Rivian reports production of 2k+ and deliveries of over 1k+ in Q1

[Sandvinsd]

I have stated this before elsewhere and @Sandvinsd is correct if what my DA and his boss told me holds true. The Harmonization Process has taken longer and has been more difficult than they anticipated. The process can be very complex and can be impacted by various environmental factors as well as curing differences, etc. I can understand that it is a complex process and yes, it does come down to matching paint. It sounds like it should be simple, but it isn’t. That being said, it should not take as long as it has. According to my DA and his boss, it has nothing to do with a bad batch of paint or any type of supply issues. It is all about the Harmony Process.

Red was a late edition to the DE offering so it makes sense it ended up at the tail end of the DE’s. The grey delay is certainly something Lucid is not happy with, but I would have thought it was something they would have figured out by now. Grey has been an option for over a year. One would have thought they might have started working on this a long time ago, especially if they ran into some of the same issues with red, but we really do not know that for sure.

Bottom line, it’s a complicated process. It should not have been a surprise to Lucid. People have been painting cars different colors for decades. I think they took it for granted and thought it wouldn‘t be an issue. I am sure they wish they had started the process earlier, but they did not.

Elon said that Lucid would experience production hell. Peter said production hell was only from poor planning And they planned well. This is production hell and Elon was right. Peter did not plan this well. Of course this could have all been avoided if they told customers they can have thee colors without delay, red, black and white, but they did not.

 

[hydbob]

Elon said that Lucid would experience production hell. Peter said production hell was only from poor planning And they planned well. This is production hell and Elon was right. Peter did not plan this well. Of course this could have all been avoided if they told customers they can have thee colors without delay, red, black and white, but they did not.

I know you guys are just venting, but even well established companies are having issues. Covid/supply chain chain and then now a war. Honestly, when you hear that BMW, Ford, and Porsche put factories on hold because of parts it should make people understand the constraints. Now, Tesla and VW have factories completely stopped in Shanghai due to a government shutdown of the city. Elon said production hell is real and Peter said it was from poor planning. Who could plan around a pandemic, supply chain issue, and a war? It's frustrating, I get it. Yes, Lucid could have done MUCH better communicating, but that's really the most they could control.

 

[CLTGT]

I am venting, but I also don’t want to hear anything about the supply chain or other companies stopping production. Supply chain has nothing to do with why Lucid is not producing grey or silver cars according to my DA, nothing. It is not an excuse that holds water in this respect.

Lucid has no problem producing red, black or white cars, just grey and silver. Their communication really sucks. They have known for over a year they had to produce these color cars and when it came down to it, they couldn’t do it, not due to supply, but rather ability. Had they communicated thusly, telling us that it would be 2-9 months instead of 2-4, I might have, probably would have, ordered another M5. That is where the supply chain issues hurt. I put too much faith in Lucid to produce what they sold to me. I put to much trust in Lucid to do what they said they would do, even though they do appear to be doing it for others. Now that I might have to consider another car, I am that much further behind.

When I spoke to my DA a month ago and confronted him about us thinking there were problems with Grey and silver, he told me there was an issue with silver, but no issue with Grey. That was not entirely truthful.

So, let’s quit pretending that supply issues are why Lucid isn’t delivering Grey or silver cars until they say such and explain. They simply thought producing these colors would not, could not be that big of a deal. They offered these colors as an option from the start. It’s not like they didn’t have over a year to figure it out.

I would give them more leeway and a pass for real supply chain issues, but not this Or the communication around it.

 

[Maverick]

I am venting, but I also don’t want to hear anything about the supply chain or other companies stopping production. Supply chain has nothing to do with why Lucid is not producing grey or silver cars according to my DA, nothing. It is not an excuse that holds water in this respect.

