R1T & R1S Updated Pricing, Configuration, Specs. Dual Motor Now Available

[AllInev]

7 day return policy you say? Looking forward to a hell of a 7 day "adventure" before returning their $93,000 truck.

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[the long way downunder]

Trying to read through some of this almost War and Peace thread, it seems to me Rivian has once again screwed the communication pooch.
Surely someone inside Rivian with boardroom level access said "instead of a hard line increase, how about a curve?"
For example: 5% per 90 days till we reach the targeted 15-20%.
It's unorthodox, but can be explained as absorbing 3 years of supply-side cost increases, a pandemic and a war while keeping as close as possible to the original 2018 price estimate for early pre-order customers."

 

[the long way downunder]

I call BS. Rivian played most of us who pre-ordered. It was a sleazy (borderline illegal) marketing move to increase reservations before the IPO. They knew the price was low years back and stringed us along. Here's an excerpt from a recent Reuter's article:

"Rivian’s former head of sales and marketing, Laura Schwab, said in a lawsuit against the company in November over alleged “gender discrimination and retaliation” that Rivian has acknowledged a need to raise the vehicle prices “after the IPO”.

You're ignoring 3 or more years of supply-side price increases, inflation, two years of a pandemic ongoing, a war just starting … and a price "estimate" in 2018 is not a contractual obligation, it's not even fine print.
As ever, communication from Rivian is a problem … they should have perhaps (what do I know?) adjusted prices every 90 days for each new pre-order and notified individuals of retroactive price estimate adjustments.

 

[ex0de]

Rivian had positioned themselves perfectly for a ripe market that my wife and I were a part of. We are young, adventurous professionals who had just saved up enough to stretch for a vehicle like this that fit our beliefs, even though it was more than we ever thought we would pay this early. Had this price increase been in the thousands of dollars, we would probably have been able to handle it due to an understanding of the tough market conditions. However, when you decrease specs and increase the price for the vehicle by 20k after what seemed to be a solid promise of a price, you have not only pushed us out of the market financially, but left a horrible taste in our mouth that will have us looking elsewhere in the future. This is a slap in the face to the customers like us who went out on a limb to preorder your vehicle and put themselves on the line to be your earliest promoters. Rivian, you are the most well funded start up in history, use some of that to start off right instead of completely alienating your earliest customer base. This is not looking to the future... this move is cutting you guys off at knees. I'm sorry I got so excited for so long to own one of these.

Forget the truck, invest the money instead. Unless your net worth is over a million you shouldn't even think of buying this truck. Your future self will thank you for that.

 

[the long way downunder]

7 day return policy you say? Looking forward to a hell of a 7 day "adventure" before returning their $93,000 truck.

I'm guessing fraud laws will be highlighted in the purchase agreement at the time of sale.

Ironically, the "rid hard, put up wet" 7 day old, 1000 mile Rivian you're returning … will be worth more than MSRP … : )

 

[indigozebra]

Canceled my order today. I could afford the price increase (of about 17k for my config) but I ordered 2.5 years ago and it didnt feel right they ditched their early customers. I understand the car industry is going through shortages and all that, but I think they shot themselves in the foot.

I predict that their new orders would dramatically decline. I certainly let customer service know my thoughts.

 

[epradox]

Trying to read through some of this almost War and Peace thread, it seems to me Rivian has once again screwed the communication pooch.
Surely someone inside Rivian with boardroom level access said "instead of a hard line increase, how about a curve?"
For example: 5% per 90 days till we reach the targeted 15-20%.
It's unorthodox, but can be explained as absorbing 3 years of supply-side cost increases, a pandemic and a war while keeping as close as possible to the original 2018 price estimate for early pre-order customers."

what if that was pitched and were at the bottom of that curve right now lol

 

[AllInev]

Trying to read through some of this almost War and Peace thread, it seems to me Rivian has once again screwed the communication pooch.
Surely someone inside Rivian with boardroom level access said "instead of a hard line increase, how about a curve?"
For example: 5% per 90 days till we reach the targeted 15-20%.
It's unorthodox, but can be explained as absorbing 3 years of supply-side cost increases, a pandemic and a war while keeping as close as possible to the original 2018 price estimate for early pre-order customers."

Once again, seems like we're left assuming either a) Rivian leadership is "clueless" when it comes to communications strategy b) they just don't give a sh#t because they know they're going to sell every vehicle they're currently capable of making. For me, I don't like either option.

 

[CarterGee]

There is one caveat, Tesla generally honors the price that you ordered at, not sure if they will with the CyberTruck, since it isn't out yet.

