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Rivian customers share thoughts about preordering a vehicle

SpinDoc7

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No real news, but interesting what others are thinking, and why they preordered.

Article: https://www.wglt.org/post/rivians-p...-and-so-are-questions-about-charging#stream/0

WGLT interviews five Rivian pre-order customers from across the country to reveal a somewhat unexpected combination of wants, needs, and personality traits that will now play an outsized role in Bloomington-Normal’s economic future. They also show lingering concerns about the country’s EV charging infrastructure and how Rivian plans to handle service and repairs.
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godfodder0901

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skyote

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The date @ the F&S link is from Dec 2019, and I would be shocked if there were only 10K preorders over a year after reveal.

If that's actually the case, I should be in great shape with my Dec 2018 preorder!
 

Lmirafuente

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I agree, but I would not be too, too surprised about the number.

If I put myself back to when I first saw the Rivian, the stadium headlights was odd. BTW, i do like the look of it now. The Rivian company was a new comer and really no backing from Ford, Amazon, and Cox from the get go...in fact there was news of GM in discussions with Rivian in early 2019, that fell through. When I went to the Overland West event at Flagstaff they were genuinely happy to see me, but many in the crowd were not reservation holders. there was another person that also few in from the SF Bay Area that wanted to see the Rivian and was on the fence in plunking down his cash to get on the list. And that was in May. I was recently in the D.C. area on business and talked about the Rivian and not many people, in fact many did not know about the Rivian.

We in this forum are very excited, but if you talk to others outside this group, you will find not many people know about the Rivian. I had one of my co-workers say, “he wanted a CT” and I asked him why? He said he wanted an electric truck...I asked him if he new about the Rivian, he said no, and was eager to learn about the Rivian. Next time I see him I will ask him if placed his money on the Rivian.

I still believe 10,000 is a low number, but maybe not.....
 

skyote

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I agree, but I would not be too, too surprised about the number.

If I put myself back to when I first saw the Rivian, the stadium headlights was odd. BTW, i do like the look of it now. The Rivian company was a new comer and really no backing from Ford, Amazon, and Cox from the get go...in fact there was news of GM in discussions with Rivian in early 2019, that fell through. When I went to the Overland West event at Flagstaff they were genuinely happy to see me, but many in the crowd were not reservation holders. there was another person that also few in from the SF Bay Area that wanted to see the Rivian and was on the fence in plunking down his cash to get on the list. And that was in May. I was recently in the D.C. area on business and talked about the Rivian and not many people, in fact many did not know about the Rivian.

We in this forum are very excited, but if you talk to others outside this group, you will find not many people know about the Rivian. I had one of my co-workers say, “he wanted a CT” and I asked him why? He said he wanted an electric truck...I asked him if he new about the Rivian, he said no, and was eager to learn about the Rivian. Next time I see him I will ask him if placed his money on the Rivian.

I still believe 10,000 is a low number, but maybe not.....
Excellent perspective, and I've been surprised to experience some similar reactions. I guess I am a little caught off guard when people are interested in EV trucks or SUVs but haven't done their research.

I had heard about Rivian before their launch, but had written them off as another hyped startup. It took me several weeks of due dilligence after their reveal to place my deposit, and now I sometimes feel like I waited too long...there seem to be a good number that committed at reveal.
 

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Lmirafuente

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Excellent perspective, and I've been surprised to experience some similar reactions. I guess I am a little caught off guard when people are interested in EV trucks or SUVs but haven't done their research.

I had heard about Rivian before their launch, but had written them off as another hyped startup. It took me several weeks of due dilligence after their reveal to place my deposit, and now I sometimes feel like I waited too long...there seem to be a good number that committed at reveal.
I was with you and I took a little longer and plunked my money in March, and a friend of mine after I told him at Christmas 2018, he plunked his money that night...so he is ahead of me in line...argh! But all is good as I am on the list for the R1S anyway...
 

Lmirafuente

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I just had a thought...if Rivian is monitoring this Forum...we are helping them sell the vehicles...maybe they would bump us up the list as a commission for helping them sell their truck and SUV...just being extremely optimistic!
 

davrow_R1T

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I had heard about Rivian before their launch, but had written them off as another hyped startup. It took me several weeks of due dilligence after their reveal to place my deposit, and now I sometimes feel like I waited too long...there seem to be a good number that committed at reveal.
I, too, felt they were just one more hyped startup... until the Amazon order & investment.

That's all that stands between several wannabe EV startups and real products, adequate investment.

So that is when I started researching them, then ordered. :blush:
 

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I wouldn't be surprised by the pre-orders being this low at this point. It is still a start-up company. Look at their instagram following. They still have under 200K followers. I'm not saying instagram is the sole indicator by any means .... but the cybertruck forum linked here already has double the members, more messages, and was recently announced.

What I'm trying to say is, I just pre-ordered today, and I'm optimistic that I'll receive it in 2021.
 

ajdelange

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Look at all the advertising Tesla does in comparison to Rivian.
 

