_
TESLA CYBERTRUCK
Jokes abounded last fall when Elon
Musk unveiled Tesla’s new “Blade Runner
pickup,” but the Cybertruck can drive up to
500 miles on a single charge and is avail-
able with one, two, or three motors. With
all three, Tesla claims, it can tow 14,000
pounds and bolt from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds.
_
BOLLINGER B2
In 2021, Detroit-based startup Bollinger
will begin offering a four-door, 614-
horsepower pickup that seems designed
exclusively for an eco-conscious Batman on
safari. The charge lasts for some 200 miles,
and the starting price is $125,000.
_
ELECTRIC FORD F-150
Ford has stayed mum on specs, but elec-
tric F-150s are expected sometime in 2021.
Last summer a prototype towed a mil-
lion-pound freight train loaded with conven-
tional F-150s.
_
ATLIS XT
Arizona-based Atlis is building an ultra-
rugged pickup that can reach 120 mph, last
up to 500 miles, and charge in 15 minutes.
The Competition
ers. Tesla was an army, following a general,
marching headlong into battle.
Rivian isn’t like that. The mood at the
company is intense; the hours are long and
punishing. But there is a lightness and opti-
mism in the ranks, even with the monu-
mental challenges at hand. Scaringe told
me the complexity of his firm now vastly
exceeds his teenage dreams of what a car
company would be like. “It’s good when
you’re a kid, when you’re young, to believe
that things are easier than they are,” he said.
“Thousands of moving pieces, literally and
figuratively, have to link together, and if one
of those isn’t working properly it can upset
the whole system.”
Musk has said, as red-blooded CEOs
often do, that he welcomes competition. In
his case, the sentiment appears to be driven
by a genuine concern for the planet. Quar-
terly earnings reports aside, Tesla’s deeper
mission—its existential purpose—is to
“accelerate the advent of sustainable trans-
port,” Musk wrote in 2014. That probably
wouldn’t mean a Model S in every garage,
he seemed to admit; rather, what the auto
industry really needed was “a common,
rapidly evolving technology platform.”
Musk thought Tesla would supply the plat-
form. Six years later, Rivian may deliver
it instead. The big question, then, isn’t
whether Scaringe can unseat Musk as
commander in chief of the EV market. It’s
whether Rivian, with its skateboard, can
help a number of big manufacturers buy
into clean transportation with ease and
confidence, and thus hasten the end of
humanity’s reliance on the internal com-
bustion engine.
To be sure, this is not the only path for-
ward. John DeCicco, an associate director
of the University of Michigan Energy Insti-
tute, pointed out to me that if the EPA raised
fuel-efficiency standards in gas pickups,
the result would be huge, rapid emissions
reductions. For now, though, federal reg-
ulators in the Trump administration seem
to be moving in the opposite direction. And
the long-term problem remains: Trans-
portation accounts for nearly a third of US
greenhouse gas emissions, more than any
other economic sector.
Like Musk, Scaringe does not think his
company alone can solve the problem. He
is eager to say that the transportation mar-
ket is so large it will need other EV compet-
itors joining in, along with a grid providing
abundant electricity produced from clean
energy sources. Yet he acknowledges that
he won’t make any impact at all if his trucks
ponents one by one. The frame was made
from olive-green square steel tubing and sat
on four fat Pirelli tires, with gearboxes and
inverters at the front and back. There was
a broad platform in the middle for the bat-
teries, which were wrapped in ballistic and
waterproof materials. The wheels each had
their own motor, allowing them to move
independently—the secret to the tank turn.
Part of Rivian’s goal with the R1T is to
persuade the public that electric trucks can
have truckness too. The Amazon project
presents an altogether different sort of chal-
lenge. Instead of torque and horsepower,
Vinnels said, his team has spent its time on
efficiency—trying to save drivers precious
seconds when they get up, grab a package,
and exit. The effort, which involved Rivian
engineers tagging along on Amazon vans,
seems to have resulted in a complete ergo-
nomic rethink of the delivery regimen. It has
meant redesigning the cabin egress, driver’s
seats, dashboard controls, and shelving in
the van’s cargo space, all with the intention
of shaving fractional bits of time—and mil-
lions of dollars—from the process.
Once the vans are on the road and gath-
ering data, Rivian will learn valuable infor-
mation about, say, which parts are most
prone to wear out or which bit of code
needs patching. And whatever Rivian learns
from its vans could well inform its trucks
and SUVs. They’re all in this together.
↙
YEARS AGO, I HAD THE CHANCE TO VISIT
Tesla just before the launch of the Model
S. It is difficult to recall now just how few
observers of the staid automotive market
believed the company would survive. Per-
haps in response, the mood in Palo Alto in
those days was intense, anxious, and righ-
teous. Those I spoke with worried about
what Musk, the maximum leader, might
think of a new trim detail or manufacturing
hiccup. In retrospect, perhaps that’s pre-
cisely what the company needed to succeed
and to clear the path for other EV mak-
MOVE
_Last fall, the Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten debuted the world’s first hybrid cruise ship, which emits 20 percent less
carbon than traditional vessels. The company is retrofitting six ships to run on batteries, natural gas, and unwanted dead
fish from local fisheries, which are converted into liquefied biogas—and de-stunk in the process.
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