Rivian Reports 2022 Q3 Earnings. R2 Vehicle Platform Launching in 2026

[CUBldr97]

90% are new EV owners? wow that seems really high, and awesome!

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[johstacy]

Even if we get a soft landing, until we get interest rates down, I could see issues.

I agree when I say a turn in the economy I am looking at interest rates going down and supply chain strengthening. This would encourage people to take the loans and not bag out on the preorder

 

[DJG]

90% are new EV owners? wow that seems really high, and awesome!

Well, that's representative of the overall demand pool, which is also about 90% EV virgins. So not surprising.

 

[DJG]

Interesting they are choosing to not include pre-orders. My guess is that they expect a lot of cancelations if the economy weakens in 2023 and they are getting ahead of that.

Or, it's just because it doesn't matter anymore. Tesla doesn't report preorders, because all that matters is production and deliveries. They've proven demand, so continuing to report is just redundant and beating a dead horse.

 

[fotoflux]

90% are new EV owners? wow that seems really high, and awesome!

That makes a lot of sense though. these are some of the first no compromises EVs to market. Even the Tesla Model X 3rd row is only usable for children. I also don't remember where I heard this, but I thought the majority of their pre-orders were for the R1S now. There's no EV on the market that checks all the boxes of the R1S, specifically. Not really any gas-powered 3 row SUVs are half as interesting.

 

[godfodder0901]

92.5 million Rivian miles driven so far...

 

[jclicky]

Or, it's just because it doesn't matter anymore. Tesla doesn't report preorders, because all that matters is production and deliveries. They've proven demand, so continuing to report is just redundant and beating a dead horse.

Yep, total production is all the street cares about this point because they want to see Rivian scale its operations beyond that 80% of total capacity where per-unit production turns profitable. Unless it’s news on their in-house motors, R2, or some explosive growth in reservation numbers (which they’ll now only report as a % increase quarter-to-quarter), or some other new major cost-savings or revenue source, then no reason to keep sharing middling reservation totals. Too risking to share that # publicly when, yes, they’ve proven a baseline of trust & demand.

Disappointed they didn‘t put the recall to bed in the call: had hoped they could call that out as done & handled, they’re moving on, etc. (Unless did they mention it but no reporting on it that I can find?).

 

[zipzag]

Even if we get a soft landing, until we get interest rates down, I could see issues.

Rivian will likely remain supply constrained through any possible recession. A recession is better now than when the R2 launches.

What is perhaps more important is that the market is better before they sesk additional funding. That will likely be a down round regardless, but a fire sale won't build confidence.

 

[DJG]

Disappointed they didn‘t put the recall to bed in the call: had hoped they could call that out as done & handled, they’re moving on, etc. (Unless did they mention it but no reporting on it that I can find?).

they said 83% of vehicles are done and another 10% scheduled. I assume the remaining 7% are owners that are non-responsive.

 

[jclicky]

they said 83% of vehicles are done and another 10% scheduled. I assume the remaining 7% are owners that are non-responsive.

Thanks that’s good to hear. I think it’s short-sighted of the street not to recognize this for what it was: IMO this was RJ getting his team to suit up for a full-fledged actually bad recall & they passed the test with flying colors. They now have one recall under their belts & got it done in a matter of weeks turning around a certain number of customers’ perceptions into getting their cars serviced as actually a positive experience. They should have called out the total # of customer home visits vs. service-center appointments, etc.

Impressive to do that without a dealer infrastructure & not have costs explode. Now they have this experience under their belt, with excellent detail on the actual in-the-field torque figures for the bolt, to match with assembly-line torque #s in the manufacture, worth the cost alone to get that data.

But the street only has the patience to look at total manufacturing #s.

The essential detail here is they just earned a ton of customers’ loyalty vs. the Tesla approach to deny, shut-down engineering tests/evaluations of brake-failures, etc.

You can’t buy that kind of confidence in a brand for reliability & safety.

 

[Jac]

Thanks that’s good to hear. I think it’s short-sighted of the street not to recognize this for what it was: IMO this was RJ getting his team to suit up for a full-fledged actually bad recall & they passed the test with flying colors. They now have one recall under their belts & got it done in a matter of weeks turning around a certain number of customers’ perceptions into getting their cars serviced as actually a positive experience. They should have called out the total # of customer home visits vs. service-center appointments, etc.

Impressive to do that without a dealer infrastructure & not have costs explode. Now they have this experience under their belt, with excellent detail on the actual in-the-field torque figures for the bolt, to match with assembly-line torque #s in the manufacture, worth the cost alone to get that data.

But the street only has the patience to look at total manufacturing #s.

The essential detail here is they just earned a ton of customers’ loyalty vs. the Tesla approach to deny, shut-down engineering tests/evaluations of brake-failures, etc.

You can’t buy that kind of confidence in a brand for reliability & safety.

Unfortunately, the replacement of Half-Shafts isn’t going to be as fast as torquing a few bolts.

 

[bd5400]

Thanks that’s good to hear. I think it’s short-sighted of the street not to recognize this for what it was: IMO this was RJ getting his team to suit up for a full-fledged actually bad recall & they passed the test with flying colors. They now have one recall under their belts & got it done in a matter of weeks turning around a certain number of customers’ perceptions into getting their cars serviced as actually a positive experience. They should have called out the total # of customer home visits vs. service-center appointments, etc.

I don’t put much value in the speed the recall was handled because it was such an easy check that didn’t even require people to get out of their vehicles. If this was a widespread recall that required replacing components it would have been far messier because ultimately Rivian’s limited service network is one of their biggest weak points right now. Some customers have appointments being set months out.

 

[DJG]

Thanks that’s good to hear. I think it’s short-sighted of the street not to recognize this for what it was: IMO this was RJ getting his team to suit up for a full-fledged actually bad recall & they passed the test with flying colors. They now have one recall under their belts & got it done in a matter of weeks turning around a certain number of customers’ perceptions into getting their cars serviced as actually a positive experience. They should have called out the total # of customer home visits vs. service-center appointments, etc.

Impressive to do that without a dealer infrastructure & not have costs explode. Now they have this experience under their belt, with excellent detail on the actual in-the-field torque figures for the bolt, to match with assembly-line torque #s in the manufacture, worth the cost alone to get that data.

But the street only has the patience to look at total manufacturing #s.

The essential detail here is they just earned a ton of customers’ loyalty vs. the Tesla approach to deny, shut-down engineering tests/evaluations of brake-failures, etc.

You can’t buy that kind of confidence in a brand for reliability & safety.

The street specifically asked about it, and RJ highlighted the speed and efficiency with which they attacked it, and the advantages of the direct service model in doing so. In addition to the appreciated transparency with which they handled it.

 

[DJG]

I don’t put much value in the speed the recall was handled because it was such an easy check that didn’t even require people to get out of their vehicles. If this was a widespread recall that required replacing components it would have been far messier because ultimately Rivian’s limited service network is one of their biggest weak points right now. Some customers have appointments being set months out.

Sure, but the point is a Legacy OEM would not have been able to do the same thing. The same task would have taken Audi, or Ford, etc. much longer to do. It would have required owners driving to the dealership and leaving their vehicle (because it's too busy to handle right then and there), etc.

 

[DJG]

Unfortunately, the replacement of Half-Shafts isn’t going to be as fast as torquing a few bolts.

Is there any reason to believe this would be done en masse, vs. just on an as needed basis? Seems like it's just a component that might not last as long as it should, which is different than a voluntary recall/customer service campaign. Seems as though the prudent course is to deal with it along the way.

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