Below the $70,000 threshold
Rivian CFO Claire McDonough announced that the Rivian R1S and R1T will have a new battery next year.
Rivian plans to release a new battery for R1 vehicles in addition to the new standard battery that will also arrive next year.
“Introducing the new battery pack for the R1 vehicles. <…> [It] saves thousands of dollars by reducing additional weight,” McDonough said. “This is another example of some of the new technologies that will emerge over the next year that will be key to the operational and cost efficiencies that will be enabled by these deployments.”
A cheaper and lighter battery will reduce prices for Rivian cars as early as 2024
The new battery will not only be much cheaper to manufacture, but also lighter and easier to assemble than any of Rivian’s current battery packs. The new, simplified battery pack could allow Rivian to lower the starting price of its R1 cars below the $70,000 threshold.
Claire McDonough also reported that Rivian’s assembly lines will shut down for several weeks in the second quarter of 2024 to prepare for the introduction of new R1 batteries and configurations. Interestingly, she mentioned that Rivian will introduce “three battery packs, two different drive units, and a completely new network architecture.”
