Rivian launches ‘Real Rivian Adventures’ ad campaign, inspired by owner stories
Rivian is launching its first ad campaign, with digital ads showcasing stories from Rivian owners about how they’ve used their electric truck’s unique capabilities in interesting ways.
An ad campaign for a car company might not usually be notable, but this one is worth a little attention because it’s an EV startup running paid video ads… something that another notable EV startup long refused to do.
EV startups have mostly gotten results from word of mouth or other marketing efforts like ride-and-drives, high-traffic store placements and so on. Ad placements have been a relatively more rare (but not nonexistent) method to get the word out.
Rivian’s new commercial departs somewhat from the standard expectations of a car commercial. Unlike the regular glamour shots of the car and environment and voiceover touting engineering, sustainability or the like (see Fisker, Lucid, Tesla), it instead tells a wordless story about a way an owner made use of their truck to do something fun.
The ad, titled “Last Lemonade Standing,” tells a story of dueling suburban lemonade stands in the theme of a showdown from a spaghetti western. Two children across the street from each other are competing to offer the better lemonade product.
In the end, one stand wins out by upgrading to lemonade slushies – using a frunk full of ice cubes and a blender secreted away in the Rivian R1T’s gear tunnel, powered by the outlets in the truck’s bed (kids these days! back when I had a slushy stand as a kid, we had to use a hand crank… yes, really).
It’s a fictionalization… but Rivian says that the ad was based on a “Real Rivian Adventure” from the Carter family, who are shown at the end of the ad.
“This campaign is about celebrating the people who define what Rivian truly is. Our vehicles are made to empower exploration and adventure, but it’s the stories our owners create that give them real soul. We’re excited to spotlight these moments through cinematic storytelling in a fun and engaging way.”
-Denise Cherry, VP of Marketing, Rivian
The ad campaign launches today on “all digital platforms, streaming services and social media.”
Rivian says it has three more ads planned, titled “Saving Summer,” “Bayou Country.” and “The Milk Run,” which will debut throughout the year.
Rivian is also asking owners to send in their own Rivian adventures, either by sending them to letsgo@rivian.com or posting them to social media with the hashtag #RealRivianAdventures, and says that some stories might even show up in a future ad campaign.
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In a move that helps the brand duck protectionist anti-Chinese tariffs, Volvo Cars has switched production of its award-winning EX30 models destined for US roads from its Zhangjiakou plant in China to the Ghent facility in Belgium.
Volvo EX30 production began in the company’s Ghent factory back in April, but those first cars were earmarked for the Swedish domestic and European export markets, but that move wasn’t primarily motivated by avoiding tariffs. As Electrive reports, the company seemed happy enough to continue importing its small electric crossover from China and accepting the new 28.8% tariffs (up from 10%), but the wait times to get the vehicles shipped in from China was imply too long.
In 2024, Swedish and German buyers had to wait up to eight months for their EX30 in some cases, according to Volvo Cars’ European boss, Arek Nowinski, per Automotive News. Once production in Ghent is fully up to speed, however, wait times should be cut to about 90 days. Those wait times, and the price hike associated with the tariffs, have hurt sales of the originally Chinese-made Volvo EV. In 2024, for example, the EX30 ranked third in European EV sales, but slipped out of the top 10 first half of 2025.
“The car is now being built in Europe, which means faster delivery times,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson to Automotive News. “We should return to the sales and market share figures for the EX30 that we had before the introduction of tariffs.”
Coming to Staying in America
The EX30’s switch to Ghent is good news for American fans of the compact, lickety-quick Volvo EV. Now that it’s no longer exclusively made in China, Volvo has decided to give it a stay of execution as it revamps its US product lineup to better align with market trends (read: SUVs) and the changing political landscape (read: tariffs and inflation).
The reason? The Made in China version of the EX30 would virtually unsellable in the US due to the implementation of 147% tariffs on vehicles imported from China. Vehicles imported from Europe, meanwhile, carry just 15% tariffs, keeping the EX30 in a competitive price bracket.
Expect to see both Ghent and South Carolina play an increasingly large role in Volvo’s US product mix – at least for the next three-odd years.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Cars, Automotive News, via Electrive.
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New filings have revealed that BYD is about to release a ridiculous 3,000 hp electric supercar: the Yangwang U9 Track Edition.
BYD already shocked the world when it launched the Yangwang U9, its first all-electric supercar.
It featured four advanced electric motors with a combined power of nearly 1,300 horsepower. The U9 can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) in just 2.36 seconds.
With a motor at each wheel and a highly advanced electric-air suspension, the U9 can turn on itself and even jump over potholes.
But that was only the beginning.
Based on a new filing with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), BYD is preparing to launch a new ‘Track Edition’ of the Yangwang U9:
When an automaker releases a “track” version of a car, it typically primarily features body changes for better aerodynamic performance, adding downforce, and it will also often feature bigger brakes.
The Yangwang U9 ‘Track Edition’ appears to feature all that… and much more.
The filing reveals that BYD updated the motors at each wheel to a new 555 kW motor. That’s a higher-performing motor than in most performance electric vehicles. The U9 Track Edition has four of them for a total of 2,220 kW (3,019 hp).
I would have thought that this was a typo if it wasn’t for the insane electric vehicles coming out of China these days.
Here are a few pictures from the MIIT filing:
There are a lot of performance specs that are not included in the MIIT filing. Therefore, it will be interesting to see when the vehicle is fully unveiled and BYD reveals what kind of performance it can achieve with 3,000 hp packed in 4 electric motors.
Here are a few other features mentioned in the filing:
Standard features:
- 20-inch wheels with 325/35 R20 tyres
- Carbon-fibre roof
- Large fixed carbon-fibre rear wing
- Rear diffuser with adjustable blades for aerodynamic optimisation
Optional aerodynamic parts:
- Standard or enhanced carbon-fibre front splitter
- Electric rear wing
Electrek’s Take
How are they going to keep that thing from flying away? Seriously.
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