R1T & R1S Updated Pricing, Configuration, Specs. Dual Motor Now Available

[the long way downunder]

Do you live somewhere where people don't buy fancy trucks? The Lighting Platinum and Silverado EV RST are absolutely getting cross shopped against the R1T.

Note "not competing any time soon" … the Silverado is a '23 or '24 model … the Lightning is 150K pre-orders and a lower price point, the Hummer EV is … what is the Hummer EV?! : )

Of course the SF Bay Area and most of California and other "first world" economically advantaged consumerism oases of capitalism have moderately comfortable consumers spending their wage on car payments …

Consumers paying too much for luxury lifestyle vehicles seems to be the only pillar of American society that has not crumbled (except for guns, and believing politicians.)

A consumer might window shop a Rivian in 2018 thru 2020 and end up buying an F-150 in 2024, etc. I haven't looked at the line-item price comparison, but I read the Lightning and EValanche were a noticeably cheaper than the R1 for similar equipment and options. Now, Rivian is more clearly in the luxury, low volume production, premium pricing niche. I expect more price increments till Rivian is at a premium to Tesla. I expect Tesla will not offer an entry-level Clustertruck for years after the initial production in '23 or '24.

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[the long way downunder]

what if that was pitched and were at the bottom of that curve right now lol

HA! You're probably right. I didn't have that much cynicism in my own interpretation of this "yet another public relations communications belly flop" from Rivian. I have no doubt this is the first price adjustment from Rivian.

 

[Brian Goodwin]

Reconfigured....and now CHEAPER than before.

I gave up MAX battery pack and gave up BLUE color and some other items and I am actually TWO GRAND below my prior price...and now will get it much sooner since Max Pack is not happening this year.

 

[LaunchGreen]

I actually really like this idea. Again, I think what really frustrates me is the somewhat arbitrary nature of this whole thing. If I don't buy a Rivian, it will be a Taycan GTS, so it isn't a total cost issue. It is the fact I have been a supporter and pre-order holder for 3+ years, and have told anyone that will listen about this cool company and vehicle.

Now while we are in my window for delivery, they are jacking up the price, while others with the same delivery window (and some who pre-ordered after I did), are getting their prices honored. It just "feels" bad. I understand the reason, I get inflation, supply chain is a problem, yada, yada. But have some kind of fair system to roll this out.

So unorthodox for sure, but I really like the idea of some kind of system for price increase rollout.

I personally think they could have just provided discounts on price change. LE gets 10% off the price at order, everyone before today 5% (or something similar) and they could have avoided a ton of the negative sentiment.

 

[hola29]

When you compare the Rivian to a new Tesla or Lucid (or anticipated GMC Hummer), they were too cheap. Costs have gone up across all cars. Folks are 100% entitled to cancel. and evaluate cst/benefit, but they are pricing with the market.

Just because you put a $1000 deposit down does not set the price, but a place in line to buy**if you choose** when they call your number. You can say no.

Not sure I get the outrage. The price is 100% inline with competition, still better (at least for me), I have only put in$ 1k, and get to cancel anytime up to the day of signing.

Getting upset seems a bit much in the circumstance...

 

[1973LT]

Curious what role Bezos played in this. Major stakeholder in Rivian who has commited to an all electric delivery fleet. What does he care about this niche market?

 

[Jay]

@skyote and @jimcgov3 what are your thoughts..

 

[the long way downunder]

Haven't canceled yet. Not planning on it immediately regardless of my decision. But the more I think about it, the more ticked I get.

You all have hit all the main points already. I won't pile on those.

As a March '19 pre order with a "expected March (today) - April" delivery, the timing sucks. I have gone from fanboy and advocate, to concerned stakeholder, to "we'll see how this turns out", to "I'm pretty sure we all just got hosed".

A $17k jump the first day of my delivery widow is a kick in the pants. I can easily pay that, but why would I? People that are still proponents are acting like this company is the second coming and offer a one-of-a-kind therefore "shut up, pay, and be thankful" type product. In 2018, that was true. In 2019, it still somewhat rang true. Today, there are a lot of options, especially in the $20K above estimate range. And, the "great" company now seems to be anything but that. Delays, bad information, lack of communication, walking back capabilities (level 3 autonomy and tank turn), and now not honoring their price shows a pattern that I can no longer make excuses for when people ask me about Rivian. Ffs, they make Tesla look reliable and Elon look stable.

What really concerns me is a possibility of an SEC investigation. If the IPO roadshow and pricing was based on pre-order numbers and the company knew a price hike was coming that would negatively impact the pre-order numbers, but they did not disclose that information and hide it until the lock up period was over and until the first day of "actual deliveries" the whole company could be in big Big Boy trouble.

If there is a significant risk of a startup being shutdown fairly soon, I do not want to drop $100K on a product that may need service or parts with no vendor.

