Rivian see US EV registration growth in January 2024, outpacing rivals

[fyton2v]

What you say is true, but only a part of the bigger picture. I’m not saying you can’t do sorta big truck things with it. When you do, however, you’re giving up a ton of convenience because of the range and size. A TON of convenience. Honestly, you don’t see many people doing truck things with their Rams either. But the R1T is still a 90K truck that’s trying to appeal to a $60-70K truck market. When people spend that amount of money on a vehicle, desires and emotions take over a bit. If they don’t regularly need to do truck stuff, they’re imaging themselves doing truck stuff. Then the R1T convenience issues get in the way. In the truck segment, this will continue to be a deal breaker for a lot of people for quite a few years yet.

The R1T has “adventure” in spades. They should double-down and keep going after the jeeple (jeep drivers). Rivian still needs to solve the affordability problem though.

The class V receiver and towing capabilities in the Rivian make it perfect for people that don't need or want to tow further than local lakes/campgrounds for a weekend away from it all. It's shocking that a truck this size can tow so much, range be damned. But people don't know what they don't know.

People that do tow a lot (like me before really looking into the R1T) assume that it's got the capabilities of a Tacoma, Maverick, or small SUV. I had a deposit down on the R1S for the wife (preprice hike) and didn't even think to look at the R1T as a potential replacement for my diesel for local towing until it was too late to get a second deposit down.

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[R1TS]

Disagree. The biggest complaint us big truck owners have is that our trucks are ridiculously big. That's great when you're towing cross country, but it sucks when parking, turning, pretty much anything a smaller vehicle does better. I don't feel like the R1T cab is in any way claustrophobic (I can't put a whole pizza box on the center console arm rest like my big truck, but the frunk and gear tunnel make up for it).

Whenever I talk to another 2500/250 owner about the Rivian, I say it does all the things well that our big trucks do poorly. Diesel hands down for loading the bed or distance towing. Local stuff? Many of us have dump trailers/flat beds that the rivian is perfect for.

Are you sure about the “ridiculously big” feeling? I feel like I see a lot more, A LOT more, lifted trucks that make those big trucks even bigger than a truck towing something. And, if people really felt like these trucks are too gigantic, vehicle manufacturers wouldn’t be continually making cars and trucks bigger all the time.

 

[Hillbilly]

Are you sure about the “ridiculously big” feeling? I feel like I see a lot more, A LOT more, lifted trucks that make those big trucks even bigger than a truck towing something. And, if people really felt like these trucks are too gigantic, vehicle manufacturers wouldn’t be continually making cars and trucks bigger all the time.

Yes. I have a lifted Duramax on 37's. I love it, but it's a crap daily driver.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Is anyone plotting/tracking month-by-month? would be interesting to see which way it's trending, or if it's plateauing. Would be useful in verifying the "demand problem!" claims.

 

[R1TS]

Is anyone plotting/tracking month-by-month? would be interesting to see which way it's trending, or if it's plateauing. Would be useful in verifying the "demand problem!" claims.

I can’t find monthly numbers from my brief search online since a lot of it is behind paywall. But, here is what I found from available information not paywalled.

- January to July 2023: 7,611 R1T and 10,748 R1S
- August to November 2023: 2,634 R1T and 10,941 R1S
- January 2024: 762 R1T and 3,056 R1S

You can clearly a pattern of decline for the R1T, even with introduction of cheaper trims. The amount of R1T available in the inventory shop is another indicator of poor sales.
What sane car company with high cash burn continues to build a huge range of trims of a single model that sells less than one thousand per month in total?

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