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When is Rivian going to let someone (non-Rivian) drive one of these?

duff

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Hi All,

New here and skeptically looking at purchasing Rivian but all I have seen is marketing videos of their engineers driving the R1T. I've been loosely following Rivian for about 2 years now and I have not seen anything on an independent test drive. Why I bring this up is the original production date was set for this fall which would tell me they have production ready vehicles already built? Probably hundreds built already. I understand COVID19 has screwed up everything but they announced this fall production would start before COVID hit if remember correctly. Why not just let someone not associated with Rivian sit in one for test ride on a track and report on his/her experience?
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jjwolf120

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They should have in the tens of prototype vehicles, but zero actual production vehicles. I think they will allow some test drives, once they have actual production vehicles available. Since they just started pilot production, it may be a while before anyone gets their hands on a vehicle to drive. I would guess they might have some vehicles for the press in early 2021, at the earliest. Hopefully, we will see some testing of the R1S in the near future.
 

electruck

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Hi All,

New here and skeptically looking at purchasing Rivian but all I have seen is marketing videos of their engineers driving the R1T. I've been loosely following Rivian for about 2 years now and I have not seen anything on an independent test drive. Why I bring this up is the original production date was set for this fall which would tell me they have production ready vehicles already built? Probably hundreds built already. I understand COVID19 has screwed up everything but they announced this fall production would start before COVID hit if remember correctly. Why not just let someone not associated with Rivian sit in one for test ride on a track and report on his/her experience?
They just started their pilot production line last week so they have not built the hundreds of vehicles that you expect they would have by now. The vehicles you have seen to date have been hand assembled prototypes, not something a car maker wants to put out for review.

Rivian does not expect us to buy without first being given the opportunity for a test drive. We have been told that they will be offering test drives of production spec R1T and R1S at some point after the online configurator tool has been released (I specifically asked if test drives of the R1S would be available at the same time as R1T and was told yes). Obviously this will also be contingent on being able to host such events in light of covid. Once we are able to get behind the wheel, you will either be able to drive it for yourself or at least obtain feedback from those that do.
 
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duff

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Hope they are way beyond just prototype vehicles if they were going to start selling them this fall before COVID.
 

electruck

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Hope they are way beyond just prototype vehicles if they were going to start selling them this fall before COVID.
Even before covid they were not going to be delivering anything this fall. At best, a few vehicles by late December with most deliveries starting in 2021.
 

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skyote

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From another post here, but I was told this directly. Unfortunately, no doubt that COVID has pushed the timeline back.

"Late summer" is when I was told for the test drives & 60 vehicles was specifically mentioned, which should be enough to distribute fairly well.
 

jimrichard

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My question would be will we be able to change our configure options after we have seen the actual production vehicle ? I would really like to see the colors interior and exterior before ordering but don't want to loose any more places in line. They should also hopefully tell us which options will put us further back and which ones are more available. Not just battery options but colors and more. I am sure it will all work out but this is truly a lot of money for some of us to drop on a vehicle without getting our hands on one or even knowing exactly what it will look like with our options. And will we have to drive 1000 miles to see one or will they be in all the bigger cities ? Not a Tesla owner so I don't know how they did it either.
 

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I'm ready to drive one. If they make test drives available in Laguna I'll fly from Alaska to LA for that.
 

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Yes these things look more exciting than sex at least at my age !
 

DucRider

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Not a Tesla owner so I don't know how they did it either.
Tesla is sight unseen - no test drives - on new models. This has been the case for every release so far S, X, 3 & Y.
There is a gentleman near me that attends EV events fairly frequently. He got the first Model X in Oregon - a "signature edition". Signature edition with Tesla means fully loaded, usually a special color, ships first, and you get to pay more when you reserve. He paid a $40K deposit for his Model X expecting delivery in ~1 year. IIRC it was a touch under 3 years before he got it.
Not to be deterred, he immediately put in for the "Founders Series" Roadster when reservations open. That one is a pay in full ($250K) upon reserving. Same zip code as me as far as the post office is concerned, but way, way out of my league financially.

Rivian will be making test drives available before requiring converting your reservation to an an order. Before COVID, they had sent out an email survey to try and gauge how far people were willing to travel to test drive events. Not sure what, if any, impact COVID has had on those plans.
 

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They are hiring like crazy for their customer experience center in Normal, Illinois. Hopefully it will be the offroad comparison to the BMW center in Spartanburg, SC and the Porsche center in LA and Atlanta.
 

Ddowns2050

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Tesla did actually offer test drives. I test drove one in Chicago in 2013 before I bought my first one. They also had a traveling team that brought some model 3's to my area and some of my friends test drove the 3 before they bought one.
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