Lucid has no problem producing red, black or white cars, just grey and silver. Their communication really sucks. They have known for over a year they had to produce these color cars and when it came down to it, they couldn’t do it, not due to supply, but rather ability. Had they communicated thusly, telling us that it would be 2-9 months instead of 2-4, I might have, probably would have, ordered another M5. That is where the supply chain issues hurt. I put too much faith in Lucid to produce what they sold to me. I put to much trust in Lucid to do what they said they would do, even though they do appear to be doing it for others. Now that I might have to consider another car, I am that much further behind.

When I spoke to my DA a month ago and confronted him about us thinking there were problems with Grey and silver, he told me there was an issue with silver, but no issue with Grey. That was not entirely truthful.

I get it. Have gotten it. I understand the frustration, but repeating the same thing over and over on the board does not solve your problem. I mean @Sandvinsd you've basically said the same thing 20 times on this thread alone. I don't begrudge your frustration. I just begrudge my reading it over and over.

 

[hydbob]

Oh yea what about that giant ship of cars and car parts burning up?

 

[CLTGT]

And yet we still have people trying to blame this issue on supply chain.

Sorry to waste your time.. I will refrain from posting anything further until I have a VIN, cancel my order or have actual questions about a delivered car.

I am out.

 

[digiboxer]

I am venting, but I also don’t want to hear anything about the supply chain or other companies stopping production. Supply chain has nothing to do with why Lucid is not producing grey or silver cars according to my DA, nothing. It is not an excuse that holds water in this respect.

Lucid has no problem producing red, black or white cars, just grey and silver. Their communication really sucks. They have known for over a year they had to produce these color cars and when it came down to it, they couldn’t do it, not due to supply, but rather ability. Had they communicated thusly, telling us that it would be 2-9 months instead of 2-4, I might have, probably would have, ordered another M5. That is where the supply chain issues hurt. I put too much faith in Lucid to produce what they sold to me. I put to much trust in Lucid to do what they said they would do, even though they do appear to be doing it for others. Now that I might have to consider another car, I am that much further behind.

When I spoke to my DA a month ago and confronted him about us thinking there were problems with Grey and silver, he told me there was an issue with silver, but no issue with Grey. That was not entirely truthful.

So, let’s quit pretending that supply issues are why Lucid isn’t delivering Grey or silver cars until they say such and explain. They simply thought producing these colors would not, could not be that big of a deal. They offered these colors as an option from the start. It’s not like they didn’t have over a year to figure it out.

I would give them more leeway and a pass for real supply chain issues, but not this Or the communication around it.

I think the vast majority of posters here (me included) have serious "confirmation bias": we decided to buy a Lucid and now we need to defend that decision no matter what. Hence all the "it's not L's fault--it's the global supply chain, etc, etc. "

But in a way that debate is irrelevant. They have $2b plus in cash, tiny revenue, planning a plant in Saudi(??) and no realistic path to profitability without another big capital raise. The more they fall behind in production, spend more than budget to fix glitches, damage the brand by delivering turtles, the more difficult they make it to raise fresh capital.

Credibility is Everything for this company right now, and the fan-boy automotive press can only take them so far. forget the "analogy" of Tesla's early struggles---that was a different era, and anyway Musk could single-handily keep bailing...much different here.

Before you say I'm a troll, or a short seller, etc---I'm Not---I just just don't want to own a $140K door stop...

 

[borski]

And yet we still have people trying to blame this issue on supply chain.

Sorry to waste your time.. I will refrain from posting anything further until I have a VIN, cancel my order or have actual questions about a delivered car.

I am out.

The issue is you are making the assumption that you’re right and it’s an ability issue, based on very limited information from your DA. Others are making the assumption that the *simpler* answer of it being a supply chain issue might be the cause.

It’s all speculation, and at the end of the day, the reason doesn’t prevent or help with your frustration.

It sucks that you have to wait. I hear you on that. None of us can help make it faster though.

 

[borski]

I think the vast majority of posters here (me included) have serious "confirmation bias": we decided to buy a Lucid and now we need to defend that decision no matter what. Hence all the "it's not L's fault--it's the global supply chain, etc, etc. "

But in a way that debate is irrelevant. They have $2b plus in cash, tiny revenue, planning a plant in Saudi(??) and no realistic path to profitability without another big capital raise. The more they fall behind in production, spend more than budget to fix glitches, damage the brand by delivering turtles, the more difficult they make it to raise fresh capital.

