It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Aren't the new (VW) "Scout" brand models a pretty direct competitor to Rivian's (current) offerings?
This is a smart play. It’s the only way Volkswagen doesn’t die competing against Tesla and BYD considering it’s current state. Cheaper to buy in than transform yourself in the short term.
VW cleaned up their image. Now they have a different problem - China is no longer buying and their current offerings are not as interesting to consumers everywhere else.
Same thing has happened in corvettes. Corvette has has electronic doors since at least the c6 (2005) and just like the Tesla has a manual release. But people still get “trapped” and die. There was even a story of an older guy dying in his corvette from asphyxiation because he couldn’t figure it out in ~30 mins.
In fact the Tesla release is more intuitive than the corvette. The corvette has it on the floor, the Tesla it’s right in front of the window switches. In my experience people pull the manual release thinking it’s the primary all the time.
But yeah, never mind the fact that electronic door latching has been around in the industry before Tesla even existed, and is present in VW and VW group vehicles let alone most other brands.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Aren't the new (VW) "Scout" brand models a pretty direct competitor to Rivian's (current) offerings?
https://www.scoutmotors.com/
The new Scouts are being developed in cooperation with Rivian, using Rivian technology.
This is a smart play. It’s the only way Volkswagen doesn’t die competing against Tesla and BYD considering it’s current state. Cheaper to buy in than transform yourself in the short term.
I'm worried it will taint the brand though. After DieselGate, VW's brand isn't a positive.
VW cleaned up their image. Now they have a different problem - China is no longer buying and their current offerings are not as interesting to consumers everywhere else.
I'm really shocked that anyone is still mentioning Dieselgate and comparing VW to Tesla when people are dying because of faulty Tesla tech: https://futurism.com/the-byte/four-die-trapped-burning-tesla
1. Those things are completely different and unrelated. It’s ok to be mad at both.
2. There is a difference between faulty and badly designed.
Doors stuck after crash happen in regular cars too, that's why you should have a window smasher in the car.
Same thing has happened in corvettes. Corvette has has electronic doors since at least the c6 (2005) and just like the Tesla has a manual release. But people still get “trapped” and die. There was even a story of an older guy dying in his corvette from asphyxiation because he couldn’t figure it out in ~30 mins.
In fact the Tesla release is more intuitive than the corvette. The corvette has it on the floor, the Tesla it’s right in front of the window switches. In my experience people pull the manual release thinking it’s the primary all the time.
But yeah, never mind the fact that electronic door latching has been around in the industry before Tesla even existed, and is present in VW and VW group vehicles let alone most other brands.
Where exactly did I compare VW to Tesla?
I feel that at this point most people have either forgotten about DieselGate or simply don't care anymore.
It is unlikely consumers shun Rivian for VW’s reputational issue.
I've never met anybody that shuns even VW for VW's reputational issue!