Gen 2 R1S Issues - Advice Needed

[SAK79]

Purchased a 2025 R1S Max Performance about 6 weeks ago and have had multiple issues:

Car was unresponsive to phone key and key card and had 70% charge. Called Roadside Assistance, they had me press the frunk button 5 times and the car started. Did soft and hard resets as well. Took it to the service center, they stated they checked all the connections and everything was fine.

The car would have episodes of being unresponsive and would start with pressing the frunk 5 times, called rivian, they said to keep pressing the frunk button when needed to restart - should be fine. Was driving one day and car started getting multiple faults: airbag, suspension, multiple other faults, could not go more than 20 mph, pulled over and did a hard reset and everything went back to normal except the airbag issue. Made an appointment with Rivian, they said car was safe to drive. Two days later, went to use the car and it was completely unresponsive. IT had 50% charge on it. I could not get the doors or trunk open, roadside assistance had to send a tow truck to essentially break into the car to open the door through the window. Car got towed to the service center, 12V battery was replaced and they reset software.

Went to use my car yesterday and it was unresponsive again. I called roadside assistance, pressed the frunk button 5 times and the car was back to normal. I will bring it in to service again tomorrow - at this point, I don't have much confidence in the vehicles reliability. I asked about buyback yesterday, will follow up with service.

Any advice from this group would be helpful as to what you might think is going on or if I should just cut my losses and move forward with a buyback. I do love the vehicle when it works, I have had multiple EVs including Tesla and Lucid, this has been my favorite to drive.... Thanks in advance.

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[Phazor]

I had this issue once in the 3 weeks I've owned my Gen2 R1S but it hasn't reoccurred. I also had to wake the car using the frunk button.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

No idea why this is happening but I don’t think your experience is the norm. I feel like the chances of Rivian making it right are very high and you have a whole year to lemon law it. It may take a few months for Rivian to iron it out but they will.

If it was me, and I enjoyed driving it the most out of any other option, I would keep it and allow Rivian the chance to get it fixed completely. Sometimes these problems are trial and error until the root cause is nailed down. It’s easy for me to say so though, as my truck works great.

It’s a pain in the rear for you to deal with, I totally get that and I wouldn’t be happy either but I’d look at worst case. Worst case is this drags on for 6 more months with it having repeated service visits and the problem persisting. That sounds awful, but lemon law means they have to 100% refund your purchase price.

Basically at absolute worst you’ll get to drive a car you enjoy driving for free and have to put up with a hassle to do so. There’s nothing else out that I’d rather be driving personally, so I would take that option. YMMV.

 

[SAK79]

No idea why this is happening but I don’t think your experience is the norm. I feel like the chances of Rivian making it right are very high and you have a whole year to lemon law it. It may take a few months for Rivian to iron it out but they will.

If it was me, and I enjoyed driving it the most out of any other option, I would keep it and allow Rivian the chance to get it fixed completely. Sometimes these problems are trial and error until the root cause is nailed down. It’s easy for me to say so though, as my truck works great.

It’s a pain in the rear for you to deal with, I totally get that and I wouldn’t be happy either but I’d look at worst case. Worst case is this drags on for 6 more months with it having repeated service visits and the problem persisting. That sounds awful, but lemon law means they have to 100% refund your purchase price.

Basically at absolute worst you’ll get to drive a car you enjoy driving for free and have to put up with a hassle to do so. There’s nothing else out that I’d rather be driving personally, so I would take that option. YMMV.

Appreciate your thoughts, will see what the service center says about this last episode. Not sure what could be causing all of these issues. Thank you.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

could be a wiring harness issue. I have seen a couple of those on Gen2 recently. One user reported being told by Rivian that there was a batch of vehicles that had a wiring harness pinched during assembly but I don't know if that is accurate or not. The fix of course is to replace the affected wiring harness.

If you plan to use the lemon law, and I am not an attorney, my advice would be to do double what the lemon law calls for. So if it calls for 30 days in the shop give them 60 days. If it calls for 3 repair attempts give them six. Its a pain, but you will be more likely to have a positive outcome. I have unfortunately had to lemon a couple cars in my lifetime.

With that said, this is understandably extremely frustrating to have a new car with issues. I can tell you that Rivian usually makes things right but it does take time and a lot of patience.

 

[SAK79]

could be a wiring harness issue. I have seen a couple of those on Gen2 recently. One user reported being told by Rivian that there was a batch of vehicles that had a wiring harness pinched during assembly but I don't know if that is accurate or not. The fix of course is to replace the affected wiring harness.

