Rivian Head of Service Talks Growth With 34 Service Centers Now Open

[Administrator]

RIVIAN HEAD OF SERVICE TALKS GROWTH WITH 34 SERVICE CENTERS NOW OPEN

We celebrated the opening of our 34th Service Center, the latest in our plan to double our service footprint across the US and Canada this year.

Our new Service Center in Metro Detroit opened to the public this week. As with all our Service Centers, Rivian customers will be able to take delivery of their vehicles, schedule demo drives and receive onsite vehicle service.

STORY AT: https://stories.rivian.com/service-center-growth-detroit

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[Guy]

Would love to see some more open in the NE since Brooklyn is covering a huge area and is a pain to get too. I will be very pleased if either Trenton or Edison are open this year given the complete lack of any updates.

 

[lefkonj]

Yeah Edison would be great since getting to Brooklyn is horrific.

 

[Guy]

Yeah Edison would be great since getting to Brooklyn is horrific.

Shame it is likely to open two years after Brooklyn did. That is poor planning and/or execution. Five service centers to cover the entire east coast is also not great.

 

[R1EV]

Going to make potential services a heck of a lot easier for many of our community

 

[Riv_Ian]

Apparently R1T and R1S service is all moving from the Plymouth location to this one in Madison Heights. Personally, I wish Plymouth was still an option. Apparently Plymouth is going to just service Amazon vans going forward.

 

[the long way downunder]

The opening of a service center needs to include provision of as many loaners as needed for the number of customer vehicles expected to be in for service at one time.

The systemic problem with Rivian service is the length of time a vehicle is off-road for quality and reliability issues. The pain of this problem is Rivian owners driving old rental cars.

The solution to the ownership experience disappointment is to have Rivian loaners.

It's reasonable to ask customers to expect "early adopter" experiences when buying a vehicle in its first year of production, recalls, quality issues, upgrades, etc.

It's not reasonable to fail to implement measures to deal with the service of customer vehicles.

Don't ask customers to wait for uber/lyft twice a day as their new owner experience with Rivian.

Don't send them off to a rental car office and take an hour to get on the road in a gas guzzler that's poor substitute for a Rivian.

Rivian had a surplus production of thousands of vehicles last quarter – enough to have a fleet of loaners at each service center.

Instead of incurring costs with rental companies and uber or lyft, Rivian has more of its vehicles on the road in public; vehicles which it has already incurred the cost to manufacture and went unsold. so they didn't lose any top line revenue by delaying a new vehicle sale.

For most customers, to drop off their R1T and be offered an R1T or an R1S if they prefer, connects them to the brand as a novel and fun experience that negates the inconvenience of their Rivian needing to be in service. They're in a familiar vehicle, experiencing its full value as a new owner.

From a brand image perspective, the proud new Rivian owner can happily report to their friends "yes, I dropped it off for service and I've got this one in a different color with different wheels, I like the 22s and might get a set as my summer wheels" to which their circle of friends would respond "that's cool" or "let's go for a drive!"

The last thing Rivian needs is a new customer being asked "where's the new Rivian?" and the new owner has to admit "it's in for a recall and I'm buying gas for this rental loaner" … "oh, that sucks."

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but the SC in Maryland is opening soon. That's about 40 miles away for us Northern Virginia people, as opposed to 90+ miles to Richmond.

Funny story: I picked up my R1T on 3/31. Found three minor issues: Pollen trapped under the PPF on the gear tunnel door, missing roof rack inserts, and one tailgate cable longer than the other. Discussed with service recently. They offered to have my truck towed to the MD SC to address those issues. Their reasoning for towing was "it's a soft opening, they don't have a customer waiting room available there yet". I declined. No way I want my neighbors to see my Rivian being towed away, let alone towed away for those minor annoyances! ?‍ I'll wait till it opens fully and I can drive there. ?

 

[carsly]

Please open up Edison, it's in Central NJ and accessible by owners in NJ, many parts of lower NY state (easier to get to NJ than Brooklyn) PA, CT and even DE and northern MD.

 

[dsmithsalinas]

According to their website, it seems they have plans for a service center in Stockton, CA which is interesting. Fairly close to the Sac location. I’d love to see it more in Dublin/Pleasanton or even Tracy or Manteca.

EDIT - actually, it says Stockton, but the map shows Manteca ?

will be curious to see how long it takes for that one to come online.

 

[Yossarian]

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but the SC in Maryland is opening soon. That's about 40 miles away for us Northern Virginia people, as opposed to 90+ miles to Richmond.
. . .

That's great news - I think. Gaithersburg is perhaps perhaps 10 more miles than my assigned service & delivery center in Brooklyn, but an order of magnitude easier to get to. When I asked about taking delivery there though the answer was not encouraging. Perhaps that will change.

 

[Khaneric]

According to their website, it seems they have plans for a service center in Stockton, CA which is interesting. Fairly close to the Sac location. I’d love to see it more in Dublin/Pleasanton or even Tracy or Manteca.

EDIT - actually, it says Stockton, but the map shows Manteca ?

will be curious to see how long it takes for that one to come online.

It's the same way in Socal... the icon for the new service center is over Pasadena but the text says Oxnard-Thousand Oaks. Very different locations.

 

[gt28]

I am thinking of going to the Massachusetts center for my current issues, and i live 55 miles away from the Brooklyn center, and my office is about 6 miles away. Last time i was there, it took me about 3.5 hours to get home. It’s a bit nuts.

 

[aabolt]

I am thinking of going to the Massachusetts center for my current issues, and i live 55 miles away from the Brooklyn center, and my office is about 6 miles away. Last time i was there, it took me about 3.5 hours to get home. It’s a bit nuts.

The Massachusett SC is in Chelsea (Boston). I am in NH and have also lived in NY. The traffic in Boston is just as bad, if not worse, in my experience compared to NYC/Brooklyn traffic. I am really surprised they are not planning another SC for New England. I see a ton of them around and we only have one SC for all of us, that happens to be in a horrible location. Just something to think about before making the drive out here!!

 

[Zoidz]

Shame it is likely to open two years after Brooklyn did. That is poor planning and/or execution. Five service centers to cover the entire east coast is also not great.

It's also baffling that a service center has not been established in the South Jersey/Delaware/MD/Philadelphia region such as Trenton or WIlmington to cover a large east coast population area.

Or, perhaps that is exactly the reason - lack of an SC means they can use it as a justification to throttle/manage delivery volume...?

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