Not all amazing concepts are very good ideas. Scenario in point: Keep in mind that sweet movie from 2019 of a Rivian RT1 truck spinning in a fantastic circle employing a little something referred to as “Tank Turn?” Nicely, it will not be coming to a Rivian product or service close to you any time shortly.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe broke EV truck buyers hearts for the duration of an Instagram Q & A when he disclosed that the attribute was scrapped for becoming much far too harmful to the trails and character parts the company is devoted to protecting.
The Tank Transform associated an RT1 or RS1 spinning like a corkscrew inside of its possess footprint. The act of a 8,500 pound truck capable of hitting 60 miles for every hour from a lifeless prevent in only 3 seconds evidently tears up the floor a bit. Who realized! Even in the marketing video you can notify the maneuver is heading to be a issue:
The spin chews up the ground, and that is not superior for off-roading trails wherever entrepreneurs may attempt out this neat trick. As Street & Track points out, that is not the only issue the enterprise experienced about the maneuver:
Include in the worries shared with Motor Craze in 2021 about how tricky the turns are for a buyer to wrap their heads around at speed and the feature looks not likely to land in an R1S or R1T any time soon.
While the “Tank Turn” by itself plainly worked effectively (and at remarkably superior speeds) in the video clip, the clip also offers a reasonably very good notion of how substantially hurt a 7000-lb truck can do to a path as it spins in spot. As the overhead digicam angle shows, the R1T effectively results in being a tedious device digging a divot into the dust down below. That could severely harm trails around time by manufacturing new crater-like ruts, which would, of course, go towards the environmental objectives powering a go-everywhere electrical truck.
Ford was also reportedly eyeing the tank flip for the Ford F-150 Lightning, but ideally it will get to the identical summary as Rivian. Rivian has experienced its ups and downs in new months. This year began on a negative take note with a $1.35 billion reduction in the initially quarter and a bunch of pissed off clients angry in excess of a price hike. Nonetheless, the luxury EV truck maker expects to strike its 2023 goal of 50,000 motor vehicles developed.