There are still so many pre March 1st orders in Canada. currently only BC is taking R1 delivery. A friend just received their "Confirm Order" email and they live in Alberta with their service centre in Calgary coming online late this year? But theres still a huge backlog in the Maritime Provinces, specifically Ontario, which doesn't come online until Q1 '24. So there's gonna be a pre March backlog well into the latter half of '24
I remember the rumor mill and it just didn't add up for me. I was thinking lower trimmed and priced R1, to bridge price gap between R2 and R1 as well as making the R1 accessible to more buyers—since the R1 is a model line they already produce and it wouldn't take much investment on their end to add a lower trim that could be compelling for both general consumers and fleet buyers.
Great notes from the call!
I think the pre March pricing will be OK. They said when they took the EDV line down to implement the changes for that they yielded a 35% improvement on cost. They are expecting a similar number for the R1 when they take the line down Q2 ‘24. Probably won’t see the real results until Q4 ‘24 but they are going in the right direction.
I could be wrong but my understanding is these Q2 changes are all under the covers. It is the wiring harness, processor reductions and things like that to lower the build cost. It does not seem like there are going to be visual changes.
The Q2 2024 changes do sound fairly significant. In addition to the wiring and ECU updates, RJ mentioned today about structural and HVAC changes. Heat pump? Improved battery cooling? So many possibilities.
I agree. It is the fixed cost and they can only bring it down by volume. They need to quickly move to R2 platform for volume; but I see this as a good trend. There is no other SUV like R1S in the market and they should capitalize on that until R2.
