Max Pack delayed to 2024 according to configurator / email ?

[Riviandog]

You are dead on correct!!

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[crashmtb]

it might be cold up here in Canada.

laughs in Manitoban

 

[jclicky]

For all those trying to convince us max pack reservation holders that we don't need a max pack for road trips, I do genuinely appreciate your thoughts, but unfortunately I'm not just planning on doing charger to charger road trips.

I want to be able to load my R1T with a bunch of un-aerodynamic accessories, it'll have the AT tires, it might be cold up here in Canada. I also consider the last 10% of battery capacity to be a safety buffer. Factoring all that in, I wouldn't expect to get more than 200 miles out of a large pack during winter.

If you exclude any usage while camping, that means you can venture about a 100 miles out from the nearest charger. I'm aware a max pack, under the above conditions, would only add 20 to 30 miles to that - but I'll take anything I can get.

THANK YOU. I continue to be befuddled at the collective (even by the Rivian rep in the Rivian Stories clip, though I understand his goals) instinct to “solve” my “anxiety” by recommending the (genuinely great) large pack as sufficient for my needs.

I’m planning on taking my Rivian off the grid, legitimately out into the actual wilderness, often at least 1hr’s drive from the nearest gas station, places where there will be snow, cold conditions, etc. and I don’t want to have to be measuring my capacity to a T all throughout a multi-week camping trip away from reliable access to even Level 2 chargers much less Level 3 chargers.

And I’m planning on taking it places where Rivian’s own Palo Alto engineers, marketing team, and major consumers in the SF Bay Area often go: Yosemite & the Sierras, so I’m already well aware of the Rivian Level 2 chargers in Yosemite valley (before they loaned the R1S to YouTubers who advertised that, I remember seeing those chargers outside of the Lodge in the Valley over 2 years ago, so it’s been baked into my calculations for a while), not to mention the DC Rivian network chargers in Bishop.

But we don’t have DC chargers sprinkled around the eastern & western foothills of the sierras (or in the high country) the way we do gas stations, so yes I think I will order 100 more miles of permanent, non-upgradable battery capacity, thank you very much.

So I’m actually content to wait for my minimum requirements to be met, though I understand it doesn’t make sense if I was holding out for that max pack because I just didn’t like charging as often (which, by the way, is also a totally legit reason).

It’s as if Apple marketed their “Ultra” watch toward ultra marathoners but tried to argue for backpackers to just be less
anxious” & go for the Watch 8 if they couldn’t supply demand for Ultras & delayed launch; we are out there in the wilderness quite often thank you very much so yes I’d like to use the extra battery capacity & I definitely need it, this isn’t performative outdoorsyness though I do get it, the Overlanding fad is a bit tiresome when so many folks lean out to the grocery store in “athlesiurewear.”

But trucks should be useful, and for me that’s what I need to make it useful.

Caveat: I totally get it that Rivian is doing their best & am not that surprised to see Max Pack get pushed back further, happy to wait & I expect that as an early adopter, that’s OK! Just don’t spend the extra years I’m patiently waiting telling me I’m irrational, please, I’m just particular, but not impatient. Nor do I think others who don’t wait are impatient; we can all wait for the car we need/want…

 

[kendall merinbaum]

Rivian is planning on releasing a Max battery in a twin motor R1T next summer and not focusing on completing preexisting Max orders until 2024 at best? I'm questioning the need for a four motor, Max vehicle as inflation and practicality will not dictate it after the twin motor, Max is produced. Why do I feel the kicking of the proverbial can down the road is actually my arse? I was 66 yrs. when I ordered, 68 now and 70 when I'll be finally hooking my way-sided Airstream to the vehicle of my "dreams"! I need a nap...

 

[intimidator]

Are they legally obligated to?

I'd be willing to bet at some point they kill the pre 3/1 order prices. Will it make people upset, yes. Is the economy much different than March 2022, yes. They may not move people to the current price points, but if they raised pre-3/1 prices by 10%, that is still a decent deal. Not as great, but not awful. They do need to balance customer goodwill and their ability to survive.

There can't be that many Max Pack preorder holders, with original pricing.
Some have switched to a large pack. Some dropped completely.
Some will have moved onto the big electric gate in the sky by the time the go into production.
So, maintaining the original pricing for those few thousand shouldn't be a big burden.

 

[intimidator]

Folks who are new to EV really can't grasp the total impact of battery size and distance. Loss due to AT tires, loss due to extreme temps and range anxiety due to lack of charge stations. I've been driving my model s since 2013 and have personally driven 208k miles on same battery. The need for 400 mile pack to go outdoor adventuring in cold climates is absolutely necessary. That's why we have been patiently waiting . shook hands and spoke with RJ at the LA autoshow in 2018, and he seemed very genuine about bringing this model to market. Fast forward 4 years later.. actions speak louder than words. It's not that they can't, it's that they WONT. Their loss would be too great- the big lie.

When RJ promised the Max Pack as the first Rivian to be sold in 2018, didn't they have the basic engineering done on accomplishing 400 miles of range?

What is the reason for the delay this time? A 314 mile range Rivian should be identical to a 400 mile Rivian...same headliners, same doors, same paint, same seats, same same.

It should not slow the factory down to put bigger batteries in X number of R1Ts a week.

 

[Tampa R1T]

Same here. I’m in NC as well. They blamed it on being too far from a service center… I don’t understand why they didn’t fight for a SC in either Raleigh or Charlotte from the start. Tesla knew this would be a hot bed, how did Rivian not know?!

