Rivian’s electric pickups are some of the most hotly anticipated EVs in the US, but potential buyers will have to wait to get their hands on one. After shutting down its plant last month due to the coronavirus crisis, the startup has announced that production will be delayed until 2021, according to the Chicago Tribune. Rivian had aimed to deliver its first EV pickups and SUVs later this year, but it can’t get its facility (a former Mitsubishi plant), retooled quickly enough.

Rivian planned to hire thousands of employees in a push to start producing the fully electric R1T pickup and R1S SUV, but the pandemic has interrupted that process. It has been forced to furlough many of its full-time and hourly workers (with full pay), but now it only has a skeleton crew of maintenance workers and contractors. “There are 11 Rivian employees there in 2.6 million square feet,” spokesperson Amy Mast told the Tribune. Other automakers, including Ford, Telsa and GM, have also been forced to stop production due to COVID-19.

The machine should produce up to 1,000HP with 11,500lb/ft of torque and a 0-60MPH time of about 3 seconds.

You still won’t see the full reveal of the Hummer EV until May 20th, and it won’t be available until fall 2021. There’s no guarantee that it’ll compare favorably to Tesla’s Cybertruck or Ford’s electric pickup. Still, the James ad says a lot about GM’s expectations. Where it treated the Chevy Bolt almost as a side project (the Bolt has never been produced in truly large numbers), it’s willing to spend a fortune on a Super Bowl ad with an NBA star to market a Hummer EV that won’t be available for well over a year. GM undoubtedly wants this truck to be a mainstream hit, and it’s hoping some early buzz will help make this happen.

This could be an important move for Karma. It has remained a niche brand ever since Chinese car part maker Wanxiang Group revived the original Fisker in 2014, selling roughly 1,000 Reveros in 2019. Lower-priced electric trucks would give it a much wider audience, especially in North America where pickups are popular.

It’s going to face stiff competition, however. The most conspicuous challenger is Tesla’s Cybertruck, but Karma will also have to challenge Rivian’s R1T, GM’s still-mysterious pickup and the eventual electric Ford F-150. These are mostly big names that have extensive experience with EV technology and large-scale truck manufacturing, and it’ll be no mean feat to compete on both fronts.

Other new features include Pick Your Pickup mapping, which lets customers select the pickup location most convenient to their route each day, plus customized navigation and the option to send a friend or family member to collect an order in their place. And to round out the new additions, Instacart now offers alcohol pickup — in addition to delivery — from more than 20 partners, so you don’t need to make an extra stop for that crate of beer.

Instacart started out as a delivery service, but it seems to be increasingly focused on pickup options. Other major retailers already offer this, of course, but by adding these new features — and expanding to include booze, which would not be without its logistical challenges in terms of laws and ID — the company clearly wants to position itself at the go-to click-and-collect provider. Looking ahead, the company says it expects to double the number of stores offering pickups this year.

Rather than place all of the pickup orders on a crowded shelf, Chipotle will test walk-up windows and pick-up portals. The details are still vague, but Chipotle says the changes will make it easier for digital customers to receive their food.

You might see the new layouts popping up in Chicago, Cincinnati, Phoenix, San Diego and Newport Beach, California. Chipotle will tests its “evolved design” in new restaurants, including an urban storefront, a standalone restaurant with a Chipotlane and an end cap unit with a Chipotlane. It will also retrofit two existing locations.

With any luck, Chipotle will get its burrito-delivering drones flying in more places soon, too.

The reason is the Cybertruck will probably be quite heavy. Vehicle classes are based on gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWR). This is basically the absolute maximum a vehicle can weigh, comprising the car’s weight plus whatever is in it. The 2b-3 medium-duty class consists of vehicles with gross vehicle weight ratings over 8,500 pounds, while the light-duty group is under 8,500 pounds. The Tesla probably goes over that 8,500-pound mark not just because of its payload, which is a claimed 3,500 pounds for the base model, but because electric cars with all their batteries weigh a lot.

Take for instance the Porsche Taycan Turbo. It’s not a very big sports sedan, but it has a curb weight of a whopping 5,132 pounds, which is heavier than any F-150 except the diesel model and the Raptor. And even with all those batteries and an aerodynamic shape, it only manages an EPA range of 201 miles. Put a bunch of batteries in a vehicle with the size and heavy build of an F-150, but with worse aerodynamics than a Taycan or Model S, and hit at least 250 miles of range, and you’re going to have an elephant of a vehicle, no matter who’s building it.

There are some interesting consequences to the classification of the Tesla and the likely heavy weight of all electric pickup trucks. As the author of the Automotive News article pointed out on Twitter, medium-duty vehicles don’t get an EPA fuel economy rating, so Tesla probably wouldn’t have to have an official EPA range and electricity usage rating.

Also, if the Cybertruck ends up in the medium-duty class, there’s a strong possibility the upcoming electric F-150, and even the Rivian R1T, will, too, depending on its capabilities. The 2020 F-150 has a GVWR range from 6,070 pounds to 7,850 pounds. Ford could potentially reduce the payload capacity of an electric F-150 to try and stay under the 8,500-pound GVWR mark, but we expect Ford won’t want to sacrifice any capability, as it wants the electric F-150 to be just as usable as the internal-combustion versions.

Ford added that it was going to have electrified trucks regardless, including a hybrid F-150 in 2020 and a fully electric F-150 in “a few years.”

There might not be a clear-cut winner if there is a duel, official or otherwise (Musk hinted at one next week). As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out, the Cybertruck won Tesla’s pre-recorded battle because its inherently heavy design made the most of the EV’s high torque. The F-150, meanwhile, had relatively little weight over its rear wheel drive system and thus didn’t have the traction needed to fight back. Fully loading both would still favor the Cybertruck, but there could be situations where Ford’s truck emerged victorious.

At the unveiling of Tesla’s Cybertruck, Elon Musk showed off a video of the low-polygon-count pickup defeating an F-150 in a tug of war. Since then, many have complained it wasn’t a good comparison, since the presumable AWD Cybertruck appeared to face off against a RWD Ford with nothing in the bed to help its tires get grip, and took off first.

GM’s electric truck plans were rumored last month, when the Detroit Free Press reported that the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant would remain open to produce the electric pickup. But this is the first time the company has mentioned a timeline.

The electric truck market is becoming more crowded. Rivian’s R1T electric pickup is slated to arrive in 2020, and Tesla plans to introduce its electric truck in 2021. Ford is developing an all-electric F-150, and while the automaker has shared a video of its prototype towing over one million pounds, it has not specified when the EV will arrive.

Cybertruck unveil on Nov 21 in LA near SpaceX rocket factory

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2019

Musk talked up the truck at Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting in June. He suggested that Ford’s F-150, which Musk called a “great truck,” is a bit of a benchmark for Tesla’s own vehicle (Ford’s working on an electric version of that, too).

The Cybertruck has been crafted to “meet or exceed an F-150. If the F-150 can do it then a Tesla truck should be able to do it.” Musk suggested it has a bold “cyberpunk” design, “like it came out of a sci-fi movie.” It seems the rest of us will get to determine whether that’s accurate in a couple of weeks.

Musk also noted the reveal date is “strangely familiar.” The classic cyberpunk movie Blade Runner is set in Los Angeles in November 2019, after all.

The date is strangely familiar …https://t.co/YZl5R1POJL

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2019