⛔️ Powered Tonneau cover removed from R1T production until further notice on all future deliveries

[NY_Rob]

This has been a known problem since before launch. This to me says more about management issues inside the company than anything else. The Tonneaus were also a bottleneck for production since they were not coming in fast enough. No one wanted to make a hard decision a year ago.

Zero surprise that this happened...

Get ready for more "features" to start dropping off....

They also have a big problem brewing with their half-shafts/CV-Joints and seem to be taking the same "bury head in sand" approach with that as well with no comms from corporate to customers or SC personnel. We now have owners who have blown out the second set of CV-Joints that replaced the OEM joints from the factory. And it's not like these are 10 year old vehicles with 200K miles on them... these are 2 month old vehicles with 800miles on them.
Some very questionable business decisions being made by Rivian...

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[Mike TDM]

So this is the response I got with my questioning the email on the power tonneau -----

I hope this email finds you well.

Thanks for reaching out. I sincerely value your feedback, as it is crucial for us to have to make necessary changes and improvements for our community. I genuinely apologize for your frustration. I can understand your disappointment after hearing we will be pausing production on the powered tonneau while we work through a redesign. This difficult decision was made because we believe it's in the best interest of our community to have a reliable tonneau for their vehicle, and a redesign is going to be the best way to guarantee this. Thankfully, you will certainly be able to wait until the powered tonneau becomes available again to take delivery. However, we don't have a timeframe for when the redesign will be complete- we'll be sure to keep our community up to date on those details.

We genuinely appreciate your support and for being part of the Rivian community. If you have any other questions or need a quick response, please contact us via phone or chat; We're always happy to help.

Your fellow adventurer,
Devin

 

[R1Tom]

There’s a lot of “predicting” that’s starting to get out of hand. There was no “assuming” and there is absolutely no basis for claiming that Rivian has abandoned the powered tonneau permanently. They have told current owners they are working on a fix. When they paused production they did it because they are working on a redesign.

All of this conjecture about Rivian not offering retrofits to those who take delivery without a powered tonneau is not a secret message that Rivian isn’t making a powered tonneau anymore.

How long do you feel is limit for rivian to fix a tonneau cover from the date of new vehicle delivery, if it didn't work from that day? Just curious really.

 

[sacramentoelectric]

How long do you feel is limit for rivian to fix a tonneau cover from the date of new vehicle delivery, if it didn't work from that day? Just curious really.

I don't know what the limit is but I expect they'll start the retrofits in late '23 or early '24.

 

[R1Tom]

I don't know what the limit is but I expect they'll start the retrofits in late '23 or early '24.

So in some cases, that would result in owners having vehicles with a paid for feature, that does not work, for possibly 2 years and let's just say 40-50k miles. Not to mention the potential difficulty if one should have to sell for any reason, like life changes, etc... Not really fair to the buyer in my opinion.

 

[mabowden]

So in some cases, that would result in owners having vehicles with a paid for feature, that does not work, for possibly 2 years and let's just say 40-50k miles. Not to mention the potential difficulty if one should have to sell for any reason, like life changes, etc... Not really fair to the buyer in my opinion.

Great point. Another reason to go with the manual cover....

 

[lost_zer0]

Does anyone know if the vehicles being delivered now with the manual option are any different than the ones with no tonneau cover? In other words, are they installing rails to accept the future manual tonneau cover before delivery for those that chose that option?

I just got the email that my vehicle/VIN is ready and I need to confirm the build. I assumed I would be able to get the powered option when they figure things out, but that looks like it's not an option anymore.

I'm wondering if these are my options (with my guide now trying to confirm)

Option 1 - Take delivery of vehicle with no tonneau cover (current build, current VIN available)
Option 2 - adjust order to get manual tonneau cover added and take delivery of current VIN at normal time (wondering if this is an option due to any factory-related work that is done now even though manual tonneau isn't ready to be delivered)
Option 3 - adjust order to get manual tonneau cover but give up current VIN and "go to the back of the line"

 

[mabowden]

Does anyone know if the vehicles being delivered now with the manual option are any different than the ones with no tonneau cover? In other words, are they installing rails to accept the future manual tonneau cover before delivery for those that chose that option?

