This may look like a Ford F-150, but underneath the Ford skin is the Rivian A1T electric pickup.
We last reported on Rivian last June when we discovered that the tech startup had purchased a former Mitsubishi factory in Illinois and their headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan. Their website is still light on the details when it comes to any actual products, which had us wondering just what the heck this company has been doing since being formed almost a decade ago.
Turns out they’ve been hard at work creating a modular chassis that will serve as the basis for an electric truck and an SUV. Again, we were light on the details for this chassis beyond the fact that it would have a conventional mid-battery layout and electric motors on both axles. We weren’t expecting more from them until 2019.
But it turns out that Rivian is a little ahead of the curve. Autoblog managed to spot a prototype truck running around the streets of California with an intriguing disguise: the body of a Ford F-150. However, take a second look and it’s easy to see that this is definitely no Ford pickup.
First off, the truck is a lot lower than how a regular F-150 would sit. Then you take a look at the tires and wheels and see that the brakes, rims, and independent suspension are all wrong for an F-150. Look a little lower and you’ll see that the chassis is most definitely not a standard Ford, with a big, long, and low battery pack sitting dead center underneath the truck.
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Of course, you could have just looked at the charging port on the front left fender to know that something was up.
Engadget reports that this F-150-disguised truck is actually the Rivian A1T prototype, and it will almost certainly not look like an F-150 by the time we see a proper production prototype.
The tech site also reported that the range on the A1T will vary from 200 to 450 miles, depending on the variant, with the top end model producing as much as 800 horsepower. Zero to sixty will be done in just 2.8 seconds with level 3 autonomy coming standard.
Prices will be in the Tesla range, between $50,000 and $90,000. Expect to start seeing some teasers from Rivian later this Fall.