artsr2002

That Rivian truck looks bad ***. Hope to grab one of those some years down the road. They could sell their skateboard design to others that could then design the body themselves.

KingDeleted

In line with your thoughts, I wonder if 10 years from now we will be able to buy a rivian platform and simply swap our aging aluminum truck bodies atop an electric platform. I’d be interested in something like that.

OopsUpsideYerHead

I think having a "frunk" (aka. front trunk) will be a game changer for decent segment of the pickup buying market. I know for me it would be a huge selling point. Integral, secure/lockable storage, outside the cabin, that doesn't require any aftermarket purchases (eg. toolbox, tonneau, cap, storage solutions) and most of all allows the full/unimpeded use of the bed for what it's intended.

I know the SCREW is huge inside but if you need even just a tiny amount of extra storage you have to start compromising bed space, which quite frankly is downright unacceptable for a 5.5ft bed, and still not ideal on a 6.5ft bed

I gotta imagine 4 independent motors located in the wheel hubs (something that's possible with electric) opens up some awesome possibilities for how to implement 4 wheel drive and traction control strategies and could really be interesting in what it can do for ground clearance (it's basically like having portal axles and no diff pumpkin to worry about) and suspension design.

redraiderford

I would guess you could utilize portal axles with the electric motors to allow adequate ground clearance. That would be pretty cool to see.

acdii

That would harken back to the days of the Duesenbergs. Back then Duesy made the chassis and coach makers built the bodies. Thats why they look similar, but different. Never know, it could start up like that again with the Rivian.

jharmon203

While I like the idea of ford investing into Rivian, it's seems a bit puzzling. Ford already announced how many EVs they would be bringing to the market over the next couple of years and said they had a "big announcement" coming towards the end of this year. This was before the Rivian investment. If this wasn't the "big announcement" then I wonder what it is.

They said they wouldn't use it for the F-150 platform but rather some other vehicle. If they already had a system in the works, then why invest in rivian? I have a hunch they looked at the platform and realized it was way better than anything that they have cooked up and this deal saves them years of dumping research into additional R&D.

acdii

I heard it was for the battery tech. Everything aside, battery tech is what leads, the rest follow. The better the tech, the further the drive one gets out of it.

RLXXI

I wouldn't be surprised if Ford used the skateboard platforms from Rivian and sat the F150 body on top of it. Rivians test mule did just that and it looked like it was a perfect fit.

They are in debt to Ford for the sum of $500M already so what better way to pay it back than by supplying that platform and the rights to use it.
.

artsr2002

Yes! Supercab with the 5.5ft bed just like the test mule. Yes.

RLXXI

The frunk on the eF150 would be massive in comparison, would most definitely make up for the 1' less bed space.
.