Who's Still In?

[Lobstahz]

I can't say I've enjoyed the Rivian news the past couple of days, but I think I'm still in. But this price hike hurts. A lot.

My primary rationale is:
* No other 7 seat EV SUV options except for Tesla, and as a Model 3 owner ... never again. Or the upcoming Volvo XC90 EV or Polestar version of that car.
* 0-60 in 3.5 seconds is sports car to super car fast
* Quad-motor is 'end game' for traction and grip. Perhaps 3 (1 front, 2 rear) would have been good enough on-road but 1 per wheel is real nice from a capability perspective.

This price hike changes expectations. Before Rivian was expensive, but a bit of a bargain for what they were offering and made it easier to overlook potential faults but now they're certifiably "spendy" and premium and will be expected to deliver against that. As an attempted sanity check I spent a bunch of time pricing our Audis both ICE and EV and I am hard pressed to get a SUV up past my $95k R1S configuration. So Rivian better deliver on build quality, fit and finish, cabin noise, comfort, etc because I know an Audi would. Before they would have gotten some benefit of the doubt, but that's been vaporized by these moves. So quite frankly, Rivian better deliver. I'm not sure how confident I am that they will though. So in summary, I'm still in, but keeping and eye on the exit.

We have thread(s) of who's out ... who's still in?

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[crashmtb]

I’m keeping my preorder. The product is that good.

But Rivian the company is on thin ice in terms of customer trust. They’ve severely eroded their goodwill.

 

[bac4uw]

Still in, but wasn't subject to the price hike... so not quite the target audience of this question. For what you got (on paper), the previously quoted R1T was a relative bargain compared to what's out on the market now. The new pricing brings it more in line with somewhat(?) comparable vehicles, but hard to look past the recent turn in the road to get here.

I'm in, and would still be in with the price hike (begrudgingly), because the R1T is a bad-ass vehicle (drove it in November) and there is no other single vehicle that fits the bill for me personally. For this price, I could likely make two complementary lower-end vehicles work perfectly that check most boxes.

All the same, still in... hoping to take delivery in a few weeks.

 

[Shzeph]

^ Pretty much this. I’m not affected by the price hike so my opinion is less relevant, but at either price point I feel like the R1T is a good enough value that I’m sticking with it

 

[timesinks]

Ditto @bac4uw and @Shzeph though it may be telling that most of the people who are responding here as still in managed to squeak through without an increase...

 

[Sdvictor]

I’m sticking with the R1S because of its unique market position.

The R1T I’m sorta waffling on. It’s hard to buy 180k of cars in 1 year. May take my friends Lightning reservation which is slated for 2023. But it’s not as unique as the R1S due to increasing number of competitors

sentiment is the same as others. I have the money. I’m not worried about that. It’s the shittiness of the company. The fact that RJ is hiding or is so aloof that he’s not aware is such utter bullshit.

Let me tell you why. I was THE pricing and profitability of a very mid 2010s tech company that had a very bro culture. I wrote the IPO SEC filing docs, I set the pricing and profit policies. The CEO had an untouchable cult of personality that was publicly and widely worshipped. In the end, he would take my models and literally sit with me in front of execs and raise prices because he thought his shit didn’t stink. Fuck the customers if we could get 10% more profit because we’re popular. Hubris did the company in because fads passed and now the company is a shell of its former self.

RJ is starting to show some of that same bro vibes I got from that experience.

(bonus points if you can guess that company)

 

[Diddy123]

I’m keeping my preorder. The product is that good.

But Rivian the company is on thin ice in terms of customer trust. They’ve severely eroded their goodwill.

i haven’t seen any Canadian folks posting their new pricing (sorry if you already did and I missed it).

Was the impact for you on the same scale as in the US?

 

[Davethadog]

I have one foot out. I have a deposit on a polestar ready to take delivery and I also have my first mile drive set for Friday. It will have to be real good to be worth the extra 40k.

 

[bac4uw]

Ditto @bac4uw and @Shzeph though it may be telling that most of the people who are responding here as still in managed to squeak through without an increase...

