My Day With RJ Scaringe — A Lucky Encounter & R1T Impressions

[Taycanfrank]

I want to sincerely apologize to anyone who made an investment, reservation, or was impacted in any way by my encounter.

I personally convinced 4 other people to make reservations based on my meeting with RJ. I'm truly embarrassed, and all 4 have now canceled their reservations.

I honestly thought RJ was a stand-up guy. I was duped, and I'm sorry.

Happens! The simplest advice is any time there's one guy getting the spotlight at a company, vs the company as a whole, it's probably a scam. It's why I've been so skeptical of Rivian and why I hate Tesla.

I was hoping to be wrong, honestly, but now we know. RJ is a scammer. He's darn good at it, too! Scammers are super easy to like.

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[kurtlikevonnegut]

I don't understand why people are injecting malice into RJ's intent with this decision.

For all we know, approving this was the hardest thing that RJ ever had to do and he battled with it for weeks before making the OK. If he did what he thought was necessary to make his company viable long term, then I can't fault it. I don't have to like it, but I accept it for what it is and appreciate the fact that it could have been difficult for him.

 

[Friscorays]

I don't understand why people are injecting malice into RJ's intent with this decision.

For all we know, approving this was the hardest thing that RJ ever had to do and he battled with it for weeks before making the OK. ..

The emails I received from Rivian yesterday certainly did not give me the impression that anybody spent any time agonizing about anything.

 

[slawwach]

I don't understand why people are injecting malice into RJ's intent with this decision.

For all we know, approving this was the hardest thing that RJ ever had to do and he battled with it for weeks before making the OK. If he did what he thought was necessary to make his company viable long term, then I can't fault it. I don't have to like it, but I accept it for what it is and appreciate the fact that it could have been difficult for him.

It wasn't too hard for him to wait for IPO and keep all those fake preorders for a product he never indented to sell at the advertised price.
And then they produced a thousand or more of trucks for themselves (employees) for lower price - I guess viability was not in question back then.

 

[Rhidan]

After following the company for nearly a year, I put a reservation down on January 25, 2020 when RJ said that the "mid-range" R1T would start at $69k. I think we all feel duped.

Rivian founder and chief executive R.J. Scaringe told Reuters the mid-range R1T pickup truck with a glass sky panel that can change from blue to clear was about $69,000. It can travel 300 miles on a full charge. A similar range R1S SUV will sell for about $72,000.

 

[kanundrum]

I want to sincerely apologize to anyone who made an investment, reservation, or was impacted in any way by my encounter.

I personally convinced 4 other people to make reservations based on my meeting with RJ. I'm truly embarrassed, and all 4 have now canceled their reservations.

I honestly thought RJ was a stand-up guy. I was duped, and I'm sorry.

No harm/foul on your end brother. Im happy to have met the people here albeit virtually!

 

[kylealden]

After following the company for nearly a year, I put a reservation down on January 25, 2020 when RJ said that the "mid-range" R1T would start at $69k. I think we all feel duped.

On January 25, 2020, nobody knew what the world was going to look like on March 1st, 2022.

I'm not going to tell anyone not to be upset, or that the price change isn't a big deal, or that they can afford something they can't. But the notion that this was some kind of intentional bait and switch is more or less pure fantasy.

Doesn't mean it doesn't suck, but the more straightforward answer doesn't exactly strain the imagination: Rivian thought they could build a sustainable business at a lower starting price. Through some combination of their own execution challenges and the entire world and economy shifting under them, they could not. So now it's more expensive.

I join you all in thinking it was poorly communicated and especially that the inequitable rollout to LE reservation holders is disastrous.

 

[indianriver]

I want to sincerely apologize to anyone who made an investment, reservation, or was impacted in any way by my encounter.

I personally convinced 4 other people to make reservations based on my meeting with RJ. I'm truly embarrassed, and all 4 have now canceled their reservations.

I honestly thought RJ was a stand-up guy. I was duped, and I'm sorry.

You now owe me 16K plus this apology.

All jokes aside, thanks for saying so, no apologies needed and we are all feeling it. My wife who is hardly ever that much into cars and was super-excited about this car and is now just so disappointed with Rivian. She is like - how could they just increase the price by the amount you would pay for a small car, and it was done by just another email?

These are expensive vehicles to begin with, it was a stretch to commit to the original price, and no one expected they would be able to hold that price down. And so while a 3-4K increase is completely understandable, a 16K increase is like quoting a price large enough to someone with the intention of having them say no.

So we are saying no.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Happens! The simplest advice is any time there's one guy getting the spotlight at a company, vs the company as a whole, it's probably a scam. It's why I've been so skeptical of Rivian and why I hate Tesla.

I was hoping to be wrong, honestly, but now we know. RJ is a scammer. He's darn good at it, too! Scammers are super easy to like.

I'd be careful about statements like this in a public forum. Quoting to preserve your statement.

 

[mgc0216]

I don't understand why people are injecting malice into RJ's intent with this decision.

For all we know, approving this was the hardest thing that RJ ever had to do and he battled with it for weeks before making the OK. If he did what he thought was necessary to make his company viable long term, then I can't fault it. I don't have to like it, but I accept it for what it is and appreciate the fact that it could have been difficult for him.

I am sure it was a difficult decision, but I also don't think it was necessary for the long term survival of the company. And, if it was, the company is in real trouble.

Let's say you have 70,000 preorders with an (overly aggressive) $20k per order average increase that's $1.4B in revenue - if not capturing that 1.4B is make or break that is problematic.

And, the reality is that they were never going to capture $1.4B in revenue, I would guesstimate based on this forum and others that they are losing at least 30% of their preorders and another chunk have downgraded (I right now have switched back to the R1T from the R1S to keep the cost close to what it was before the update). So let's figure all in all they lose the equivalent of 33% of their preorders. That ends up being an additional $937m in revenue from the price increase on preorders.

If this company so desperately needs $937m in revenue that they are willing to completely obliterate god knows how much value through the destruction of goodwill there are much larger problems behind the scenes.

And, oh by the way, how much market cap have they lost in the process: about $7B today which I am pretty confidently ascribing to this new pricing announcement

I am going over this in my head, and really trying to understand how this option pencils out vs "any orders after 3/1/2022 will be at the new pricing" or heck split the difference "any orders after 11/13/2020" (or whatever the last day to lock in an LE was) - that way you appease longer term reservation holders, and you still gain some revenue on later reservation holders who don't cancel - maybe $250-300 million.

In any case, I would pay good money to see the powerpoints on the options they considered, and the rationale behind the path they chose.

 

[Friscorays]

I'd be careful about statements like this in a public forum. Quoting to preserve your statement.

I'm sure he is shaking in his boots.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I'm sure he is shaking in his boots.

That guy probably doesn't even wear boots! Unless stilettos count?

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