As if to thumb its nose at those who claim electric vehicles will ruin the weekend, EV startup Rivian has taken two of its R1T electric utes (known as pickups in the US) to Tierra del Fuego, which may not actually be the “end of the earth” but must be pretty damn close.
Word is that the two Rivian electric utes, one of two models offered by the Michigan-based EV maker that has garnered substantial investment from both Amazon and Ford, will be part of an adventure travel show that will see Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman drive them as part of their newest TV show, Long Way Up.
Snapped in Ushuaia, Argentina, the R1Ts were spotted by photographer Juan Guillermo Bauer who posted photos via his Instagram account.
They show not only some great external shots, but also an interesting internal shot with a bunch of nobs and dials (Rivian has since confirmed to Electrek that the vehicles snapped feature “non-production representative content”, namely the interior).
If you haven’t seen McGregor and Boorman doing their thing, they have so far made two similar adventure docos, the Long Way Round (2004) and the Long Way Round (2007) in which they ride motorcycles along gruelling routes – the first being London to New York via Eurasia and the second from Scotland to Cape Town.
Talking about the third series, which will start in Argentina and may go as far north as the Alaska, Boorman told ADVPulse that, “We got a few little surprises. We are not going to do it traditionally so there is going to be a little twist,” he added.
Given this is first and foremost a motorcycle show, the addition of Rivian R1T’s to the convoy is a pretty interesting twist, and will be a great format to show off what is promised to be a great high performance offroad EV (with a battery capacity from 105kWh to 180kWh, and torque between 560-1,120Nm, acceleration is touted to be from 0-100 km/hr in 3.2 seconds, top speed is 201 km/hr and driving range from 390 and 660km).
But the other twist is that the the Rivian electric ute will be joined by LiveWire motorcycles, according to Argentina’s Autoblog – the yet to be released all-electric motorcycles from legendary American bikemaker Harley Davidson.
With a 15kWh battery, 74hp motor and 100Nm of torque, the LiveWire is expected to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/hr in 3.5 seconds and have a driving range of 235km.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.