Rivian doubles down on electric bikes, CEO says company ‘super excited’ about e-bikes
Rivian is best known as being the first company to market with an electric pickup truck. But after the electric vehicle manufacturer submitted trademarks earlier this year related to electric bicycles, the EV industry has kept an eye out for a possible Rivian e-bike.
E-bikes actually outsell electric cars and truck handily, due in part to their lower production cost and thus much lower purchase prices.
And so it would make sense for the electric truck and SUV maker to explore developing a Rivian e-bike, joining other companies like Porsche who have expanded into electric bikes.
Now we’re getting our most detailed look yet at how electric bicycles could be integrated into Rivian’s long term plans, thanks to a recent Disrupt 2022 interview with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe.
Scaringe expanded upon how the company views light electric vehicles and their place in the larger EV ecosystem:
When you look at transportation over the next 10 to 15 years, core to part of the way we think about our product portfolio is increasingly that we go towards multimodal. We’ll be using vehicles sometimes, public transportation other times, we think increasingly e-bikes, electric assist bikes.
And so for us to be part of that sort of mosaic of different mobility solutions, we have a whole host of products that a number of which are pretty far from what you see here [gesturing to the Rivian R1S electric SUV].
As Scaringe continued on the subject of a possible Rivian e-bike:
The e-bike space is something we’re super excited about. We haven’t announced anything or said anything there. But I do think it is going to play an increasingly important role for transportation, both in the movement of goods for commercial purposes, but also for the movement of people.
It’s true that the last few years have seen skyrocketing growth in electric bike sales, accompanied by a major shift towards e-bike commuting.
But it’s not just commuters who are flocking to lightweight electric two-wheelers. Delivery companies are also adopting electric bicycles as a more effective way to make deliveries in crowded urban centers and cities.
Rivian is apparently looking at those commercial customers as a potential major play.
After discussing the company’s large and small vans, Scaringe elaborated on how the company’s upcoming smaller electric delivery vans could be a harbinger of Rivian e-bikes to come.
Of course we’ll be moving to even smaller form factors and the way we see it is a lot of deliveries are going to increasingly move to things that are very small. Bikes or e-assist bikes are performing a lot of urban deliveries, and so as a product portfolio, we’ve thought a lot about that.
A recent hire by Rivian further increases the chances that we’ll see a Rivian e-bike in the company’s future. The former CTO of Specialized’s electric bike division was scooped up to work on ‘future programs’ for Rivian, and it’s not hard to guess what those future programs could entail.
Several automotive manufacturers have also jumped on the electric bicycle bandwagon in the last few years, chasing the rapidly expanding market and the low barrier to entry for lightweight two-wheeled electric vehicles.
Peugot has its own extensive line of e-bikes, and Spain’s SEAT has partnered with Barcelona-based Silence to roll out its own seated and standing electric scooters.
GM developed an electric bicycle in-house, though the project was killed off early in the COVID pandemic.
ŠKODA rolled out one of the weirdest electric bike/scooter concepts we’ve seen, though there’s no indication it is headed for production.
Jeep has gotten into the high-power e-bike game via licensing agreements, though its similar attempt to co-develop an electric scooter was significantly less impressive.
Even motorcycle manufacturers like Harley-Davidson and BMW Motorrad have gotten into electric bicycles and scooters, though Harley’s results have been much more impressive than BMW’s.
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Tesla has opened orders for the Model Y Long Range RWD for $45,000 in the US. It’s the new entry-level Model Y following the design refresh earlier this year.
Since launching the updated Model Y earlier this year, Tesla has only offered the best-selling electric SUV in a single Long-Range AWD configuration.
First, it was as a fully-loaded $60,000 Launch Edition, and last month, it started deliveries of the regular Model Y AWD starting at $49,000.
As we recently noted, Tesla didn’t have much of an order backlog for the new Model Y in the US, and it has already started gathering new Model Y AWD in inventory just weeks after launching the vehicle.
Tesla even started offering subsidized financing rates on the new SUV this weekend.
Now, the automaker is starting to take orders for the new Model Y Long Range RWD
The new trim starts at $44,990 and enables 357 miles of range – an extra 30 miles over the AWD version.
However, due to its single motor powertrain, the lower-priced version is slightly slower with a 0-60 mph acceleration in 5.4 seconds rather than 4.6 seconds.
The automaker says that deliveries of the new version will start in the US in the next 3 to 5 weeks. It launched the new Model Y RWD in Europe weeks ago.
Tesla also offers a Standard Range RWD in Europe and China for even cheaper, and deliveries have already started in China.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla appears to have waited to open orders for the Model Y RWD in the US to optimize demand for the Long Range AWD.
But now it needs a cheaper model to sustain demand at the current production rate.
In the coming weeks, it will start building a mix of RWD and AWD in Fremont and Austin to
Interestingly, Tesla currently only offers the subsidized 1.99% financing rate on the Model Y Long Range AWD. I would assume that Tesla plans to take advantage of the boost in demand that the cheaper model will create.
However, US buyers probably won’t have to wait more than a few weeks before Tesla starts to offer lower interest rates on all versions, like it already does in Europe and China.
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![Big Mack, hydrogen Honda, and a ride in the Tesla Semi at ACT Expo 2025 [part 6]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/05/act-2025.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
On today’s thrilling episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got some of the highlights of the 2025 ACT Expo, including the all-electric Windrose and Mack Pioneer Class 8s trucks, a hydrogen fuel sell [sic] from Honda, a fun charging surprise, and – after an eight year wait – we finally get a ride in the all-new (in 2017) Tesla Semi!
ACT Expo is North America’s premier clean truck and transport trade show – and for 2025 it was bigger than ever, with more exhibitors and more, more capable battery electric vehicles than ever. The downsides? NACFE have scored with their “messy middle” messaging, and the return of “clean diesel” talking points. We’ve got a brief rundown and links to all the details, below.
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