The American brand of electric SUVs will increase its range of vehicles beyond the current R1T and R1S. Although it will not be as everyone expects, since Rivian will produce its first electric bicycle.
This is not the first time that an automobile brand has presented its own electric bicycle, since others have also followed suit, such as Porsche, Citroën, or BMW. The CEO of Rivian, RJ Scaringe, has been the one who has officially confirmed this movement for the coming months. The same manager declares himself a fan of cycling and, even more, of electric bicycles, hence his determination and interest in having his electric car company present his model.
This news has been confirmed by Bloomberg, where it is stated that the CEO of Rivian announced this launch in a meeting held recently with the main managers of the company. Likewise, this is not the first time that this company has shown special interest in the development of an electric bicycle, since a few months ago this idea was hinted at and just a month ago, from Rivian Forums, they discovered that the name of the company was used as registration for electric bicycles and their components.
During the aforementioned meeting between the Rivian board of directors, the CEO confirmed the hiring of some high-performance electric bicycle designers from brands such as Specialized. He not only confirmed the plans to launch such a vehicle but it is already being developed internally.
According to Scaringe, electric bicycles will give Rivian a significant boost in terms of sales figures and interest from the general public, since these vehicles are significantly more affordable than electric cars and, additionally, they also have infinitely less maintenance.
The project for an electric bicycle comes at a time of special tension in the North American company. Last 2022 they could not reach the expected figure in their automobile production and they have also faced other details, such as the suspension of their agreement with Mercedes for the development of an electric van or the dismissal of 6% of their workforce as a reduction in costs.
It’s not all negative for Rivian, however, as its two electric models are currently “at cruising speed” in terms of bookings and sales. In particular, the CEO himself noted that the Rivian R1T has a large following, while the R1S has yet to take off.
Many of the company’s core supporters have taken the official announcement that Rivian is starting to produce electric bikes as great news. They postulate that in this way they will be able to get a new vehicle with which to move around the big cities, without having to resort to using the car and not having to leave the brand that they like the most.
At the moment, there is no official date of arrival on the market for these electric bicycles, but they could represent the first step of expansion for Rivian beyond the North American market. In a few months, we will leave doubts.
