Being a billionaire has its perks; in between dips into pools of gold, they build oceanfront compounds, secure audiences with top celebs, and avoid the riffraff with private jets. Lately, they’ve looked beyond the confines of Earth, with Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos each blasting off for brief stints among the outer edges of our planet’s atmosphere.
But once that flight suit is zipped tight and the cowboy hat is affixed to your noggin, how best to travel to the launchpad? In Bezos’ case, he and his team of fellow space explorers hopped into a Rivian electric SUV this morning and zoomed to the West Texas launch site and Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable rocket.
It was a pretty obvious choice. In 2019, Amazon invested $700 million in Rivian. More recently, the company closed a $2.65 billion investment round, which included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund. And Amazon’s new electric delivery vans were developed in partnership with Rivian.
A Rivian spokesperson confirmed that the company “loaned several pre-production R1T and R1S vehicles to the Blue Origin team to assist with launch-day transportation.” But for now, Bezos and crew are among the only ones who can sample these sleek EVs.
The pandemic has delayed the launch of the R1S SUV that took Bezos to the launchpad this morning, as well as the R1T pick-up truck. They were supposed to arrive this month, but delivery to buyers of the R1T has been pushed to September, while the R1S will now arrive later this fall, Rivian confirms.
“The cascading impacts of the pandemic have had a compounding effect greater than anyone anticipated. Everything from facility construction, to equipment installation, to vehicle component supply (especially semiconductors) has been impacted by the pandemic,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in an email to customers, CNBC reports.
The R1S SUV starts at $70,000 with an estimated 300+ miles of range. It seats seven, goes from 0 to 60mph in three seconds, can tow up to 7,700 pounds, and wade in water up to 3 feet deep, according to Rivian. Interior touch screens will offer 4G and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth pairing, wireless inductive charger, and up to eight USB, three 12V, and two 120V outlets. Naturally, you can talk to the Rivian via Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.
The R1T pick-up, meanwhile, starts at $67,500, also with an estimated 300+ miles of range. It only seats five, but can tow up to 11,000 pounds. The interior is similar, but it has six USB and four 120V outlets. On the configuration websites for both vehicles, it says deliveries for orders placed now will begin in January 2022.
Branson, meanwhile, traveled to and from the launchpad during his own flight in Land Rover vehicles—specifically a Range Rover Astronaut Edition.
