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What gives you better odds of winning than the lottery jackpot, supports solar energy education and advocacy, and could put you in the seat of a Rivian R1S or R1T? The Illinois Solar Education Association’s Rivian Raffle, that’s what. With a 1 in 2500 chance of winning, this raffle is exponentially easier to win than a significant lottery prize, and because the winner will get behind the wheel of either the #1 ranked Luxury Electric SUV (R1S) or the Motor Trend Truck of the Year (R1T), it’s a clean tech lottery worth participating in.
The Illinois Solar Education Association (ISEA), which has been raffling off EVs for 10 years now, is at it again with this year’s raffle, which has a Rivian electric vehicle as its prize. The winning raffle ticket-holder can choose between the Rivian R1S, a 7-seater SUV with 390 miles of range, or the R1T, a pickup with 400 miles of range and an 11,000-pound towing capacity.
Raffle tickets for this Rivian EV cost $100 each, or 4 for $300, and there is no limit to the number of tickets that participants can purchase, other than the fact that only 2500 tickets total will be sold for this raffle. The raffle will end on May 1st, 2024, and a winner will be drawn on May 3rd, 2024. All of the proceeds from the raffle go to directly support the ISEA mission of solar education and advocacy.
Last year’s ISEA raffle winner, because he had recently had a solar array installed on his home, essentially got a double climate win, allowing him to pair an EV with solar, proving that driving on solar-generated electrons is not just a pipedream, but an actual achievable clean tech goal.
Click here to read full raffle rules.
Why would the ISEA choose to raffle off a Rivian? Well, for starters, Rivian’s vehicles are “made for the planet,” and as the company says, all of its vehicles share a common goal of “preserving the natural world for generations to come.” And not only are the Rivian R1S and R1T worthy electric adventure vehicles on their own, but the company’s work can also serve as inspiration for others to create solutions “that shift consumer mindsets” and perhaps influence other companies “to fundamentally change the way they operate.”
The Rivian R1S, a 7-seater SUV with 390 miles of range, is no slouch in the quickness department, as it can go from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds, and because it can tow up to 7,700 lb, the R1S is also capable of pulling a boat or a camper or a trailer full of e-bikes (or an electric motorcycle or ATV) for off-road or off-grid adventures. In 2023, the Rivian R1S was chosen as the number one Luxury Electric SUV by US News & World Report.
The R1S has been described as being not “just an electric SUV, it’s simply a better all-around vehicle than the existing crop of conventionally fueled SUVs, even those that cost more than twice as much,” and that it “drives more like a sports sedan than a hulking, 7,000-pound SUV.”
The Rivian R1T is an electric pickup truck that seats 5 and has a range of up to 400 miles per charge, and it’s also a quick EV, with a 0-60 time of 3 seconds. The R1T is also capable of towing up to 11,000 pounds, which is no small potatoes in the world of pickups, ensuring that lack of towing power is not an issue with this truck. The R1T received the 2023 JD Power Award for “most satisfying ownership experience” among Premium Battery Electric Vehicles, and earned Truck of the Year designation in 2022 from Motor Trend.
One reviewer had this to say about one of the R1T’s standout features: “It’s a storage tunnel that runs through the width of the vehicle in between the rear seats and the bed. This tunnel has lights and two 120-volt outlets that make storing things like surfboards, golf clubs, and even people — yes, I could fit inside. […] The gear tunnel doors can actually support up to 250 pounds, so you can use it to sit on or stand on to load things onto the roof or in the bed or just climb into the bed.”
Get the full scoop on the ISEA Rivian raffle here, and buy your tickets while you’re at it.
ISEA is actually two sister nonprofit organizations — the Illinois Solar Energy Association and the Illinois Solar Education Association — which promote the widespread application of solar and other forms of renewable energy through its mission of advocacy and education. ISEA is also the state resource for renewable energy-related policy developments, educational classes, events, and access to local renewable energy businesses. Thanks to the recent passage of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), support for clean energy and green jobs is higher than ever, and ISEA aims to help Illinois take advantage of both in the fight against climate change.
This article is sponsored by ISEA. Images courtesy of Rivian.
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