We drove a Dodge Ram 2500 diesel truck named Tug for many years. It served us well, provided plenty of towing power, and was remarkably reliable for hundreds of thousands of miles. We slept in the back and John stored his tools there. Indeed, Tug was a solid work truck.
In our quest to electrify everything, we embarked on a search for an electric pickup truck that could tow Howie, our travel trailer. Tug was getting older and the transmission showed some warning signs. A couple companies started marketing electric trucks, which had us very interested.
Rivian stood out. Even though it’s a new company, we were excited to see what they had designed. We went to a Rivian road show in Atlanta, followed them online, and put in a preorder in 2019.
Somehow the timing worked out nearly perfectly and almost exactly 3 years after putting down a deposit we picked up our new electric truck at the factory in Normal, Illinois:
Tug-E (so named even before we picked it up) is amazing! It’s clean and quiet, zippy and powerful, and highly versatile. I’m now so used to regenerative braking and one-pedal driving that I never want to drive an ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle again.
We purchased a Launch edition (Quad motor AWD) with a Large Pack battery (135 kWh) and 21″ wheels. It weighs about 7200 pounds, similar to our old Tug.
The range is listed at 314 miles, and we suspect we could get more if we tried. As with all vehicles, efficiency varies based on speed, terrain, driving habits, and weather. And obviously towing a box of a travel trailer, which cuts the range in half. We are learning a lot about how to manage that.
Speaking of towing, Tug-E does that extremely well. We hardly know there’s a trailer following behind us. The truck handles great and still has plenty of uphill power. Integration of the trailer braking system is seamless. We collect data whenever we tow and I’ve posted about our first two summers here. The only challenge with towing is managing the frequent charging, something I will write about in more detail. So many potential blog post topics…
Without the trailer on tow, the truck will go just about anywhere. 300+ miles of range is quite good at this point in the EV evolution, especially as the charging station network is improving all the time. Heading into the boondocks definitely requires planning, but it certainly is possible.
We are super excited to finally have an all-wheel drive truck. Tug-E clearly has capabilities we are just beginning to understand, and we look forward to more adventures to places we previously could reach only by bike or on foot.
The truck has extra space under the hood (no engine) and inside the gear tube behind the back seat. This somewhat makes up for the smaller bed and our current lack of a cap on the back. John pared down his tool supply, and I’m attempting to pare down the gear stored in Howie to provide more room inside. Reducing our travel weight is a good idea anyway.
The other thing we miss is a place to sleep inside the truck. Perhaps we will add a cap or set up a tent platform.
These are small sacrifices in return for many huge benefits. Thank you Rivian, we are two enthusiastic early adopters!