 

[NY_Rob]

What is the reason for the delay this time? A 314 mile range Rivian should be identical to a 400 mile Rivian...same headliners, same doors, same paint, same seats, same same.

It should not slow the factory down to put bigger batteries in X number of R1Ts a week.

Most likely because they can make 3 large packs from the cells it takes to make to make 2 max packs. Every EV manufacturer is in some way, shape or form is cell constrained at this time so they're likely trying to make as many vehicles as they can with the limited amount of cells they have available.

 

[intimidator]

Most likely because they can make 3 large packs from the cells it takes to make to make 2 max packs. Every EV manufacturer is in some way, shape or form is cell constrained at this time so they're likely trying to make as many vehicles as they can with the limited amount of cells they have available.

Very good point.

And, if that is the reason - tell your preorder holders. Don't just keep delaying. Then delaying. Then delaying again.

 

[Riviandog]

Very good point.

And, if that is the reason - tell your preorder holders. Don't just keep delaying. Then delaying. Then delaying again.

That's it. Quit with the games and be upfront. I know CFO's love the 0% interest loans res holders, but that's just juvenile.

 

[Riviandog]

I have dropped my max pack.

my preorder was august 2020 - I’m not going to wait 4 years

Rivian team doing happy dance!! One less sale at a loss, " it's working boss, they dropping like flies"

 

[IdahoNativeNate]

I really wonder if I can wait another year. Just waiting for Tacoma EV equivalent to drop to be honest. It's going to happen and may be the end of the R1T niche market.

 

[Yossarian]

My guess is simply that they want to push MaxPack pre-orders to Large Battery or Dual Motor to minimize their losses.. they lost the most margin on Max pre-orders, have enough demand for Large, it’s easy to simply squeeze them (us) a bit.. it’s the Dual-Batt-MaxPack coming before the promised original is why I think this scenario.. Rivian is going out of its way to squeeze the MaxPax quad pre-orders.

While Rivian is not obligated to honor the pre-March pricing, I don't think they will walk away from it. They have a lot of headwinds to buck and the negative press from walking away from the old pricing a second time would be considerable, adding unnecessarily to their problems. That Rivian would prefer Max reservation holders to change to the LR is pretty clear. It's one of the reasons that the R1T Shop exists and why some Max holders have Guides assigned.

My guess is that the Quad Max Pack is a serious candidate for the chopping block. That means the recent revised delivery windows for the R1T Max to some indeterminate period in 2024 are a bit of slight of hand on Rivian's part. In effect, Rivian is kicking the Max can down the road to buy needed time to study quad vs dual wrt the Max.

The question of what happens to reservation holders should Rivian ultimately decide to kill the quad Max and offer the larger battery only on the dual-motor is an interesting one. The easiest thing for Rivian to do is to simply allow pre-March R1T Max reservation holders to convert to the dual-motor at no charge. This eliminates some of the cost advantage that pre-March order holders now enjoy, but is still a discount to MSRP. It also narrows the loss to Rivian on those older pre-orders.

It would be nice if Rivian was more forthcoming about the Max, but as a public company, and a new one at that, there are pretty tight constraints to what they can reveal without adversely impacting share price. I suspect that we won't really know what their solution for the Max is until sometime late next year.

 

[jclicky]

Most likely because they can make 3 large packs from the cells it takes to make to make 2 max packs. Every EV manufacturer is in some way, shape or form is cell constrained at this time so they're likely trying to make as many vehicles as they can with the limited amount of cells they have available.

I’m sure this is the reason. In the meantime, certain pronounced trips are feasible on the Large Pack so I think they are going to try to address this headwind by conspicuously adding to their adventure network in strategic locations to ablate the “range anxiety.”

 

[Riviandog]

While Rivian is not obligated to honor the pre-March pricing, I don't think they will walk away from it. They have a lot of headwinds to buck and the negative press from walking away from the old pricing a second time would be considerable, adding unnecessarily to their problems. That Rivian would prefer Max reservation holders to change to the LR is pretty clear. It's one of the reasons that the R1T Shop exists and why some Max holders have Guides assigned.

My guess is that the Quad Max Pack is a serious candidate for the chopping block. That means the recent revised delivery windows for the R1T Max to some indeterminate period in 2024 are a bit of slight of hand on Rivian's part. In effect, Rivian is kicking the Max can down the road to buy needed time to study quad vs dual wrt the Max.

The question of what happens to reservation holders should Rivian ultimately decide to kill the quad Max and offer the larger battery only on the dual-motor is an interesting one. The easiest thing for Rivian to do is to simply allow pre-March R1T Max reservation holders to convert to the dual-motor at no charge. This eliminates some of the cost advantage that pre-March order holders now enjoy, but is still a discount to MSRP. It also narrows the loss to Rivian on those older pre-orders.

It would be nice if Rivian was more forthcoming about the Max, but as a public company, and a new one at that, there are pretty tight constraints to what they can reveal without adversely impacting share price. I suspect that we won't really know what their solution for the Max is until sometime late next year.

This is a very well thought out business analysis, one this is out into kindler terms than my as assessment but essentially the same.
The only fault I see is the same with many 1st time EV folks. Akin to a first time crush on that girl in junior high school. She is perfect and can do no wrong .
It's very clear this is a "Quiet Cancel" maneuver on Max Pack. This notion that a generous move to ALLOW us to convert to a dual motor max pack is equivalent is naive.

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