Credibility is Everything for this company right now, and the fan-boy automotive press can only take them so far. forget the "analogy" of Tesla's early struggles---that was a different era, and anyway Musk could single-handily keep bailing...much different here.

Before you say I'm a troll, or a short seller, etc---I'm Not---I just just don't want to own a $140K door stop...

Musk got a lot of government subsidies in that era in order to not die.

But the larger point is that I think people aren’t saying it isn’t Lucid’s fault; at least, I’m certainly not saying that. People *are* saying that the issue of delays isn’t limited to Lucid, and that is provably true by looking at the rest of the industry (hell, the rest of the world) right now. I wish I had a count of how many kickstarters I was supposed to receive in 2020 that have been delayed multiple years now.

It’s easy to attribute optimism to bias, but I think that’s missing the point; the optimism is coming from an understanding that *this is hard right now*.

If it lasts for much longer than the rest of the industry’s delays, that will be a different story. But *right now*, again, good luck finding an EV (or for that matter, a car) that will deliver to you on time and without issue.

I would say (and have said) the same for Rivian, Tesla, GM, MB, Audi, and others, all of whom are facing *some* sort of delays.

Is it supply chain? Maybe, maybe not. Does it matter *right now*? To an individual, sure; feelings are valid and frustration is legitimate. But to pretend that it isn’t the entire *industry* having problems is where I think we disagree.

So yeah, it’s Lucid’s fault in as much as it’s every other car company’s fault for not having predicted a pandemic, a shortage of so many parts (even if they stockpiled chips), and a war.

Everyone’s got problems right now.

 

[hydbob]

And yet we still have people trying to blame this issue on supply chain.

Sorry to waste your time.. I will refrain from posting anything further until I have a VIN, cancel my order or have actual questions about a delivered car.

I am out.

Don't do that, this is a community to vent frustrations, get excited, and to share news good and bad.

 

[MikeTz]

And yet we still have people trying to blame this issue on supply chain.

Sorry to waste your time.. I will refrain from posting anything further until I have a VIN, cancel my order or have actual questions about a delivered car.

I am out.

Stay active. This Forum will get boring fast if the comments were mostly on how great the Lucid KoolAid was.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I get it. Have gotten it. I understand the frustration, but repeating the same thing over and over on the board does not solve your problem. I mean @Sandvinsd you've basically said the same thing 20 times on this thread alone. I don't begrudge your frustration. I just begrudge my reading it over and over.

And others have replied 20 times that the problems are “just supply chain issues that everyone has.“ it’s not. I’m sorry if I am not a complete Lucid Fanboy, but will call them out when there are issues of their own. Isn’t this a thread about production and deliveries, by Rivian and Lucid in context?

You have your car so you are not in communication with Lucid about what the current production problems are. Yes, some of the issues, especially early on with the Dreams and the Santa Cruz GT interiors, have been supply chain. However, the current exterior paint issues are not. It‘s a factory issue that should have been dealt with months ago. However, with one paint line, it is very difficult to work out the kinks while trying to continue to produce red, black and white cars. This is what Elon says is production hell. Lucid management is too proud to admit it and I will call them on it. They should have had all their colors worked out before beginning production, or let the customers know which ones can be produced quickly and which ones cannot.

 

[EVCar]

And yet we still have people trying to blame this issue on supply chain.

Sorry to waste your time.. I will refrain from posting anything further until I have a VIN, cancel my order or have actual questions about a delivered car.

I am out.

I agree with all others that you shouldn't sign off. Diversity of thoughts and opinions is to be valued, enriching our little community here on the forum.

 

[Maverick]

I agree with all others that you shouldn't sign off. Diversity of thoughts and opinions is to be valued, enriching our little community here on the forum.