If you plan to use the lemon law, and I am not an attorney, my advice would be to do double what the lemon law calls for. So if it calls for 30 days in the shop give them 60 days. If it calls for 3 repair attempts give them six. Its a pain, but you will be more likely to have a positive outcome. I have unfortunately had to lemon a couple cars in my lifetime.

With that said, this is understandably extremely frustrating to have a new car with issues. I can tell you that Rivian usually makes things right but it does take time and a lot of patience.

Appreciate the information - I hope it’s something as simple as a pinched wiring harness. I will wait and see what service says and will wait on buyback.

 

[SAK79]

Had a follow up from the Service Center, the Manager was really great and informative. They said their was a firmware issue they identified for the Gen 2 for a certain batch of vehicles that was causing a 12 V drain and eventually caused the car to be unresponsive. During the last service visit, they updated the firmware and replaced the 12 V battery.

When I received the car back, the car was not responding randomly, I pressed the frunk 5 times and everything went back to normal. They did a diagnostic and they stated that as the car was getting an OTA update to prepare the car for my scheduled update, something was interrupted and caused the car to be unresponsive - so based on the manager, this was not a hardware issue. She insinuated that this was a fluke and is confident that the car is ok at the moment.

Hopefully this helps other Gen 2 owners - will continue to update the group on how things turn out. Appreciate the help as well!

 

[FinancialCents]

OP, what is your VIN? I have an R1S Gen 2. As well.

 

[good2go]

Had a follow up from the Service Center, the Manager was really great and informative. They said their was a firmware issue they identified for the Gen 2 for a certain batch of vehicles that was causing a 12 V drain and eventually caused the car to be unresponsive. During the last service visit, they updated the firmware and replaced the 12 V battery.

When I received the car back, the car was not responding randomly, I pressed the frunk 5 times and everything went back to normal. They did a diagnostic and they stated that as the car was getting an OTA update to prepare the car for my scheduled update, something was interrupted and caused the car to be unresponsive - so based on the manager, this was not a hardware issue. She insinuated that this was a fluke and is confident that the car is ok at the moment.

Hopefully this helps other Gen 2 owners - will continue to update the group on how things turn out. Appreciate the help as well!

Any updates?

 

[RivAW]

Purchased a 2025 R1S Max Performance about 6 weeks ago and have had multiple issues:

Car was unresponsive to phone key and key card and had 70% charge. Called Roadside Assistance, they had me press the frunk button 5 times and the car started. Did soft and hard resets as well. Took it to the service center, they stated they checked all the connections and everything was fine.

The car would have episodes of being unresponsive and would start with pressing the frunk 5 times, called rivian, they said to keep pressing the frunk button when needed to restart - should be fine. Was driving one day and car started getting multiple faults: airbag, suspension, multiple other faults, could not go more than 20 mph, pulled over and did a hard reset and everything went back to normal except the airbag issue. Made an appointment with Rivian, they said car was safe to drive. Two days later, went to use the car and it was completely unresponsive. IT had 50% charge on it. I could not get the doors or trunk open, roadside assistance had to send a tow truck to essentially break into the car to open the door through the window. Car got towed to the service center, 12V battery was replaced and they reset software.

Went to use my car yesterday and it was unresponsive again. I called roadside assistance, pressed the frunk button 5 times and the car was back to normal. I will bring it in to service again tomorrow - at this point, I don't have much confidence in the vehicles reliability. I asked about buyback yesterday, will follow up with service.

Any advice from this group would be helpful as to what you might think is going on or if I should just cut my losses and move forward with a buyback. I do love the vehicle when it works, I have had multiple EVs including Tesla and Lucid, this has been my favorite to drive.... Thanks in advance.

If it keeps happening and they cannot diagnose or repair it, research your states lemon law so you are prepared with information if need be. It’s not representative of the majority but maybe you got a “problem vehicle” and Rivian will make it right (even if forced to do so pursuant to lemon law).

 

[SAK79]

I wanted to update the group on my situation. Since the last firmware update, I have not had any instances of the car not responding. Fingers crossed, so far so good. Although frustrating when all the issues were going on, have to give credit to the service center and management following up with me and making sure all of my issues were addressed. Will continue to follow up periodically to see how things evolve.

 

[Akf]

Interesting to hear... My phone does work 80-90% of the time, with a couple of failing to detect, but my keycard always works fine.

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