken directly side-on and thus offers a good view of the vehicle, and since we know the size of the tires and the car’s wheelbase (2,799mm/110.2in), we can come to a pretty good estimate, if not perfectly accurate.
Electrek’s Take
I’ve said many times here that I’m a small-car guy (and you should be too), so seeing Rivian go massively downsize is exciting to me. I was worried it would end up being a truck-and-SUV brand primarily (even though it started with a prototype sportscar), but the R3 in more of a “hot hatch” format shows that they’re ready to branch out. This is an important thing for a startup, to show that it’s capable of making diverse products to appeal to a variety of customers, so this is a big moment for Rivian.
Plus, I’ve had a lot of discussions recently with auto industry folk and journalists that we might be hitting “large car fatigue” as a society soon (I certainly have), and that we might finally get some smaller-sized cars in upcoming years, instead of the ubiquitous massive SUVs and trucks that we see now.
Maybe this is wishful thinking – but the reception we’ve seen for the R2 and particularly the R3, which seems even more exciting the more apparent its small size becomes, suggests that this could be the case.
The one problem here is that Rivian unveiled the two cars at the same time as each other, with the R2 coming out first. So we hope the huge excitement over the R3 doesn’t result in them Osborne-ing their own unreleased product, the R2, with an even more unreleased product, the R3.
Though Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has a plan to keep people interested, which he talked about in an interview with Electrek’s Seth Weintraub (you can see the full interview here, or a writeup of it here). And I’m willing to bet there are meetings happening right now about how to bring the R3 forward as quickly as possible, given the reception it’s gotten (also, I think the R3 is going to go absolutely gangbusters in Europe, based on size and style).
One final note, on the various wheel designs – I don’t love the R2 wheels, which seem a little distracting when in motion with those 5 silver squares spinning around. Similar goes for the R3 wheels and their 4-shape design, but to a lesser extent. Our shot of the R3X in motion is a little more distant, but I think I like those wheels the most. This lines up with my opinion when I saw them on the stage, and my personal general predilection towards smaller wheels with more rubber rather than larger ones with less rubber.
(Also, a note on wheels: we need more aerodynamic wheels in general, as if we applied aero wheel covers to all cars on the road, we could reduce US total – not automotive – energy use by something like 1%, which is pretty huge for such a small change).
What do you think about the R2, R3 and R3X now that we’ve seen them all driving on public roads? Both their looks, and their sizes? Let us know in the comments below.
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Mining company Vale is turning to Caterpillar to provide this massive, 240-ton battery-electric haul truck in a bid to slash carbon emissions at its mines by 2030.
Caterpillar and Vale have signed an agreement that will see the Brazilian mining company test severe-duty battery electric mining trucks like the 793 BEV (above), as well as V2G/V2x energy transfer systems and alcohol-powered trucks. The test will help Vale make better equipment choices as it works to achieve its goals of reducing direct and indirect carbon emissions 33% by 2030 and eliminating 100% of its net emissions by 2050.
If that sounds weird, consider that most cars and trucks in Brazil run on either pure ethyl alcohol/ethanol (E100) or “gasohol” (E25).
“We are developing a portfolio of options to decarbonize Vale’s operations, including electrification and the use of alternative fuels in the mines. The most viable solutions will be adopted,” explains Ludmila Nascimento, energy and decarbonization director Vale. “We believe that ethanol has great potential to contribute to the 2030 target because it is a fuel that has already been adopted on a large scale in Brazil, with an established supply network, and which requires an active partnership with manufacturers. We stand together to support them in this goal.”
Vale will test a 240-ton Cat 793 battery-electric haul truck at its operations in Minas Gerais, and put energy transfer solutions to a similar tests at Vale’s operations in Pará over the next two-three years. Caterpillar and Vale have also agreed to a joint study on the viability of a dual-fuel (ethanol/diesel) solution for existing ICE-powered assets.
Vale claims to be the world’s largest producer of iron ore and nickel, and says it’s committed to an investment of between $4 billion to $6 billion to meet its 2030 goal.
Cat 793 electric haul truck
During its debut in 2022, the Cat 793 haul truck was shown on a 4.3-mile test course at the company’s Tucson proving grounds. There, the 240-ton truck was able to achieve a top speed of over 37 mph (60 km/h) fully loaded. Further tests involved the loaded truck climbing a 10% grade for a full kilometer miles at 7.5 mph before unloading and turning around for the descent, using regenerative braking to put energy back into the battery on the way down.
Despite not giving out detailed specs, Caterpillar reps reported that the 793 still had enough charge in its batteries for to complete more testing cycles.