They removed pricing from the website. The price will not be the original price.

Whenever... it.. maybe probably... comes.

 

[KnightNole07]

Trying to read through some of this almost War and Peace thread, it seems to me Rivian has once again screwed the communication pooch.
Surely someone inside Rivian with boardroom level access said "instead of a hard line increase, how about a curve?"
For example: 5% per 90 days till we reach the targeted 15-20%.
It's unorthodox, but can be explained as absorbing 3 years of supply-side cost increases, a pandemic and a war while keeping as close as possible to the original 2018 price estimate for early pre-order customers."

I actually really like this idea. Again, I think what really frustrates me is the somewhat arbitrary nature of this whole thing. If I don't buy a Rivian, it will be a Taycan GTS, so it isn't a total cost issue. It is the fact I have been a supporter and pre-order holder for 3+ years, and have told anyone that will listen about this cool company and vehicle.

Now while we are in my window for delivery, they are jacking up the price, while others with the same delivery window (and some who pre-ordered after I did), are getting their prices honored. It just "feels" bad. I understand the reason, I get inflation, supply chain is a problem, yada, yada. But have some kind of fair system to roll this out.

So unorthodox for sure, but I really like the idea of some kind of system for price increase rollout.

 

[1973LT]

Sort of. Tesla is usually building orders in 30 days (sooner for S and X) but if they're increasing prices every 30-90 days, there's no need to deal with a 3+ year disparity. Just the supply side increases in 2020 should have resulted in Rivian increasing prices, especially for new pre-orders, especially when the DSP was an enticement to place an order (to get the 175 shares.)

Not sure where some of you are getting a 3+ year price disparity. Pricing wasn't released 3+ years ago, it was disclosed a year ago. Do you think that the just decided in 2021 to release the prices they had in mind in 2018?

 

[PostMinivanDad]

Sorry we have zero information to give you about the R1S second and third rows after 3 years of waiting, but we can tell you it will cost you 20% more.

Classy move Rivian…

 

[AllInev]

I'm guessing fraud laws will be highlighted in the purchase agreement at the time of sale.

Ironically, the "rid hard, put up wet" 7 day old, 1000 mile Rivian you're returning … will be worth more than MSRP … : )

Ha! Don't worry, I'll read the fine print and be very sweet and folksy like RJ. I'll apologize as well. I hope I don't lose the key.

 

[Jcrea]

Haven't canceled yet. Not planning on it immediately regardless of my decision. But the more I think about it, the more ticked I get.

You all have hit all the main points already. I won't pile on those.

As a March '19 pre order with a "expected March (today) - April" delivery, the timing sucks. I have gone from fanboy and advocate, to concerned stakeholder, to "we'll see how this turns out", to "I'm pretty sure we all just got hosed".

A $17k jump the first day of my delivery widow is a kick in the pants. I can easily pay that, but why would I? People that are still proponents are acting like this company is the second coming and offer a one-of-a-kind therefore "shut up, pay, and be thankful" type product. In 2018, that was true. In 2019, it still somewhat rang true. Today, there are a lot of options, especially in the $20K above estimate range. And, the "great" company now seems to be anything but that. Delays, bad information, lack of communication, walking back capabilities (level 3 autonomy and tank turn), and now not honoring their price shows a pattern that I can no longer make excuses for when people ask me about Rivian. Ffs, they make Tesla look reliable and Elon look stable.

What really concerns me is a possibility of an SEC investigation. If the IPO roadshow and pricing was based on pre-order numbers and the company knew a price hike was coming that would negatively impact the pre-order numbers, but they did not disclose that information and hide it until the lock up period was over and until the first day of "actual deliveries" the whole company could be in big Big Boy trouble.

If there is a significant risk of a startup being shutdown fairly soon, I do not want to drop $100K on a product that may need service or parts with no vendor.

Additionally, the polls on this board are stated to show 30% cancelations. Not scientific, but this board is generally for die hard fans. How do you think the average person will react to price hike?

Dumb and poorly handled move. I can't imagine how or if they want to fix this. But, I'm inclined to say that they may not recover from this.

PS, I wonder if Bezos and Amazon got a price hike?.... I'm going to guess that is a "no". Jeff could cash out, he is a customer service zealot and won't be happy about the back lash. Amazon has already bought 10,000s of other vehicles since the Rivian deal.

 

[Grabs10]

Doesn’t make much sense other then being unique to buy one. Not cancelling but likely won’t go through with a purchase when my number comes up.

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