I just got the email that my vehicle/VIN is ready and I need to confirm the build. I assumed I would be able to get the powered option when they figure things out, but that looks like it's not an option anymore.

I'm wondering if these are my options (with my guide now trying to confirm)

Option 1 - Take delivery of vehicle with no tonneau cover (current build, current VIN available)
Option 2 - adjust order to get manual tonneau cover added and take delivery of current VIN at normal time (wondering if this is an option due to any factory-related work that is done now even though manual tonneau isn't ready to be delivered)
Option 3 - adjust order to get manual tonneau cover but give up current VIN and "go to the back of the line"

Right now the manual option and no tonneau are the same. Both the manual and no tonneau, for now, have rails that can accept the manual cover when it comes out early spring 2023 or s00n. At some point next year the no tonneau option will lose the rails for the manual panels.

 

[mabowden]

Does anyone know if the vehicles being delivered now with the manual option are any different than the ones with no tonneau cover? In other words, are they installing rails to accept the future manual tonneau cover before delivery for those that chose that option?

I just got the email that my vehicle/VIN is ready and I need to confirm the build. I assumed I would be able to get the powered option when they figure things out, but that looks like it's not an option anymore.

I'm wondering if these are my options (with my guide now trying to confirm)

Option 1 - Take delivery of vehicle with no tonneau cover (current build, current VIN available)
Option 2 - adjust order to get manual tonneau cover added and take delivery of current VIN at normal time (wondering if this is an option due to any factory-related work that is done now even though manual tonneau isn't ready to be delivered)
Option 3 - adjust order to get manual tonneau cover but give up current VIN and "go to the back of the line"

To answer your second question, they said that ordering the manual cover will not effect your delivery. If you want the manual cover I would for sure spec manual cover so that you get it at the $800 price point when it is released.

So option 1) take delivery with no cover, or 2) adjust to manual and you should have no impact to delivery date. They will ship you the panels later.

 

[jclicky]

Agreed. Metaphor (morgan) is putting a lot of faith in many unknowns at this point. There must be something Rivian has learned if they are not allowing owners to take delivery of powered tonneau capable vehicles, simply without the powered tonneau. If they had the intention of making a redesigned working product, this is what they would offer. Doesn't bother me one bit as I always wanted the manual version. I just don't see myself going from close->open all the time and when I do I'll know before I leave the house 95% of the time.

Yep, reading between the lines, here‘s what I suspect will happen:

• Rivian redesigns the gear tunnel & the tonneau cover storage area
  • Literally zero-reason for that sharp-edge on the gear tunnel, I can’t believe their counsel permitted it, it’s too much of a liability
  • Since they have to redesign the auto-tonneau, take the opportunity to design a new gear-tunnel shape/form-factor w/ a more rounded gear tunnel door (safer); easier to do if you have to re-shape the gear tunnel to accommodate a new automatic tonneau storage design in/near gear tunnel
  • Possible this redesign impacts max pack if they use the current space for auto-tonneau cover storage instead as the location for a vertical battery-pack location
• Rivian fixes current automatic tonneau covers ad-hoc for pre-existing design & builds under warranty, but you’re SOL after warranty expires
  • Short-term resale market value grows for auto-tonneau cover models
  • Long-term, auto-tonneau will be an albatross in secondary market resale value, esp. once new redesign is out
• Rivian builds next XX,000 R1Ts (whether large pack, standard pack or max pack) with either manual tonneau (tracks only on bed), or no tonneau, for higher efficiency, using the parts for the track they already have bought when planning for the auto tonneau

 

[crashmtb]

Yep, reading between the lines, here‘s what I suspect will happen:

• Rivian redesigns the gear tunnel & the tonneau cover storage area
  • Literally zero-reason for that sharp-edge on the gear tunnel, I can’t believe their counsel permitted it, it’s too much of a liability
  • Since they have to redesign the auto-tonneau, take the opportunity to design a new gear-tunnel shape/form-factor w/ a more rounded gear tunnel door (safer); easier to do if you have to re-shape the gear tunnel to accommodate a new automatic tonneau storage design in/near gear tunnel
  • Possible this redesign impacts max pack if they use the current space for auto-tonneau cover storage instead as the location for a vertical battery-pack location
• Rivian fixes current automatic tonneau covers ad-hoc for pre-existing design & builds under warranty, but you’re SOL after warranty expires
  • Short-term resale market value grows for auto-tonneau cover models
  • Long-term, auto-tonneau will be an albatross in secondary market resale value, esp. once new redesign is out
• Rivian builds next XX,000 R1Ts (whether large pack, standard pack or max pack) with either manual tonneau (tracks only on bed), or no tonneau, for higher efficiency, using the parts for the track they already have bought when planning for the auto tonneau

I don’t see them making structural changes to the body in white for the tonneau. That’s a whole lot of new tooling.

 

[Rousie13]

Yep, reading between the lines, here‘s what I suspect will happen:

• Rivian redesigns the gear tunnel & the tonneau cover storage area
  • Literally zero-reason for that sharp-edge on the gear tunnel, I can’t believe their counsel permitted it, it’s too much of a liability
  • Since they have to redesign the auto-tonneau, take the opportunity to design a new gear-tunnel shape/form-factor w/ a more rounded gear tunnel door (safer); easier to do if you have to re-shape the gear tunnel to accommodate a new automatic tonneau storage design in/near gear tunnel
  • Possible this redesign impacts max pack if they use the current space for auto-tonneau cover storage instead as the location for a vertical battery-pack location
• Rivian fixes current automatic tonneau covers ad-hoc for pre-existing design & builds under warranty, but you’re SOL after warranty expires
  • Short-term resale market value grows for auto-tonneau cover models
  • Long-term, auto-tonneau will be an albatross in secondary market resale value, esp. once new redesign is out
• Rivian builds next XX,000 R1Ts (whether large pack, standard pack or max pack) with either manual tonneau (tracks only on bed), or no tonneau, for higher efficiency, using the parts for the track they already have bought when planning for the auto tonneau

@crashmtb already summed up what I was going to say. That would be a HORRIBLE decision on Rivian’s part to make any body changes on a brand new model/tooling. Will they redesign it for the next R1T??……probably will be tweaked at the very least. But if they’re like tesla, then the current designs are going to be around for a while and then a light “refresh” will come out and no major model changes.

 

[jclicky]

@crashmtb already summed up what I was going to say. That would be a HORRIBLE decision on Rivian’s part to make any body changes on a brand new model/tooling. Will they redesign it for the next R1T??……probably will be tweaked at the very least. But if they’re like tesla, then the current designs are going to be around for a while and then a light “refresh” will come out and no major model changes.

I hope so, I don’t think a redesign is warranted but I don’t understand why they then won’t permit later installs of the redesigned auto-tonneau; I mean, I get it, they don’t know exactly how it will be redesigned yet, but if it will fold into the same body design, why not offer that as a later option & just inform customers it’s TBD on cost? I don’t see why they are closing the door; surely the internal wiring harness & mounting points can’t be that difficult to add in later…

 

[crashmtb]

I hope so, I don’t think a redesign is warranted but I don’t understand why they then won’t permit later installs of the redesigned auto-tonneau; I mean, I get it, they don’t know exactly how it will be redesigned yet, but if it will fold into the same body design, why not offer that as a later option & just inform customers it’s TBD on cost? I don’t see why they are closing the door; surely the internal wiring harness & mounting points can’t be that difficult to add in later…

110% can be. retrofitting factory options is rarely straightforward, or cost effective.

 

[moosetags]

Ford, GM, Dodge have never offered factory-installed tonneau covers. That's because it's a stupid idea. Tonneau are best left to after marketeers.

Brian

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