The Enduro drive units have been developed entirely by Rivian
This powertrain is now being winter tested in the Southern Hemisphere
Currently, all Rivian vehicles are powered by four Bosch electric motors
Rivian announced it would make its R1T and R1S models more affordable by offering versions powered by two motors instead of four and it seems that they could be available fairly soon.
In a recent Tweet, the automaker’s CEO revealed a few pictures that show the R1S and the R1T being tested in New Zealand.
This is because it is currently winter in the southern hemisphere and Rivian wants to see how its upcoming Enduro powertrain will cope with the cold temperatures and the particularities of driving in the snow.
These types of tests are performed by every automaker in order to make adjustments prior to the launch of new vehicles or powertrains to ensure that potential problems caused by adverse weather are rectified before customers can experience them.
Unlike the quad-motor powertrain that is currently offered by Rivian, the Enduro powertrain will use two motors that have been designed entirely by the automaker.
Indeed, instead of using motors made by Bosch as it does at the moment, Rivian decided to engineer an entirely new motor and an inverter to use with it.
According to the automaker, one of the Enduro power units is almost as powerful as two of the motors currently in use.
This means that the vehicles equipped with two of those units will have about 600 horsepower and possibly close to 600 lb-ft of torque.
Replacing the quad-motor setup with two Enduro units could save the company money and thus allow a lower starting price for the R1S and R1T.
These drive units will also be used in the smaller R2 platform as well as the EDV electric delivery van, which already uses a single motor version of this new powertrain.
