Huge Rivian Price Hike

[hydbob]

They fixed it......
For anyone with a Rivian preorder as of the March 1 pricing announcement, your original configured price will be honored. If you canceled your preorder on or after March 1 and would like to reinstate it, we will restore your original configuration, pricing and delivery timing. Our team will be sending an email in the next few days with more details.

Not sure this is better lol, company trust already eroded?

 

[Charley]

Also apologetic. Here is the entire email.
Hello Everyone,

Earlier this week, we announced pricing increases that broke the trust we have worked to build with you. Since originally setting our pricing structure, and most especially in recent months, a lot has changed. The costs of the components and materials that go into building our vehicles have risen considerably. Everything from semiconductors to sheet metal to seats has become more expensive and with this we have seen average new vehicle pricing across the U.S. rise more than 30% since 2018. Given our build lead up times, we need to plan production costs not only for today, but also for the future.

As we worked to update pricing to reflect these cost increases, we wrongly decided to make these changes apply to all future deliveries, including pre-existing configured preorders. We failed to appreciate how you viewed your configuration as price locked, and we wrongly assumed the announced Dual-Motor and Standard battery pack would provide configurations that would deliver price points similar to your original configuration. While this was the logic, it was wrong and we broke your trust in Rivian.

We also didn’t manage communications well. We didn’t give you enough insight into what was driving these decisions. The most important aspect of what we are building is our relationship with all of you. As we demonstrated earlier this week, trust is hard to build and easy to break. In speaking with many of you over the last two days, I fully realize and acknowledge how upset many of you felt. I have made a lot of mistakes since starting Rivian more than 12 years ago, but this one has been the most painful. I am truly sorry and committed to rebuilding your trust.

One of the things we talk about a lot internally is that we will make mistakes – it’s part of building something complex. The key is to learn from them and address them when they are made. It is how we grow. We made a mistake in how we approached our pricing changes, and what is important now is that we fix it.

For anyone with a Rivian preorder as of the March 1 pricing announcement, your original configured price will be honored. If you canceled your preorder on or after March 1 and would like to reinstate it, we will restore your original configuration, pricing and delivery timing. Our team will be sending an email in the next few days with more details.

Regarding our updated pricing for future preorders, the introduction of our Dual-Motor configuration and Standard battery pack has been designed to enable us to maintain lower starting prices while adjusting the pricing of the Quad-Motor and larger battery packs to reflect rising costs. Building a durable business is core to the continued impact we can deliver as a company. We are focused on building a brand and products that will continue to scale to different vehicle sizes, use cases, price points and markets – this growth will only be possible with your support and continued feedback.

Thank you for the personal notes and discussions I had with so many of you. Your feedback makes us better.

RJ

 

[Dortreo]

Because sleep is for the weak, I spent last night looking at Rivian alternatives and realized that there are several coming onto the market in the time that Rivian will be delivering cars… if they can get their production act together. I’m now very interested in the Polestar 3/Volvo Embra and the Kia EV9/Ioniq 7.

A Rivian based on 2018 technology that is bottom of the barrel in efficiency may still not be worth it even with reinstated pricing, but it’s fine to keep the reservation to see how the market plays out. It’s definitely not worth it at the price hike that Rivian was proposing.

Not sure this is better lol, company trust already eroded?

Trust but verify.

 

[Coltonw011]

Bottom line, they shit the bed..I cancelled my order back when I was told my R1T wouldn’t be ready until end of 2023. Sad they couldn’t have had an internal discussion about customer backlash before going through this whirlwind. Rough time for Rivian.

 

[manitou202]

At this point Rivian's best hope is all of the new competition have similar price increases over the next 12-24 months. Cybertruck, F150 lightning, Model X, iX, etc.

Even the new vehicles like the Polestar P3 could be launched at pretty high prices.

In my opinion their SUV is more competitive than their truck. The truck will face a lot of competition from Ford, Tesla, and GM. The SUV is pretty unique in a sense that it's 3-row, has tremendous storage compared to a Model X or iX, and has impressive off-road capability. Honestly it almost competes with a Landrover defender more than a BMW iX.

 

[MikeTz]

I didn't cancel as I am a sucker for new tech. However, something this big must have been decided at the company board level. Clearly, the Board failed to realize that Rivian had a successful IPO primarily due to a large number of early adopters. Time to clean shop. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

 

[manitou202]

I didn't cancel either. Depending on how deliveries go over the next 6 months, when my time comes up to take delivery I'm much more likely to buy it for the original price. Even if we don't keep it, my guess is the resale will be high for quite some time.

I'll be interested to see how many new orders they get over the next couple of quarters. A big price increase combined with a long wait (+2 years for new orders) may really stall more pre-orders.

 

[Dortreo]

I didn't cancel as I am a sucker for new tech. However, something this big must have been decided at the company board level. Clearly, the Board failed to realize that Rivian had a successful IPO primarily due to a large number of early adopters. Time to clean shop. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

The tech really isn’t that new. The 400V architecture combined with a large battery pack and low efficiency engines means long charging times.