Listen...my post, which prompted this initially, had nothing to do with getting anyone to sign off or not wanting opinions, thoughts, etc - pro or con - from anyone and everyone. I agree to a great extent with all of the frustrations on communications, etc. My only point was that if you look through this thread and other threads, it is restated many times. I definitely understand and sympathize. It's just that there's not much we can do to help with communication and inaccurate information. And I think Lucid probably understands that as well. I think many of you have Doreen's contact info, too. I'd be fine with criticism and negative impressions of Lucid as much as people want to post. I've learned a great many things as a result. As like many of you, I'm sure, I try to read every new post though. Sometimes when I've been gone for a while, there are a lot of posts, so repetition just takes longer to get to the other great criticisms and accolades and real world experiences that other have.

If my post was taken as I don't want to hear negative comments, it couldn't be further from the truth. Some wine last night might have impacted the wording a bit, so apologies for that, but overall, I don't why you would bow out because I (alone) made one comment about repetition. I do hope you'll stay though.

 

[MoniputerLM]

I know you guys are just venting, but even well established companies are having issues. Covid/supply chain chain and then now a war. Honestly, when you hear that BMW, Ford, and Porsche put factories on hold because of parts it should make people understand the constraints. Now, Tesla and VW have factories completely stopped in Shanghai due to a government shutdown of the city. Elon said production hell is real and Peter said it was from poor planning. Who could plan around a pandemic, supply chain issue, and a war? It's frustrating, I get it. Yes, Lucid could have done MUCH better communicating, but that's really the most they could control.

There is no excuse for the state of the software. It is at least a year late and from my 50+ years of developing code, I see evidence of poor management and design. Just my 2+ cents.

 

[Bishop]

I wish I had a count of how many kickstarters I was supposed to receive in 2020 that have been delayed multiple years now.

My AAWireless shows up today!

 

[Alex]

There is no excuse for the state of the software. It is at least a year late and from my 50+ years of developing code, I see evidence of poor management and design. Just my 2+ cents.

I almost have as much code development experience as you and agree with your assessment. I'm only replying to your post because I understand your frustration - you are not alone. Unfortunately, the way companies are run now, does not lend itself to rapid software deployment. Many large companies that have software development "departments" are usually run by MBAs or similar people. I saw this trend starting over 25 years ago. It's rare to see a manager that has actually coded or is minimaly familiar with the code that they are managing.

 

[MoniputerLM]

I almost have as much code development experience as you and agree with your assessment. I'm only replying to your post because I understand your frustration - you are not alone. Unfortunately, the way companies are run now, does not lend itself to rapid software deployment. Many large companies that have software development "departments" are usually run by MBAs or similar people. I saw this trend starting over 25 years ago. It's rare to see a manager that has actually coded or is minimaly familiar with the code that they are managing.

Yeah, it's sad. Just put your lead software designers and programmers in the car or at least a "mule" with the Lucid screens and processors, then drive the crap out of it to find what works and what doesn’t. You would quickly see that the HomeLink interface needed work and that the cameras didn't do well in a crowded garage.

Feels like the only driving was done with a keyboard and monitor.

I know that I am bitching but most of the software issues that we have seen could have been avoided.

 

[borski]

Yeah, it's sad. Just put your lead software designers and programmers in the car or at least a "mule" with the Lucid screens and processors, then drive the crap out of it to find what works and what doesn’t. You would quickly see that the HomeLink interface needed work and that the cameras didn't do well in a crowded garage.

Feels like the only driving was done with a keyboard and monitor.

I know that I am bitching but most of the software issues that we have seen could have been avoided.

A lot of it has to do with people misunderstanding UX nowadays. When was the last time you saw an invitation to an in-person user study from literally any company?

 

[MikeTz]

I am waiting for a company (Siemen's comes to mind) that will develop all the components and software needed to build a fully functioning plug and play car. The Swiss government did this to save their watch industry from being overrun by the Japanese watch companies. With each company designing their own parts so it can claim "vertical integration" is a painful and potentially acatastrophic experience.