Ground Breaks on Laguna Beach Hub

[R1Sky Business]

This is exciting news for So Cal. I wish they would have just gone into the Malls like Tesla and Polstar.

https://patch.com/california/lagunabeach/rivian-hub-laguna-beach-breaks-ground-south-coast-cinemas

Malls are not adventurous enough

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[R1Sky Business]

Parking in Laguna isn’t horrible if you know where to go.

I am a fan of the Hub concept, but I would also like them to do smaller vision stores at malls and whatnot.

There is a new Polestar shop at South Coast Plaza and a Vinfast at Spectrum (sorry non locals) and they constantly have people going in and out. I was at Polestar the other day and there’s must have been 30 people in the shop… on a Monday afternoon.

I was at South Coast Plaza 1 hr ago & Polestar Hub was buzzing with people. Looked like black friday sales....

 

[Rivan]

Agreed. It’s a “cool” location. High visibility for tourists. But provides next to no benefits to actual Rivian owners and limited to no test drive potential. It’s a constant traffic jam at that corner all summer long and would make test drives a nightmare.

Rumors are RJ bought a family home in Laguna Beach… So may have been something he was pushing for personally.

Actually, he lives in Laguna, one time I was driving south from Newport and saw him at the light by the Montage .. I thought the Idea of the Hub was more as a marketing for Rivian? .. Which I think it is going to be a good location to be honest ... I own a business on PCH, the amount of car traffic that passes by is insane.. So visibility is important.. IMO

 

[Rivan]

Malls are not adventurous enough

when you pass 40, you will hate malls

 

[R1Sky Business]

when you pass 40, you will hate malls

Can't wait....sounds like an adventure

 

[Prime]

I was at South Coast Plaza 1 hr ago & Polestar Hub was buzzing with people. Looked like black friday sales....

There’s actually a polestar location at Laguna as well about a block away from the planned Rivian hub.

 

[RTChiro]

I think the location is excellent. The hub should be a place to increase awareness about the product and with so much foot traffic from 'all over United States', with many not being rushed to go anywhere, since it is a very popular vacation spot and being very laid back, it will pull many in and they may go ahead and buy one ultimately! Also Laguna Beach is a hub for arts.. in the summer it hosts thousands of visitors for its art exhibitions.. Rivian is a work of art, isn't it??!

 

[the long way downunder]

The Rivian marketing people should have taken that second semester of classwork and learned that brand development takes 7 years … and most big corporates … rebrand within 7 years … they don't got seven years, they barely have se7en quarters.

Rivian needed to go with another hand-me-down factory, drop in production lines, ship product, build dirt cheap service centers in abandoned warehouses (which they have done for the most part) … not showcase location lifestyle nonsense. They could still get a clue, quit pretending that grading dirt and taking three years to build the first vehicle to roll out of Georgia is something anyone seriously considers feasible.

Forget vanity projects like motor R&D and other money pits. Even Tesla is licensing technology now, they've finally conceded that scalability is not happening when it takes them years to just start to implement the dry tech they bought from Maxwell (and Hibar and others.)

A pity they didn't bring the R2 to market in time to sell to a market that's already saturated with the Y. Now they've missed that '21-'22 window when Tesla was hiking prices every month, now Tesla is into volume production and price cutting with fat margins while Rivian is selling every unit at a hefty loss.

Bitter irony that Rivian is failing on production which RJ purports to be his forte.

I don't know how to oust a founder, but Rivian is blotchy with founderitis. Rivian needs to find the fine print that invalidates his equity and veto stranglehold. Unless they change their executive team and relegate RJ to a tech role well away from decision-making, their current trajectory is not reaching stable orbit, they'll burn up on re-entry or Amazon will pay for another booster rocket (yeah, crap analogy, but it rolls. : )

 

[Rad_ry]

Agreed. It’s a “cool” location. High visibility for tourists. But provides next to no benefits to actual Rivian owners and limited to no test drive potential. It’s a constant traffic jam at that corner all summer long and would make test drives a nightmare.

Rumors are RJ bought a family home in Laguna Beach… So may have been something he was pushing for personally.

I’m sure RJ wants to spend his weekends hanging out there and getting bombarded with questions, feature and selfie requests

 

[Rad_ry]

The Rivian marketing people should have taken that second semester of classwork and learned that brand development takes 7 years … and most big corporates … rebrand within 7 years … they don't got seven years, they barely have se7en quarters.

