Rivian to lay off 6% of its workforce as EV price war concerns grow | Hacker News Reader

Rivian to lay off 6% of its workforce as EV price war concerns grow

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39 pointsmc3235 comments

I’m just glad there’s finally enough competition to bring down prices in EVs. If Chevy hits its price target next year for the Equinox I think everyone will start buying them. I sure will.

Just sell me a Miata with 100 miles of range and no weight penalty. I don't want a boat on hard tires; I want something nimble and engaging to, you know, drive. I'll even give up my manual transmission for it.

Part of the Miata's driving experience has to be the sound of engine reving as you exit the curve.

That's OK, engine noise is enhanced with speakers these days.

That's... so... saccharine!

If it's going to be a crass fake illusion, why even bother?

I don't know... the same reason they dye orange peels I guess.

Blasphemy

I guess manufacturers went crazy on range because range anxiety was a legitimate blocker for many people. It's so wasteful. Hopefully as charging networks and charging speeds improve, manufacturers start to release smaller vehicles with lower capacities.

Sounds like you’re in the market for the EV mini.

You should take a BMW i3S for a spin. So much fun to drive.

Chevy needs to get their battery fire issues under control. They've had so many recalls and disasters I doubt anyone is going to rush to buy a Chevy ev

My battery was replaced. It was annoying but ultimately a free range upgrade. I would buy another Chevrolet EV, it's been a great car .

I am on m third Bolt its a great car

I hear the seats are terrible and they hurt you after a while. How do they hold up in long driving distances?

that is not chevy's problem its LG

Not their problem... They are just paying for it and suffering with the bad rep... Not their problem tho

Blame LG for that more than Chevy

Irrelevant. When MS Windows will get BSOD, nobody is going to blame company which wrote crappy device driver writing into protected kernel memory. Microsoft will get the blame.

If you are technical, you will blame and upgrade or remove the bad driver. If you aren’t technical, your technical friend will just tell you to get a Mac.

Does it matter which party is to blame?

When talking about future fuckups, yeah it kinda does...

I think ultimately the car manufacturer has to take some blame for selling you a car with a faulty component, even if the component came from someone else. I’m not going to become an expert in automotive supply chains and figure out gazillions of different components that must be used to make the car.

Spoilers: they won't. Nobody can build enough batteries to meet demand. The capacity still just isn't there. Which means those teaser "esitmated starting around" MSRPs will never be the price someone ends up paying at a dealer for the forseeable future.

Also known as the "F150 Lightning starting at $39,900" phenomenon lol

You can't get them below $70k

It also can’t haul on flat ground without losing half its range.

https://electrek.co/2022/05/31/ford-f-150-lightning-loses-ra...

And they weigh about 1500 lbs more than the ICE version. This matters if they plan to make bigger versions like F450/550/650. Ranchers already come close to weight limits. Lost range and added weight are a big problem. Maybe some future 3D printed solid state battery will help a little?

Yes to all of the above. I like EVs and am kind of a nerd about them, but realistically it doesn't help the adoption of a technology to push it before it's ready. We just don't have the manufacturing capacity for batteries, they're still quite expensive and finicky (try charging your EV in sub-zero temperatures) and heavy (so no gross capacity limited vehicles like F350 and no sports cars).

It's just like with wind and solar. Why can't we just be honest about what these are good at, use them appropriately, and let the tech develop and improve organically?

Because people want power /money and sanity gets in the way.

Arguments often boil down to ”vote for me or the world ends”

An argument that doesn’t allow for any compromise.

Logical or not, honest or not. Sane or not. Science or not.

For many it’s all or nothing. So it’s wind and solar and almost nothing else, regardless of consequences.

I fully believe if fusion somehow becomes real the green movements will turn against it.

Clean cheap and free energy is NOT the goal for them.

Yea it kind of seems like everything is Pascal's wager now. My argument is correct because any alternative is eternal hellfire. And even if my argument isn't very convincing, we should still do it because 0.1% chance of eternal hellfire is still eternal hellfire.

What's the price target?

$30k base, but the base is a solid car with 250mi range that lots of people could be happy with.

Is there any indication they aren't just going to deliver like 3 units or delay the base model until who knows when?

I have been waiting for a 3 row, 300mi range and under 40k vehicle. That's how I replace my minivan.

I suspect if Chevy does the Equinox, they're gonna do the Traverse and other vehicles soon after.

Yea the Equinox (only driven the ICE as a rental) is a decent car that 80% of people would be happy with.

$30k for that would indeed be a very good bargain, and quite a bit cheaper than most EVs. I think most comparable EVs are quite a bit more pricey - ID.4 at $40k base, Mach-E at $45k.

And especially, it'd only be a $3k premium over the base ICE model. Even without subsidies, that's low enough that many people will switch.

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