Rivian CEO: We're not worried about Tesla's Cybertruck

[Acoustic71]

Head over to the CT forum and it looks like we will know more real soon. There are posts of CT Launch Team apparel being distributed.

(Sigh) I remember when the “Devo Look” was a thing, too.

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[NineElectrics]

The Cybertuck is a bad 80s fashion trend come back to haunt us 45 years later. Resale is going to take a huge hit. The mullet in the back hurts utility too much.

 

[elektrode]

The very moment Cybertruck rolled out, I knew I was buying a Rivian.

Well, technically my first Cybertruck response was “this has to be a joke”.

 

[Redline]

The very moment Cybertruck rolled out, I knew I was buying a Rivian.

Well, technically my first Cybertruck response was “this has to be a joke”.

Honestly, I was very interested in the CT announcement. I remember watching it live and then thinking that this was some sort of joke from Elon. I couldn’t believe they were serious.

It’s one of the most laughable things I’ve ever seen. When people link the CT forums here, I get straight up Jones Town vibes.

 

[izgoy]

Yeah one is a pretty well fleshed out utilitarian vehicle and the other one is a look at me dumpster shaped shit box on wheels. The cyber truck looks like a dumpster while the Rivian looks like a vehicle.

I wouldn’t know which one was which if you didn’t clarify.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I wouldn’t know which one was which if you didn’t clarify.

Have you never seen either one? Or never seen a commercial dumpster? Or is this sarcastic?

 

[izgoy]

400 miles of range. 800 HP. MSRP $79,990. That’s the first trim to be offered.

 

[Zorg]

If Tesla wants to sell a few 100k units, they can make it pricey and sell only to the diehards. If they want to sell way more, they will need to price it aggressively. My guess is that it will be priced a little higher than originally announced but not that much, and they will sell a shit ton of them because it will offer the most value. A 300 mile CT for $60k would sell like hot cakes.

Day 2 CT reservation holder and keeping the R1T.

 

[RivianRunner]

My 2 cents say that the drastic reduction I'm the prices of the Models X and S was psychological marketing and priming with the goal of making it easier to accept that the CT is the new 'halo' product actually worth north of 100k (in order words, I can buy a Model X for half the price of my preferred CT. No harm done, I'm still saving some money and still driving a Tesla!). Just a wild speculation!!

I'm surprised by the number of people who have fallen for the narrative that Cybertruck will be priced north of $100K. Even the top spec version with 500+ miles of range won't be priced that high, once it's available. And the release versions will include at least one version with 300+ miles of range and a price in the $50K range.

This is not difficult to figure out, just looking at the facts, but some people are easily misguided by those FUDsters who are threatened by the transition away from internal combustion.

 

[RivianRunner]

I didn’t say anything about the CT being a flop or that people should ditch their $100 reservations. I just find it strange when the Elon/Tesla/CT defenders post along the lines of “see, it’s here and it’s great!” when the important pieces (specs and price) are still unknown.

I would have been annoyed if R1T specs and pricing were still largely unknown in the months and weeks leading up to its release.

The specs and prices have already been announced. The fact that the specs might be slightly different, and the prices might have to be adjusted a few thousand dollars to account for inflation is not as big of a deal as people make it. What's a few thousand dollars when money ain't what it used to be anyway? It's all relative and new car/truck buyers are not stupid. When deliveries start to employees, the final prices and specs will be revealed, and they will be close enough to what was announced pre-covid that it's not going to be a big deal.

I'm actually expecting most of the specs to be better than what was announced at the reveal, so it's no big deal if it costs a bit more. It will not be priced high enough to prevent it from selling at high volume.

Frankly, I'm surprised how many Rivian owners appear to be threatened by the Cybertruck. Like Scaringe said, it's not a big deal.

 

[RivianRunner]

THAT SAID: Tesla has a metric f*ckton of money and power. If they wanted to sell the CT at a substantial loss as a huge FY to the rest of the industry, they absolutely can. And volume scales very differently. If they can sell 100k of these in the time Rivian is selling 50k, they can absolutely work on a different volume scale and sell it for less regardless of how complex it is. Chalk a lot of that up to the fact that Tesla build more in-house and relies less on outside vendors for most things.

Honestly, either way it goes, I'm interested to find out, and if any of my friends do go through with their reservations, I'll take a ride in the CT for sure!

Yeah, Tesla is not going to be selling the Cybertruck at a loss. They will lose money on initial production, without a doubt, all new vehicles do. But those losses will not extend beyond the first 25K-100K units. It all depends upon how long it takes to get the lines up to speed.

As to complexity, that is all in figuring out the production processes and that all happens from pre-production and through the production ramp. What many apparently don't know is the Cybertruck is specifically designed to be made in large numbers, very quickly and without a huge amount of factory space or workers and robots. Don't be fooled when Elon says it's extremely difficult to build, he is only speaking about figuring out the best way to build it in large numbers, there's always a lot of work in that and the Cybertruck multiplies that by three or four due to its innovative engineering and construction. But Tesla will iterate until they have Cybertrucks coming off the lines at record pace. It's all about bringing the new vehicle buyer more vehicle for less money. That's how Tesla de-risks their business. Cybertruck would never have entered initial production if they didn't have confidence they could do that.

 

[COdogman]

The specs and prices have already been announced. The fact that the specs might be slightly different, and the prices might have to be adjusted a few thousand dollars to account for inflation is not as big of a deal as people make it. What's a few thousand dollars when money ain't what it used to be anyway? It's all relative and new car/truck buyers are not stupid. When deliveries start to employees, the final prices and specs will be revealed, and they will be close enough to what was announced pre-covid that it's not going to be a big deal.

I'm actually expecting most of the specs to be better than what was announced at the reveal, so it's no big deal if it costs a bit more. It will not be priced high enough to prevent it from selling at high volume.

Frankly, I'm surprised how many Rivian owners appear to be threatened by the Cybertruck. Like Scaringe said, it's not a big deal.

Again, you are mistaking being “threatened” for plain old mockery because it’s hilarious how some folks will happily eat up whatever Elon serves. It’s comical that this keeps being said. Why would people who think the CT is ugly and a joke be “threatened” by it? It makes no sense.

Your assessment is pretty rosy considering Tesla announced it in 2019 at $39k/ $49k and current pricing could be almost double that. And the Tesla website can makes claims about towing ”infinite mass” and Musk can tweet about it “functioning as a boat” but they can’t update their “millions” of reservation holders about it’s actual specs?

 

[Dark-Fx]

Frankly, I'm surprised how many Rivian owners appear to be threatened by the Cybertruck

And I am surprised how many Tesla apologists there are on a Rivian forum with Rivian in their handles.

 

[Ecupip]

And I am surprised how many Tesla apologists there are on a Rivian forum with Rivian in their handles.

I’m not surprised. There are more diehard ev owners here than new owners or car enthusiasts. Tesla was pretty much the only game in town for ev owners for so long.

 

[zymolysis]

unnecessary massive glass panels that will cost a fortune to replace

Umm, that's one of the things I dislike about Rivian.

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