Tick Tick Tick...

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They may be having Trouble with Tribbles.

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[GaryL]

It’s not shocking if you take this as evidence that they still aren’t making customer-ready trucks. They give them to employees because they have some issue, tonneau or other, that Rivian just can’t fix. That seems far more likely than Rivian continuing to prioritize employees over us.

I have started to look for other options. There’s just nothing out there I want.

Boils down to 3 possible explanations. They are having some fairly major issue with the finished truck. They are waiting until some person with an engineering background decides the truck is a 100% ready in which case we will never see retail deliveries ever or they are really having major issues with the production line.
I drove by the plant Tuesday, here are a few observations. There was site preparations for an addition on the SW corner of the existing facility. Guessing 20%-30% expansion of existing permanent structures. There was a pressurized hoop fabric structure(think football practice facility) adjacent to the North end of the plant. I don't remember that from previous visits. Maybe someone who attended the First Mile event can chime in. The employee parking lot was packed with a large remote parking area with a lot of vehicles also. There seemed to be a lot of security vehicles at the entrances but probably normal. I brought my good binoculars along. Looked like 100-150 R1Ts setting in an area the resembled RJ Twitter post but I didn't see any evidence of R1S. There definitely was areas that I could not see because of obstructions but thats what I can report. I did drive through Normal but missed the R1S pictured here on the street. All I can say from what I saw at the Normal site Rivian is burning thru some serious cash at this point. One last thing there was absolutely no activity in the Greenfield site across from the plant where supposedly SDI was looking.

 

[Guy]

Boils down to 3 possible explanations. They are having some fairly major issue with the finished truck. They are waiting until some person with an engineering background decides the truck is a 100% ready in which case we will never see retail deliveries ever or they are really having major issues with the production line.
I drove by the plant Tuesday, here are a few observations. There was site preparations for an addition on the SW corner of the existing facility. Guessing 20%-30% expansion of existing permanent structures. There was a pressurized hoop fabric structure(think football practice facility) adjacent to the North end of the plant. I don't remember that from previous visits. Maybe someone who attended the First Mile event can chime in. The employee parking lot was packed with a large remote parking area with a lot of vehicles also. There seemed to be a lot of security vehicles at the entrances but probably normal. I brought my good binoculars along. Looked like 100-150 R1Ts setting in an area the resembled RJ Twitter post but I didn't see any evidence of R1S. There definitely was areas that I could not see because of obstructions but thats what I can report. I did drive through Normal but missed the R1S pictured here on the street. All I can say from what I saw at the Normal site Rivian is burning thru some serious cash at this point. One last thing there was absolutely no activity in the Greenfield site across from the plant where supposedly SDI was looking.

Good observations, thanks.
They were due to start on an expansion from 150k to 200k volume so that tallies with your observations.

They have manufactured over one thousand production vehicles (post validation) so issues should be limited. But we will know more at the analyst call next month - at least being a public company forces them to answer some questions and give some information.

 

[moosehead]

I can confirm with 100% certainty, that mine has not arrived.

 

[godfodder0901]

March first can't come and they tell godfodder that he is still on track for February.

October 31st and Godfodder's guide wouldn't confirm shit.

I just double checked and I didn't get the call about missing my Sep-Oct window until November 2nd...

 

[Craigins]

I just double checked and I didn't get the call about missing my Sep-Oct window until November 2nd...

You didn't call your guide at 12:00 am Nov. 1st asking where the truck was???

 

[Scoiatael]

You didn't call your guide at 12:00 am Nov. 1st asking where the truck was???

They probably would have said the truck is still scheduled to be delivered at the end of October

 

[Canthoney]

What’s frustrating is I haven’t heard of one person being contacted on this forum and all the social media groups that have a timeframe of January-February. I don’t know what the holdup is, but it makes me think they’re going to delay again, but they don’t want to inform them until after again which is horrible customer service.

 

[LoneStar]

all the fretting about another meaningful delay announcement (itself being delayed) doesn't jive with the many forum posts that say recent CS/Guide discussions always reiterating their delivery window provided late last year is still valid.

I mean sure they could be making that a "canned reply" until the bad news is formally announced at the end of this month, but wow, that would generate really horrible press, crush the stock, and drive many to drinking heavier than they already are. ????

 

[godfodder0901]

all the fretting about another meaningful delay announcement (itself being delayed) doesn't jive with the many forum posts that say recent CS/Guide discussions always reiterating their delivery window provided late last year is still valid.

I mean sure they could be making that a "canned reply" until the bad news is formally announced at the end of this month, but wow, that would generate really horrible press, crush the stock, and drive many to drinking heavier than they already are. ????

They have already done that exact thing... To me... Twice...

 

[paariv]

all the fretting about another meaningful delay announcement (itself being delayed) doesn't jive with the many forum posts that say recent CS/Guide discussions always reiterating their delivery window provided late last year is still valid.

I mean sure they could be making that a "canned reply" until the bad news is formally announced at the end of this month, but wow, that would generate really horrible press, crush the stock, and drive many to drinking heavier than they already are. ????

Yeah, but Rivian’s pattern is to do just that: say things are on schedule and then issue a belated confirmation, after the deadline has passed, that they’re not gonna meet it.

My guess is that they are working as hard as they can and hoping Against hope that they can pull off a miracle recovery and get close to back on track, and they won’t say there’s another delay until it is literally impossible to deny the schedule is slipping again. It’s what they’ve done before, why would we expect it to change now?

 

[Diddy123]

all the fretting about another meaningful delay announcement (itself being delayed) doesn't jive with the many forum posts that say recent CS/Guide discussions always reiterating their delivery window provided late last year is still valid.

I mean sure they could be making that a "canned reply" until the bad news is formally announced at the end of this month, but wow, that would generate really horrible press, crush the stock, and drive many to drinking heavier than they already are. ????

This is exactly what they've done historically..on multiple occasions. Hence the fretting.

 

[LoneStar]

This is exactly what they've done historically..on multiple occasions. Hence the fretting.

yeah, I've been pre-emptively drinking more heavily in anticipation of the inevitable bad news

 

[the long way downunder]

I just double checked and I didn't get the call about missing my Sep-Oct window until November 2nd...

Same here. I assume everyone with a 2018 pre-order (that must be 10,000+ people?) have had the same lack of clear, consistent and reliable communications. Tesla was arguably worse. Rivian is a tech startup, so these shortcomings are to be expected to some extent. It will be some time before Rivian's C-suite fix their C3 (Command, control, and communications) … which should focus. on their 3C's (customer, competitor, company) … : )

I received a late Nov "update" email to inform me it was no longer September.
I didn't get the "December" update so my "Jan-Feb" has remained the expectation in conversation with the guide since last year till a week ago.
Now waiting till next week to see if "Mar-Apr" is the next window.
My order is about #2500. They're going to have to be building 200/week to get to me in that time frame.

I'm fine with them building a couple thousand before mine, just for the QA improvements.

 

[Diddy123]

My order is about #2500. They're going to have to be building 200/week to get to me in that time frame.

I'm fine with them building a couple thousand before mine, just for the QA improvements.

Just FYI, they're definitely not building sequentially by order number. Your truck could be next off the line.

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