Alike everyone else, Rivian is bullish. And they are doing it at the wrong time. The Verge reports that the EV automaker has scrapped the base model of the R1T pickup and the R1S SUV and upset customers in the process, as it also edit pre-ordered models.
The move couldn’t be worse time, just days after President Biden signedThe Inflation Reduction Act became law, generate more than 70 percent EVs on the market do not qualify for the EV tax credit. The company’s moves were spotted by the owners on online forum and then confirmed by the company via email to the customer.
The company explained that it has has discontinued the Explorer package for R1T. It’s the cheapest R1T you can buy, with prices starting at $67,500. This means that the cheapest R1T you can get is the $73,000 Adventure Edition. Emails sent to customers explaining the company’s reasoning:
We appreciate your enthusiasm for our company and products. We have an update that affects your pre-order and would like to ensure that you receive information directly from us.
In order to offer as many vehicles as possible, we have decided to discontinue the Discovery Pack. We found this news unexpected and apologize for how it affected your plans.
When we initially launched our vehicle, we planned two packages, Adventure and Explore, to offer more variety to our customers. The Explore Pack is designed as our entry option and we expect that a large number of customers will choose it. To date, only a small percentage of customers have chosen this configuration, of which the vast majority choose the Adventure version. By focusing on the Adventure trim, we were able to streamline our supply chain and ultimately deliver vehicles faster.
What makes all of this worse is that it also impact customers who have have pre-orders. And Rivian doesn’t give them many options. They can cancel the order completely and get the deposit back, or they can open their wallet to drop more powder for more expensive decoration.
Much People expressed anger when this increase and frustration over other problems facing the company hit.
G/O Media may receive a commission
Year-round basics
Uniqlo Summer Sale
Basics you don’t wanna miss
Uniqlo’s summer sales are not to be missed. The whole sale is killer to stock up on the basics Uniqlo is known for—subtle colors, classic silhouettes, and a dress up-or-down vibe.
“Fooled me once! I’m beyond incredibly frustrated with Rivian at this point. I understand inflation however this is simple a manufacturing incompetence tax that they are passing on to their committed reservation holders. The opinion of the reservation holders who will now be paying an extra $6000 more than they were promised won’t matter because they can’t deliver a fraction of the cars on the reservation list before 2024,” one customer said.
Rivian has also raised the price of the R1S SUV, a vehicle that hasn’t even started shipping to customers yet. The base model R1S is currently priced at $78,000. One customer said he is canceling his order because with the increase, the R1S just doesn’tmakes no sense to him anymore.
“Now base price is 78k with dual and standard plan… Looks like I’m out. I need long range, standard 260 won’t do, that would give me 220 real world driving. Don’t pay 82k for the long range model with no tax credit, Just become a beta tester for Rivian…” he say.
Remember, this is not the first time Rivian has raised prices. This is just the first time the company has actually surpassed it. Earlier this year, the company tried to raise the price of R1T and R1S. But the backlash came from all sides, from angry customers to shareholders threatened to sue. RJ Scaringe CEO issued an apology and was quick to back up the increase. This time around it looks like those rallies are here to stay.
