Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe on Friday discussed the electric vehicle market with CNBC's Jim Cramer.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe on Friday discussed the electric vehicle market with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, saying EV automakers need to give consumers a wider variety of models to choose from.

“What I think we’re witnessing today is a lack of choice,” Scaringe said. “There’s not enough vehicles across price points and form factors to give people viable alternatives to their combustion vehicles that they’ve been buying.”

Rivian is trying to broaden its offerings with a new line of R2 vehicles, which Scaringe will be smaller and less expensive than current Rivian models. The company’s current vehicles are priced upwards of $70,000.

  • jopepa@lemmy.world
    142·
    9 months ago

    I think there should be a lot more options for ice to ev conversions. In my opinion, all car interiors have gotten worse over the past 20 years and there are already a ton of quality comfortable cars that only have mechanical problems.

      • jopepa@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        I’ve looked into it and there are only a couple of options in a larger city. Not any sense in converting a car that you like if it costs less to buy new.

        What would need to go into a conversion kit to make recycling existing cars into EVs less cost restricted?

          • jopepa@lemmy.world
            2·
            9 months ago

            Thanks for taking the time to walk me through this, I have a passive interest and really know very little about the process. Wouldn’t the custom fabricated parts come down to how to fit an electric motor to an existing drive train and installing regenerative brakes? Plenty of room in a mostly empty engine bay to pack in batteries and wrap them water tight, right? I’m sure there are dozens of different sized axels and drive trains but is there really so much variability there that every job needs to be custom fabricated?

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      81·
      9 months ago

      EV conversion is super expensive because it’s so labour intensive. It’s really only worth it for classic cars.

      • jopepa@lemmy.world
        24·
        9 months ago

        I have a hard time believing that it’s more labor intensive than making a brand new car.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
          6·
          9 months ago

          https://www.evwest.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=40 This is a company that does conversions, looks like the kit itself is around $20k, and that doesn’t even include labour yet. And yes, it’s more labour intensive because you need a specialised mechanic to take out the engine, fuel tank, wiring, etc, and then shoehorn the battery pack and motor in again, update the dashboard with EV specific stuff, etc.

          On the other hand, a new car is largely built by robots and relatively cheaper factory workers that only need limited training.