The primary mode of travel for most Americans isn’t an airplane, a bike or a train – it’s a car. I’m the same – I’ve driven 200,000+ miles over the last decade, mostly associated with my too-long work commute to San Diego and LA. Even retired I’m driving something like 12,000 miles per year, so having a good vehicle is important.

I’m a year away from needing to replace my primary traveling tool, my car. The BMW 5-series plug-in hybrid has been and continues to be a great car. Drives like a BMW, is beautiful and most importantly qualifies for the carpool lanes. Carpool lanes are essential in Socal unless you want to spend hours in heavy, heavy freeway traffic.

In retirement my needs have changed somewhat, so I’m thinking a truck. But also needing the carpool lanes leads one to wish for an electric truck – something that doesn’t exist yet but looks like it will in late 2020, pretty much perfect timing for me. So I’ve put myself on the waiting list for two prospective EV trucks – the Rivian and the Atlis. I’m hoping for the Atlis (better looking design) but the Rivian is much more likely to produce a vehicle in the near term. Rivian has huge orders from Ford and Amazon and is extremely well capitalized. Atlis not so much.

The specs on both are amazing (see below), so either way it would be a great vehicle. BMW performance, truck utility and EV efficiency and conservation. Win-win-win. The only downside is price – they’re going to be expensive. It should be noted that neither company has produced a single ready-to sell vehicle yet, so that makes things a bit risky. But that’s where Tesla was a few years ago.

Anyway, stay tuned. We’ll see what the EV truck landscape looks like a year from now.

From motor1.com: “Rivian intends to offer the pickup with three available powertrain options. The base model has 402 horsepower (300 kilowatts), 413 pound-feet 560 Newton-meters), and a 105 kWh battery capacity offering a driving range over 230 miles (370 kilometers). The middle step has 754 hp (562 kW), 826 lb-ft (1,120 Nm), and a 135 kWh battery with a range over 300 miles (483 kilometers). The range-topping version has slightly less power at 700 hp (522 kW) and 826 lb-ft (1,120 Nm), but it packs a 180 kWh battery with a range over 400 miles (644 kilometers). “