The Rivians are moving off the assembly line. The electric vehicle startup started assembling its first production pickups on Tuesday at its factory in Normal, Ill.
“After months of building pre-production vehicles, this morning our first customer vehicle drove off our production line in Normal! Our team’s collective efforts have made this moment possible,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe Tweeted along with photos from the factory.
“Can’t wait to get these into the hands of our customers!”
Rivian follows a direct sales model and doesn’t yet work any physical stores. Clients are relied upon to start accepting their vehicles before the finish of September, making Rivian the first automaker to market with a mass-produced electric pickup, in front of the GMC Hummer EV that is booked to go on sale later this year.
The midsize $73,000 R1T Launch Edition last week got an official range rating from the EPA of 314 miles for each charge and will be followed by a lower priced model beginning at $67,500. A SUV dependent on a similar all-wheel-drive platform called the R1S is scheduled for production at some point this fall. It likewise has an order for somewhere around 100,000 electric delivery vans from Amazon, which holds an equity stake in the organization.
Rivian, which previously uncovered the R1T in late 2018, has filed paperwork for an initial public offering that sources disclosed to Reuters will be valued at $70-80 billion.