Electrek’s Take
Electric equipment and mining to together like peanut butter and jelly. In confined spaces, the carbon emissions and ear-splitting noise of conventional mining equipment can create dangerous circumstances for miners and operators, and that can lead to injury or long-term disability that’s just going to exacerbate a mining operation’s ability to keep people working and minerals coming out of the ground.
By working with companies like Vale to prove that forward-looking electric equipment can do the job as well as well as (if not better than) their internal combustion counterparts, Caterpillar will go a long way towards converting the ICE faithful.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Caterpillar, Construction Equipment, and E&MJ.
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American mine; via NPROXX
Argonne National Laboratory is building a new research and development facility to independently test large-scale hydrogen fuel cell systems for heavy-duty and off-road applications with funding from the US Department of Energy.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is hoping Argonne Nat’l Lab’s extensive fuel cell research experience, which dates back to 1996, will give it unique insights as it evaluates new polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems ranging from 150 to 600 kilowatts for use in industrial vehicle and stationary power generation applications.
The new Argonne test facility will help prove (or, it should be said, disprove) the validity of hydrogen as a viable fuel for transportation applications including heavy trucks, railroad locomotives, marine vessels, and heavy machines used in the agriculture, construction, and mining industries.
“The facility will serve as a national resource for analysis and testing of heavy-duty fuel cell systems for developers, technology integrators and end-users in heavy-duty transportation applications including [OTR] trucks, railroad locomotives, marine vessels, aircraft and vehicles used in the agriculture, construction and mining industries,” explains Ted Krause, laboratory relationship manager for Argonne’s hydrogen and fuel cell programs. “The testing infrastructure will help advance fuel cell performance and pave the way toward integrating the technology into all of these transportation applications.”
The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) of DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is dedicating about $4 million to help build the new Argonne facility, which is set to come online next fall.
Electrek’s Take
It’s going to be hard to convince me that the concentrated push for a technology as inefficient as hydrogen fuel cells has more to do with any real consumer or climate benefit than it does keeping the throngs of people it will take to manufacture, capture, transport, store, house, and effectively dispense hydrogen gainfully employed through the next election cycle.
As such, while case studies like the hydrogen combustion-powered heavy trucks that have been trialed at Anglo American’s Mogalakwena mine since 2021 (at top) and fuel cell-powered concepts like Komatsu’s medium-sized excavator (above) have proven that hydrogen as a fuel can definitely work on a job site level while producing far fewer harmful emissions than diesel, I think swappable batteries like the ones being shown off by Moog Construction and Firstgreen have a far brighter future.
Speaking of Moog, we talked to some of the engineers being their ZQuip modular battery systems on a HEP-isode of The Heavy Equipment Podcast a few months back. I’ve included it, below, in case that’s something you’d like to check out.
SOURCES | IMAGES: ANL, Komatsu, and NPROXX.
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Velocity truck rental is doing its part to help commercial fleets electrify by energizing 47 high-powered charging stations at four strategic dealer locations across Southern California. And they’re doing it now.
The new Velocity Truck Rental & Leasing (VTRL) charging network isn’t some far-off goal being announced for PR purposes. The company says its new chargers are already in the ground, and set to be fully online and energized by the end of this month at at VTRL facilities in Rancho Dominguez (17), Fontana (14), the City of Industry (14), and San Diego (2).
45 120 kW Detroit e-Fill chargers make up the bulk of VTRL’s infrastructure project, while two DCFC stations from ChargePoint get them to 47. All of the chargers, however, where chosen specifically to cater to the needs of medium and heavy-duty battery electric work trucks.
The company says it chose the Detroit e-Fill commercial-grade chargers because they’ve already proven themselves in Daimler-heavy fleets with their ability to bring Class 8 Freightliner eCascadias, Class 6 and 7 Freightliner eM2 box trucks, and RIZON Class 4 and 5 cabover trucks, “to 80% state of charge in just 90 minutes or less.”
At Velocity, we are not just reacting to the shift towards electric mobility; we are at the forefront with our customers and actively shaping it. By integrating high-powered, commercial-grade charging solutions along key transit corridors, we are ensuring that our customers have the support they need today. This charging infrastructure investment is a testament to our commitment to helping our customers transition smoothly to electromobility solutions and to prepare for compliance with the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulations.
David Deon, velocity president
Velocity plans to offer flexible charging options to accommodate the needs of different fleets, including both managed, “charging as a service” subscription plans and self-managed/opportunity charging during daily routes. While trucks are charging, drivers and operators will be able to relax in comfortable break rooms equipped with WIFI, television, snacks, water, and restrooms.
Electrek’s Take
While it feels a bit underwhelming to write about trucking companies simply following the letter of the law in California, the rollout of an all-electric, zero-emission commercial trucking fleet remains something that, I think, should be celebrated.
As such, I’m celebrating it. I hope you are, too.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Global Newswire; Daimler Trucks.
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