Additionally, the polls on this board are stated to show 30% cancelations. Not scientific, but this board is generally for die hard fans. How do you think the average person will react to price hike?

Dumb and poorly handled move. I can't imagine how or if they want to fix this. But, I'm inclined to say that they may not recover from this.

PS, I wonder if Bezos and Amazon got a price hike?.... I'm going to guess that is a "no". Jeff could cash out, he is a customer service zealot and won't be happy about the back lash. Amazon has already bought 10,000s of other vehicles since the Rivian deal.

You've made a laundry list of solid points here. To choose one that's not yet been chewed on – with the recent news of investor class action ambulance-chasing litigators, you have to expect Rivian is looking at years of investigation into their IPO. That this price adjustment comes "minutes" after the IPO and is effectively retroactively curving their revenue projections higher just "minutes" before their earnings report … it's a "what did you know and when did you know it" audit that could be damaging. Rivian attracted consumers to place a pre-order with the enticement of IPO shares without disclosing that they already had plans to change the "estimated" price of the vehicle. I'm no legal beagle, so what do I know, but once the litigators sink their jackal's teeth into the flesh of this … there will be blood …

p.s. I'm sure Bezos gets "friend of the family" pricing and he'll order another 100,000 just to F with Musk if that's what it takes. That's the thing about Rivian: it's the only company Bezos can use to mess with Musk … from EDVs to solar-battery and every consumer product that Amazon can sell that needs Tesla-like technology … it's a powerful treasure trove of ways for the two richest capitalist captains of industry to compete with each other.

 

[Jcrea]

You've made a laundry list of solid points here. To choose one that's not yet been chewed on – with the recent news of investor class action ambulance-chasing litigators, you have to expect Rivian is looking at years of investigation into their IPO. That this price adjustment comes "minutes" after the IPO and is effectively retroactively curving their revenue projections higher just "minutes" before their earnings report … it's a "what did you know and when did you know it" audit that could be damaging. Rivian attracted consumers to place a pre-order with the enticement of IPO shares without disclosing that they already had plans to change the "estimated" price of the vehicle. I'm no legal beagle, so what do I know, but once the litigators sink their jackal's teeth into the flesh of this … there will be blood …

p.s. I'm sure Bezos gets "friend of the family" pricing and he'll order another 100,000 just to F with Musk if that's what it takes. That's the thing about Rivian: it's the only company Bezos can use to mess with Musk … from EDVs to solar-battery and every consumer product that Amazon can sell that needs Tesla-like technology … it's a powerful treasure trove of ways for the two richest capitalist captains of industry to compete with each other.

Right, it all starts to be a pattern as opposed to coincidence.

I'd be willing to bet Bezos/Amzon has plenty of other companies they could buy or partner with. These guys just seemed like they had their act together at the time and a product/experience no one else had that seemed to compete with Musk. They have lost that edge.

 

[GoodbyeR1T]

This is my first and last comment regarding Rivian. With 62 page and going strong, I'm not sure if my thoughts will bring anything new to the table. Frustrated and disappointed to say the least. A startup is nothing without a strong, passionate base. Rivian killed that excitement and destroyed that trust today. Its a slap in the face. I'm holding the reservation for now, but $16k increase is too much. Looks like my first EV purchase will have to wait even longer. Goodbye Rivian

 

[the long way downunder]

I personally think they could have just provided discounts on price change. LE gets 10% off the price at order, everyone before today 5% (or something similar) and they could have avoided a ton of the negative sentiment.

That's a sound idea. Ford is already offering $2500 of its (completely sold out and unavailable) F-150 (not the Lightning … almost any F-150.) People are somehow … idiots. Somehow Amazon says "free delivery" and people somehow think "yeah! free delivery!" …
But "discounts" are a tricky game in the brand marketing world. What we're seeing is the conventional approach to a niche market product where demand must always outstrip supply. It's called "artificial scarcity." The auto industry stumbled onto this reality in its mainstream marques (Ford, GM, Stellantis) due to the "chip shortage" and now that new and used car prices have escalated in response to unmet demand, they're enjoying the higher profits and they have no intention of going back to dealer lots full of aging, rusting metal and "5% below invoice" … we'll see if they hold that line (noting the Ford $2500 offer already in my email) … but for the consumer enjoying the idea of buying a car on the Web, no dealership nonsense, what they're not fully appreciating is that Web purchases are higher prices and higher profits than in-person purchases … Tesla has been steadily, aggressively raising prices as demand increases. Eventually the market will experience price elasticity reaching a threshold of demand … in other words, Rivian will repeatedly attempt price "discovery" by raising prices (say, each quarter) till demand falls off to the point that they've reached some percentage of production capacity and attrition of orders. Say they can produce 100% of orders and they lose 10% of orders before building the given order, they will continue to increase prices till they reach that threshold … thereby introducing artificial scarcity. Rivian doesn't need to experiment too much because, like almost all visible aspects of the EV market, Tesla has already done the discovery and demonstrated the price-demand relationship. : )

 

[Zybane]

And if you think the guy before was better, I have some orange make up, some steaks, with a bonus diploma to sell you. Act now and you can have a giant wall that Mexico will pay for.

