Vincent
Member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2024
- Messages
- 137
- Reaction score
- 16
- Rivian
- R1T
So on Monday, one of our club members had just finished his last charge up after driving 500 miles, and only had about 100 to go to the grocery store. His 2 yr old son was sitting in the back seat, his mother in the front passenger. The light had just turned green. He went to hit the accelerator pedal and it happened.
The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon hit them so hard it moved them about 20 feet forward- but the way the car handled the impact, he honestly thought he had just been in a fender bender. Then he looked to his left- and he saw the other driver's car. The front end of the Jeep was COMPLETELY destroyed- and he realized immediately this was not good. But his barely 7 month old R1T did exactly what she was supposed to do and took all that force like a champ.
You can see the frame displaced the worst of it- and bent all the way up to the front door frame. They had to pry open the back driver's door to get to his son- who was thankfully completely uninjured. The back bench seat was actually pushed in towards the front by about 3 inches. Him and his mother are on OTC meds for pain, but other than seatbelt bruises so far, they walked away unscathed after getting checked out by doctors.
I'm just posting this as a thank you to all the Rivian engineers who put in the work building this fine machine. If they weren't in car that you put the time and energy to engineer so well- I don't think this conversation goes down this way. His car immediately shut itself down- all the safety systems worked exactly as intended- including calling 911 for them immediately after impact and disabling the battery that was spilling coolant all over the road.
So the next time someone tells you EVs aren't safe- that the batteries catch fire and explode- show them this and ask them how their car (EV or ICE) would hold up getting rear ended from a stand still from a Jeep Wrangler he estimate was doing about 70mph. I'll ride with Rivian any day.
The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon hit them so hard it moved them about 20 feet forward- but the way the car handled the impact, he honestly thought he had just been in a fender bender. Then he looked to his left- and he saw the other driver's car. The front end of the Jeep was COMPLETELY destroyed- and he realized immediately this was not good. But his barely 7 month old R1T did exactly what she was supposed to do and took all that force like a champ.
You can see the frame displaced the worst of it- and bent all the way up to the front door frame. They had to pry open the back driver's door to get to his son- who was thankfully completely uninjured. The back bench seat was actually pushed in towards the front by about 3 inches. Him and his mother are on OTC meds for pain, but other than seatbelt bruises so far, they walked away unscathed after getting checked out by doctors.
I'm just posting this as a thank you to all the Rivian engineers who put in the work building this fine machine. If they weren't in car that you put the time and energy to engineer so well- I don't think this conversation goes down this way. His car immediately shut itself down- all the safety systems worked exactly as intended- including calling 911 for them immediately after impact and disabling the battery that was spilling coolant all over the road.
So the next time someone tells you EVs aren't safe- that the batteries catch fire and explode- show them this and ask them how their car (EV or ICE) would hold up getting rear ended from a stand still from a Jeep Wrangler he estimate was doing about 70mph. I'll ride with Rivian any day.
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