HOUSTON — By now, you might have seen one on the road: The Rivian R1T is a futuristic-looking electric truck that is starting to pop up around Houston.
Jay Ward owns one.
“You get a lot of looks. That’s obviously part of it,” Ward said. “But the actual driving experience itself is fantastic. It doesn’t drive like a truck. It drives like a really nice sedan.”
Rivian is a startup company that's delivering trucks around the country. The company said it has more than 6,600 vehicles on the road and hundreds are here in Texas.
The Rivian joins just two other electric trucks on the market right now. There’s the Ford F-150 Lightning and the GMC Hummer pickup.
Scott Evans writes about EVs for Motor Trend.
“The Hummer costs over $100,000 right now if you can even get one,” Evans said. “So, it’s really kind of between the Rivian and the Ford.”
Evans said the biggest hurdles for the larger EVs are battery range anxiety and cost.
“There will be more competition, the technology will be more established, more suppliers building batteries and all sorts of parts so the prices should come down eventually,” he said. “For right now, they’re going to be, unfortunately, expensive vehicles.”
The base price for the Ford F-150 Lightning is just under $47,000 but can go up to $97,000. Ford said Texas is the second state behind California for F-150 Lightning customer deliveries and there are nearly 6,000 across North America so far.
As for the Rivian, the lowest you’ll pay is $73,000. Jay loves his ride so much, he nicknamed it Fiona -- or Fi for short.
“We spend on average about $35 to $40 on additional electricity that gives us 14 to 1,500 miles worth of range,” he said. “A lot better than the gas pumps these days.”
Chevrolet plans to release a battery-powered Silverado next year and Dodge is building a Ram EV truck, too.