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timf

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To put things in perspective, I reserved my Model X about 27 months after the initial reveal date (and after Tesla had been selling Model S for nearly 2 years), and my reservation number was just over 10,000. Granted, a lot more people are aware of EVs now and the Rivian deposit is $1,000 vs $5,000, but it still stands to reason that their numbers could be around 10,000. The starting price still excludes a large majority of the car buying population.
 

805Badger

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When I first saw the "nearly 10,000" preorders thing I thought it was BS. No way was it that low. Especially seeing the enthusiasm for the product from hard-core EV enthusiasts. Then i started to think about my observer bias. In full disclosure, my top biases are:

  1. My wife has diagnosed me with Rivian obsessive compulsive disorder
  2. I have a high pain tolerance for bleeding edge technology
  3. I live in an area with high EV adoption, not just with Tesla so we have better EV infrastructure than most
  4. Thanks to Tesla, I've acquired a taste for EV Kool-Aid so I haven't owned a car with a gasshole for several years
  5. The R1T is the vehicle I have been waiting for for years. Though I admit the headlights are still growing on me. However, you can't see them from the driver's seat, which is where I'll be spending all of my time.

Believe me, I'm all in on Rivian. Especially after seeing the vehicles in person and talking with the people who are designing and building them. If you believe Tony Seba ...



this might be the last car I ever buy and I would be totally fine with that. So my comments below are not a knock on the company, but just a few observations that could explain the (relatively) lower preorders if that number is indeed true.

  1. Rivian doesn't have near the brand recognition Tesla, Ford, GM, et al. have
  2. Rivian has produced 0 consumer cars so far
  3. They don't have a proprietary and well developed charging network (even with people accustomed to EVs, straying away from the supercharging network is daunting)
  4. We don't yet know where or how the vehicles will be serviced
  5. They don't have any "stores" where you can go and talk to sales staff or see the vehicles. You have to be dedicated to really want to see the cars to see them.
  6. R1T and R1S are expensive
  7. No members of the general public have gotten to drive the vehicles (as far as I know)
So, maybe with the above and some more subtle things smarter people than I will add. Even with my above biases, it took me a while to pre-order (Sept 11, 2019) because I kept hoping that Tesla's truck wouldn't be too far out. I do think Rivian has a superior product for my needs and the more I learn about the company and the strategic partnerships they have made, the firmer my decision to go with them is. I think if there were a Tesla, Ford, or GM badge on the side of the vehicle the pre-orders might be higher than the Tesla. For instance and not to sound too Californian, but where I live most people either have Teslas or want a Tesla. I'm exaggerating, but not by much. I have yet to talk to someone who genuinely LOVES the Cybertruck. I know they are out there, I just haven't talked to any of them. I only know one person who has pre-ordered one and that took him a while to do so. Most people I talk to haven't heard of Rivian, but there are at least 3 that after I talked to them about it and showed them some videos have pre-ordered.

If there are only on the order of 10,000 pre-orders then we should all enjoy it. Rivian has enough capital and they don't seem to want to be under a microscope while they are ramping production so they don't need a huge pre-order list to garner attention. They have already spent longer developing and testing the vehicles than most of us previously thought, so I think we will get an exceptional 1st generation product. Once they are out on the road and more details come out the queue will grow, if it really is this "low". In this case, I do expect the early birds to get a nice fat, juicy worm.
 

ajdelange

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In full disclosure, my top biases are:
  1. My wife has diagnosed me with Rivian obsessive compulsive disorder
  2. I have a high pain tolerance for bleeding edge technology
  3. I live in an area with high EV adoption, not just with Tesla so we have better EV infrastructure than most
  4. Thanks to Tesla, I've acquired a taste for EV Kool-Aid so I haven't owned a car with a gasshole for several years
  5. The R1T is the vehicle I have been waiting for for years. Though I admit the headlights are still growing on me. However, you can't see them from the driver's seat, which is where I'll be spending all of my time.
  1. Your'e a physicist. That's almost as bad as being an engineer. Should probably be at the top of the list.


If there are only on the order of 10,000 pre-orders then we should all enjoy it.
Yes!.

so they don't need a huge pre-order list to garner attention.
It's been suggested, and I don't disagree, that they don't want a huge backlog of orders going into the first year of production.
 

twinprice

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When I first saw the "nearly 10,000" preorders thing I thought it was BS. No way was it that low. Especially seeing the enthusiasm for the product from hard-core EV enthusiasts. Then i started to think about my observer bias. In full disclosure, my top biases are:

  1. My wife has diagnosed me with Rivian obsessive compulsive disorder
That has to be my favorite comment...especially because I think I may suffer from the same disorder, although it is self-diagnosed. Good thing that I have kept my mouth shut about the Rivian around my wife! :CWL:
 

805Badger

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As AJ pointed out, I'm a physicist. I'm not so good at social cues, so I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut about things that I am excited about. Unfortunately, with my constant babble she has started talking about replacing the Model X with an R1S. Could end up costing me in the end...
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