What does the electric truck that costs $135 million look like in Chile?

In recent years, the automotive industry has seen the emergence of a series of players who coexist, support and complement everything related to vehicles, particularly on digital platforms.

A few months ago it premiered in Chile autopunto.cl a project that seeks to bring together in one market all the brands and models sold in the country, also providing technical data, expenses such as green tax and driving license, and offering financing and insurance.

The project created by Nicholas Parkes and Rodrigo Mir, executives with extensive experience in the automotive industry – who worked together at SKBergé a few years ago – also ventures into the sale of vehicles, notably electric cars which do not not part of the local offer.

Electromobility is one of the axes that drive the creators of this platform. “Chile has the advantage of copper and lithium and the use of electric cars should be encouraged, especially in a city like Santiago which is one of the most polluted,” explains Nicholas Parkes, CEO and founder of autopunto.cl

For the executive, one of the disadvantages of the growth of electromobility in the country, in addition to prices and infrastructure, is the way in which brands manage to attract users to this new technology.

“In the automotive world, passion motivates a lot. It is not the same thing as a refrigerator or a washing machine, here there is passion, there is design, there are emotions and you have to attract with models that are very attractive in the world and who have not yet arrived here. There is the case of the Volkswagen ID.3 or ID.4, the Mustang Mach-E, the Fiat 500e which were brought by a direct importer, these are entertaining and elegant cars which would bring consumers closer, but this was not done. always”.

Responding to this need is that on the new site, in addition to providing information on new cars sold in Chile, adding the real cost that this can have for a person after a few years, they have dared to import electric vehicles that can generate passion.

Thus, we can see Tesla units but also the Rivian R1T, an electric truck which has been praised in the United States for its dynamism and comfort and which can be purchased on the platform for a value of 135 million dollars, a figure which is It is necessary to add a little more than 82 thousand pesos for registration and 4.7 million for a circulation permit. It is the most expensive truck in Chile.

Rivian is an American company with an operational base in California. Founded in 2009 by Robert “RJ” Scaringe as a company aimed at developing sustainable mobility products and services, it was first called Mainstream Motors, then changed to Avera Automotive until being renamed Rivian in 2011 .

It made its big splash at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, where the R1T truck and the R1S SUV were presented. They would go into production in 2020 and the truck would give way to models like Ford’s F-150 Lightning and Chevrolet’s Silverado EV.

The model proposed in Chile involves a direct purchase of imports to the United States and, according to Nicholas Parkes, it is not a new commercial aspect of being an importer, but rather the incorporation of an attractive model , very successful, which can bring people closer to electromobility, but our idea is not to be representatives of Rivian, nor of Tesla, another company from which we have also imported models.

On the configuration side, it has a deformable parallelogram front suspension while the rear axle is multi-link with adaptive shock absorbers and air springs.

Rivian adopted this system to be able to offer excellent performance off-road, a space in which electric vehicles do not shine at the moment.

To achieve this goal, it has a ground clearance of 360 mm and approach and departure angles of 34° and 30° respectively, while the fording capacity is close to one meter.

Now, if we encounter stones on the road, to protect the batteries, a floor reinforced with carbon fiber and Kevlar was available.

Regarding the capabilities of Rivian’s R1T Quad Motor AWD, the most powerful option offered by the North American brand, here are the main technical aspects:

• Power of 835 hp
• Torque of 1,230 Nm
• 4×4 traction
• 180 kWh battery
• Range of 640 km
• Load capacity of 800 kg

In terms of equipment, some elements that the version on sale in Chile incorporates are:

• Heated front seats
• 6 airbags
• 360° camera
• adaptive cruise control
• 16″ touch screen
• 20″ wheels

For those interested in learning more about this particular model, Nicholas Parkes told us that it will be at the Enel show. MT La Tercera is official media partner .