I‘m afraid there may be a significant disparity between Rivian image and Rivian culture. The tone deafness of this pricing move along with their pre-IPO actions and the issues brought up in the Laura Schwab case suggest this is the case.

My son, who is far more sensible than me, has now convinced me that re-instating our R1S reservation is the wrong move. It‘s good to have a smart kid.

 

[MikeTz]

Clearly, the company can't sustain the losses it will occur servicing existing orders at the current price. At the end of the day, it will need a competitive product to survive.

 

[manitou202]

Their charging rates have improved. The latest software updates are showing 196kW at 48%. That's pretty decent. But I agree it will take much longer to charge because of the massive battery pack and will be a shock to new EV adopters. Especially the towing aspect which is basically useless in an EV at this point.

But this will also be a serious problem with the F150 Lightning. This will be a painful lesson for many of those buyers as well. Big batteries take a long time to charge. No getting around that at the moment. Lucid only makes up for this by having a big battery with fast charging, and incredible efficiency. The Lucid battery charges a bit faster at 350kW chargers, but it still is a long time to reach 80%+. The benefit of the Lucid is adding only 50% to the battery gives you 150-200 miles of range versus a Rivian might only add 100 miles in the same time.

 

[CLTGT]

I might even consider the Cadillac Lyriq if it had more HP and range. It's too bad, looks kinda sharp, IMO.

 

[HC_79]

The Lucid battery charges a bit faster at 350kW chargers

Yeah, Lucid's PR on this is pretty poor given how close the 150 and 350 charging session times are. Charging above 300Kw for a few mins just to say you have the fastest charging car on the market is lame. Come back to us when the car is doing 300Kw+ for 10 or 15 mins etc.

 

[hydbob]

Well...if I had to charge for only 15 minutes, obviously Lucid cannot be beat when it's near 0% SOC. Its not a total gimmick because the 350 is still much faster in that SOC range than the 150. You will still get 200 miles in 15 min compared to 120? I think

 

[borski]

Well...if I had to charge for only 15 minutes, obviously Lucid cannot be beat when it's near 0% SOC. Its not a total gimmick because the 350 is still much faster in that SOC range than the 150. You will still get 200 miles in 15 min compared to 120? I think

Not to mention that the curve is likely to be improved significantly over time.

 

[HC_79]

Not to mention that the curve is likely to be improved significantly over time.

Hopefully but the biggest issue is that 350Kw chargers are sparse and sounds like EA has changed plans to halt \ limit deployment of them due to sheer cost. They're now going down the original Tesla path of splitting power so they'll install 250Kw units and someone rocks up you'll be cut down to 125Kw. If this is the case then cars with big batteries are going to suffer.

If a car can only sustain a charging rate of 300+ for a few mins and the charger costs $300K+ to deploy its not cost effective for them to do so.

 

[copper]

Bottom line, they shit the bed..I cancelled my order back when I was told my R1T wouldn’t be ready until end of 2023. Sad they couldn’t have had an internal discussion about customer backlash before going through this whirlwind. Rough time for Rivian.

I didn't cancel my order because I bet they would walk this back. This was a serious breach of customer trust - rumor has it close to half of people were cancelling or had threatened to cancel. This would cut Rivian's order base off at the knees and there is no way they could afford it..

 

[hydbob]

I didn't cancel my order because I bet they would walk this back. This was a serious breach of customer trust - rumor has it close to half of people were cancelling or had threatened to cancel. This would cut Rivian's order base off at the knees and there is no way they could afford it..

So they walked it back but now every stock holder knows they will be losing millions in actual product costs...don't know how much better that is either.

 

[MikeTz]

The tech really isn’t that new. The 400V architecture combined with a large battery pack and low efficiency engines means long charging times.

I‘m afraid there may be a significant disparity between Rivian image and Rivian culture. The tone deafness of this pricing move along with their pre-IPO actions and the issues brought up in the Laura Schwab case suggest this is the case.

My son, who is far more sensible than me, has now convinced me that re-instating our R1S reservation is the wrong move. It‘s good to have a smart kid.

I just got a call from my Rivian Guide. My Rivian is due to arrive mid May instead of Aug Sept. Production is stepping up a lot or had a large number of cancellations that moved the line.

 

[hmp10]

I just got a call from my Rivian Guide. My Rivian is due to arrive mid May instead of Aug Sept. Production is stepping up a lot or had a large number of cancellations that moved the line.

Hmmm . . . could you tell us which model, which color/options, and when you reserved?

I reserved an R1S on Feb 2019 and have selected the Launch Green with Forest Edge interior. I got emails last fall saying I would hear from my "Rivian Guide" by Thanksgiving. So far, not a peep. And no answers to a couple of emails, either.

 

[rbbarry]

I just got a call from my Rivian Guide. My Rivian is due to arrive mid May instead of Aug Sept. Production is stepping up a lot or had a large number of cancellations that moved the line.

large number of cancellations? they actually told you that?