For sure, and I qualify / asterisk the heck out of my responses right now. I wished they had taken a more sensible approach for the people who've already thrown down deposits on their pre-orders. It leaves a bad taste... self included.

 

[_evtrk]

unless they change back in the next 10 days, I'm out!!. As good as these vehicles are, at the new price point they are unproven, and using outdated tech, and that makes them overpriced, not a bargain. I can afford the price hike, but right now really it's more about making a stand, if we don't stand against this what guaranty do we have they wont do this further down the line in 9 months or a year from now? a tiered increase or a straight 10% would have been understandable, but 20+% this is like a slap in the face, and this is goes further than just the price of the vehicle, and the disrespect, this is also going to affect stockholders as well. for some of us this is a double whammy.

 

[ironpig]

I’m not cancelling my preorder because I’m a July-September delivery window (maybe earlier now?) and I’m not making a decision until I see a build sheet with a price anyway.

I think the price is actually probably market rate now but I feel the same way about the company as most. I don’t have any faith that the company will improve without a major overall of the executives. Just think how bad the service experience could be if this was their best thinking for handling the price increases….

 

[Craigins]

I'm in. With the Launch Edition and premium options previously selected, the only price changes were the 12k for the quad motor and large battery. Subtract 2 for the underbody plate since we get the free tow hooks, and it is only about a 10k change. I also dropped the off road recovery kit and floor mats. Debating on going with a different charger as well.

I've been saving since early 2019 for this, so an additional 10k isn't bad.

Sadly people cancelling will actually cost me 4k, with a May-June delivery, I was hoping to push it to July 1st to qualify for the IL EV tax incentives. At least I can charge at work and delay the at home charger to qualify for the $800 incentive there, another reason to drop the Rivian one.

 

[HeresRonnie]

I’ve been reading all the negative backlash and debating but I kept my pre order. Im going to think about it, I loved the truck when I saw it. Not sure if the price hike is enough to scare me away but I definitely want to know im getting my money worth of vehicle. I’m kind of afraid of getting on a sinking ship.

 

[Joel]

I can't say I've enjoyed the Rivian news the past couple of days, but I think I'm still in. But this price hike hurts. A lot.

My primary rationale is:
* No other 7 seat EV SUV options except for Tesla, and as a Model 3 owner ... never again. Or the upcoming Volvo XC90 EV or Polestar version of that car.
* 0-60 in 3.5 seconds is sports car to super car fast
* Quad-motor is 'end game' for traction and grip. Perhaps 3 (1 front, 2 rear) would have been good enough on-road but 1 per wheel is real nice from a capability perspective.

This price hike changes expectations. Before Rivian was expensive, but a bit of a bargain for what they were offering and made it easier to overlook potential faults but now they're certifiably "spendy" and premium and will be expected to deliver against that. As an attempted sanity check I spent a bunch of time pricing our Audis both ICE and EV and I am hard pressed to get a SUV up past my $95k R1S configuration. So Rivian better deliver on build quality, fit and finish, cabin noise, comfort, etc because I know an Audi would. Before they would have gotten some benefit of the doubt, but that's been vaporized by these moves. So quite frankly, Rivian better deliver. I'm not sure how confident I am that they will though. So in summary, I'm still in, but keeping and eye on the exit.

We have thread(s) of who's out ... who's still in?

At the rate Rivian is not building vehicles, it possible Lucid could have the SUV out.

 

[stynes]

I'm in, at least for now. I've looked and looked and nothing checks the boxes for me like the R1S. But it's a crappy move by Rivian and makes me question how many more crappy moves with them we might see. And the $75K would have been nearly 50% more than I've ever spent on a vehicle. $90K is astronomical for my planned spend. I could make it work, just not sure I want to at that price given that much of the shine has worn off in terms of the image and vibe that the company put out there. RJ's no longer the knight in shining armor regular guy anti-Elon. He's now the guy that would push your grandma down and kick your dog (figuratively speaking. I hope.) if it meant making an extra buck. So one of the big appeals, the company image, the reason people bought the shirts and hats and such, we saw it as much a lifestyle as we did a product and that's something that's likely irreparably broken.

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