Rivian needed to go with another hand-me-down factory, drop in production lines, ship product, build dirt cheap service centers in abandoned warehouses (which they have done for the most part) … not showcase location lifestyle nonsense. They could still get a clue, quit pretending that grading dirt and taking three years to build the first vehicle to roll out of Georgia is something anyone seriously considers feasible.

Forget vanity projects like motor R&D and other money pits. Even Tesla is licensing technology now, they've finally conceded that scalability is not happening when it takes them years to just start to implement the dry tech they bought from Maxwell (and Hibar and others.)

A pity they didn't bring the R2 to market in time to sell to a market that's already saturated with the Y. Now they've missed that '21-'22 window when Tesla was hiking prices every month, now Tesla is into volume production and price cutting with fat margins while Rivian is selling every unit at a hefty loss.

Bitter irony that Rivian is failing on production which RJ purports to be his forte.

I don't know how to oust a founder, but Rivian is blotchy with founderitis. Rivian needs to find the fine print that invalidates his equity and veto stranglehold. Unless they change their executive team and relegate RJ to a tech role well away from decision-making, their current trajectory is not reaching stable orbit, they'll burn up on re-entry or Amazon will pay for another booster rocket (yeah, crap analogy, but it rolls. : )

I hope you enjoyed whatever you smoked when you wrote this. RJ is a class act and impressively competent across engineering, product development, brand/marketing, finances and capital market issues. I suggest you listen to the how I built this podcast with RJ.

 

[R1Tom]

I am curious how anyone can justify that given all the automotive markets that span then entire NA market space....that two hubs, and the only two hubs in existence, will be 60 miles apart from each other?

I understand it is a Vaca destination. I have been to the Montage 2 times now and Pelican Hill a separate time. So I get that it will be very visible. But how do you then justify the same thing just a little north in Venice?

I just want to know what I am missing.

 

[Guy]

Mall traffic isn’t what it used to be. I don’t think paying a lot for rent space in malls is a good use of money.

That said, I hope Rivian isn’t paying too much for rent at the Laguna space

It is much cheaper to pay rent than to purchase and refurb and old historic building. Plenty of luxury brands are at malls and they have higher foot traffic which will build grand awareness and allow people to see colors and the vehicles in person to make informed configuration decisions.
This idea comes from late 2021 like other grandiose ideas such as outposts and preserves (land Rivian would own and have trails), membership, 600 RAN locations by end of 2023, and home delivery and white glove service. All great ideas but hijacked by financial reality in the intervening 18 months.

There are certain malls that still draw hundreds of thousands.

Rivian does a lot right but not every decision is correct. I would think you agree with that?

 

[SoCal Rob]

I am curious how anyone can justify that given all the automotive markets that span then entire NA market space....that two hubs, and the only two hubs in existence, will be 60 miles apart from each other?

I understand it is a Vaca destination. I have been to the Montage 2 times now and Pelican Hill a separate time. So I get that it will be very visible. But how do you then justify the same thing just a little north in Venice?

I just want to know what I am missing.

The Laguna Beach Hub is close to the Irvine HQ and the Costa Mesa Service Center. The Venice Hub is close to the Carson facility and the El Segundo Service Center. I suspect that having other facilities nearby had something to do with the location choices.

 

[R1Tom]

The Laguna Beach Hub is close to the Irvine HQ and the Costa Mesa Service Center. The Venice Hub is close to the Carson facility and the El Segundo Service Center. I suspect that having other facilities nearby had something to do with the location choices.

I get that. But how about New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, etc.... before 2 within 60 miles of each other if one can even justify hubs in the first place anymore....at least till all the other issues are worked out.

Or maybe I am wrong....I keep thinking thry want to be more than a boutique niche brand, but this does seem to be right in line with boutique niche brand thinking.

And I suppose current valuation supports niche brand too.

I am fine with niche brand. I love mine and would get another.

I was just thinking they wanted to be a major player and not just make 100k vehicles a year someday.

 

[SoCal Rob]

I get that. But how about New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, etc.... before 2 within 60 miles of each other if one can even justify hubs in the first place anymore....at least till all the other issues are worked out.

Or maybe I am wrong....I keep thinking thry want to be more than a boutique niche brand, but this does seem to be right in line with boutique niche brand thinking.

And I suppose current valuation supports niche brand too.

I am fine with niche brand. I love mine and would get another.

I was just thinking they wanted to be a major player and not just make 100k vehicles a year someday.

Do any of them have a Service Center and other Rivian facility close by?

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