*Due to conditions beyond our control we no longer offer integrity or sanity

I know mean tweets are really what is important?

If you think this country is better off now than it was in 2020, you better put down that crack pipe.

 

[the long way downunder]

Right, it all starts to be a pattern as opposed to coincidence.

I'd be willing to bet Bezos/Amzon has plenty of other companies they could buy or partner with. These guys just seemed like they had their act together at the time and a product/experience no one else had that seemed to compete with Musk. They have lost that edge.

I think Rivian is just as valuable to Bezos and Amazon today or more so. While it discards some price-sensitive early adopters today, it fattens the revenue projections and no appreciable reduction in demand. If anything, as new prospective customers arrive, they get a more realistic price expectation, they place a pre-order and the on-line system projects their vehicle will be built in a shorter time frame because the 70K pre-order queue has been culled.
As for other dance partners for Amazon, I think they've already made other pre-orders for electric vehicles and will have to continue to retain other EV makers around the world … Rivian is too small to handle Amazon … but I wouldn't say that's any vote of no-confidence by Bezos, just the hard-nosed business realities of running the largest racket the world has ever known.

 

[bkswede]

I’m a 2/14/19 reservation holder - for an R1S LE, but have been undecided between an R1S and an R1T and waiting for additional communication from Rivian on specifications of the R1S as well as some media reviews of the R1S before making a final determination.

I can understand everyone’s frustration with Rivian - I’ve also been frustrated over the last two years with what has seemed like one bad decision after another in terms of their lack of true regard for their long standing reservation holders. Sure, they try to say the right things - like RJ’s email acknowledging communication issues and promising to change for the better - but they never really changed their behavior.

I admit that I didn’t see this coming - while I knew that Rivian couldn’t continue to offer their vehicles at historic price points, I really thought that Rivian would do the right thing and honor the historic pricing for customers with existing reservations. They obviously didn’t do that.

I’m now forced to look at my Rivian reservation in a fresh light. Putting aside the instinctive emotional reaction I have to say FU, it becomes a more difficult decision whether to move forward with Rivian.

When Rivian delayed deliveries back in the summer of 2020, I had to decide whether to just continue to wait for my R1S or find something to replace my 2013 X5 as I waited for my R1S. I chose the latter and purchased a 2020 BMW X5 M50i until my R1S was ready for delivery.

With this price increase, my R1S is now meaningfully more than I paid for the M50i. I’m not an off roader, and the R1S will surely have more off road capabilities than my M50i. That said, the M50i is a damn nice truck. It’s fast (0-60 in 3.9 seconds, 1/4 miles in 12.2 seconds - a little slower than the R1T (and, presumably, than the R1S) but not much slower. The M50i handles and rides beautifully and has convenience features that the R1S doesn’t currently (or won’t ever) have - things like heads up display, 360 degree camera views, Apple Car Play, a nicer combination of tech (gesture controls and large touchscreens) and physical buttons/knobs, etc.

While I got a really good deal on my M50i (~$76K) it’s “street price” now is probably about $90k. My Launch edition R1S is now priced at ~$95K, slightly more than the current price for an M50i. At the “old” price, the Rivian was a bargain, given its expected performance. At the new price, is the R1S $5K better than the M50i? I have no idea as I don’t have sufficient details regarding the specifications for the R1S nor do I have any objective reports from the media (Car and Driver, Motor Trend, etc) regarding the R1S.

My delivery window is May/June, which may move up a bit if there are meaningful cancellations in response to Rivian’s price increases. I’m going to hang on to my reservation for now and see how this all plays out - who knows, maybe I’ll give up my reservation with Rivian and keep my M50i, which, as I said, is a damn fine truck.

I do like the idea of moving on from an ICE vehicle, but at this price point, I might just wait and see how the Silverado EV compares to the R1S (I have a reservation for a first edition Silverado RST) before making a final decision. I like the idea of the additional range that the Silverado offers, and, overall, the tech In the Silverado appears to be more advanced than the Rivian. That said, I just don’t know since Rivian hasn’t been forthcoming with details for the R1S.

I'm lucky that I have the luxury of time and can afford the R1S, even with the price increase. It’s too bad, however, as I’ve certainly lost the true excitement for the Rivian that I had in 2019 and 2020. Best of luck to the rest of you as you weigh your options.

 

[Friscorays]

Reservation 8/2019. LE R1T LG Off-Road Upgrade 20" AT.

Received the email this morning saying "since you are in the final steps of completing your transaction, your Rivian preorder will not be affected by these adjustments."...... I'm confused and I'll update this after I speak to my guide and determine if my total was impacted or not.

Why are you confused? You are one of the lucky few to be grandfathered in with the old pricing structure.

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