Tick Tick Tick...

[Guy]

YES!

At this point there are only two options: 1) Rivian has made a decision not to share this information even at the risk of pissing off half of its customer and pre-order base. If so, why? What is Rivian hiding? or 2) Rivian has hired the most inept PR/Communications team ever. If this is the case, they should terminate every employee in both groups today for the salary and benefit cost savings alone - at least that helps the bottom line for earnings reports.

Completely agree and think it is more #2. There is nothing stopping them today from posting hub and service/delivery center locations for those open and soon to be open. Lucid has this. Most reservation owners are not members of forums like this so have no idea where those locations are. We do because of this forum, but it would reassure those non members who have orders that they have a center now or coming soon. This again is not impacted by pandemic, recruitment or shipping challenges - it is updating a webpage with info they already have.

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[CYoung]

I'm assuming early R1S will be going to employees as well, but it does seem like there have been more "in the wild" pics & videos lately...

I do know that employees do not get the same incentive for the R1S as they get with the R1T.

 

[RivianXpress]

Buddy ordered a Model 3 in April last year. He’s still waiting on delivery in Bay Area. Estimates have moved from Jan 2022 to July 22 and now June 2022. It’s the new norm, get used to it.

Would you rather continue to have dates that mean nothing or no dates at all??

 

[LaunchGreen]

A father in my son's class has an R1T (sr employee). Reading between the lines, here is my take:

What you're seeing with the prioritization is basic economics - supply and demand. Hiring is really difficult right now, so providing incentives like subsidized vehicles and prioritized delivery is important for them to hit their hiring goals and scale up. Meanwhile, demand for their products is much, much higher than supply and will be for a long time. Therefore, hiring is more important than your order. It sucks, but fairly logical.

BTW, other than minor issues mostly around entertainment system, I don't think there are quality issues delaying things.

 

[Inkedsphynx]

I’m tired of staying tuned! And I’m tired of people insisting that customer deliveries are taking place when they are so few and far between that they might as well not be happening at all.

Delivering 1 or 25 vehicles in December doesn’t make a dent in the numbers Rivian has to achieve. And they keep on insisting things are great, when they plainly are not.

It’s dishonest. And disrespectful. And Rivian, if you’re reading this, it needs to change today. Not soon. Today.

They had to start somewhere. Usually that starts with 1 vehicle, then increases from there.

Would you have preferred if they'd parking lot stored every single R1 produced until they were able to ship some number all at once that would have satisfied you?

I also don't think Rivian has been insisting things are great. They've repeatedly talked about the challenges they are facing during ramp. Watch the Sandy Munro video posted on this forum today - RJ clearly states they've got 2000 parts from 400 suppliers and are dealing with challenges in securing supply at a consistent rate. That doesn't sound like 'Everything is great!' to me.

 

[Joninrye]

Would you rather continue to have dates that mean nothing or no dates at all??

This is a great example of the False Choice Fallacy.

 

[IlliniRivian]

A new email from Rivian!


About the gear shop, which may be the #1 revenue source depending on delivery rate.

 

[mgc0216]

I guess I'm confused on what you want them to say. "You still don't have a truck, manufacturing is hard?" Something tells me wouldn't actually feel better.

I, like a lot of forum members I imagine, traveled extensively for work before Covid. Inevitably there were flight delays, sometimes at the gate sometimes on the tarmac.

And, essentially, there were two ways these delays were handled wrt communications.

they almost all started with: "Sorry for the delay, we're waiting on a maintenance tech (or part or flight crew or an arriving aircraft0" then they diverge.

"we expect it's going to take about 20 minutes to get the tech on the aircraft, and after that we'll know how much longer the delay might be. So, expect to hear back from us in about 25-35 minutes"

or

"we'll give you an update just as soon as we know anything. don't go anywhere"

Which is the better message? Clearly for me it's #1, here's what we know, here's what we don't know, and here's when we'll tell you what we've learned.

Studies have shown time and again, you can alleviate anxiety and customer dissatisfaction with timing delays if you communicate effectively. So, research actually says many would feel better if we knew what was going on.

Now a flight delay doesn't materially affect the stock price of an airline. Nor does it generally result in me saying "I'm canceling this flight and am going to book another one" (although sometimes it has). That is to say Rivian has a lot more at stake wrt communicating delays and have a made a strategic decision that the animus and anxiety of a bunch of reservation holders is less important than the effect communicating those delays would have on other parts of the business. I don't think this is incompetence, I believe it's a conscious decision based on their business priorities which doesn't align with what a lot of folks here would like.

Parting thought:
Where am I gonna go if I cancel my R1S order? Some of y'all have multiple reservations, many of us do not - because personally I don't want to drive a Ford, GM, Dodge, or Chevy. There is nothing I've seen on sale (let alone announced) that competes with the R1S in the BEV space (I might go out and buy a Defender if I wanted to stay in the ICE realm) so my choices are lose my place in line or wait for some product that has much more uncertainty around it than the R1S

 

[Diddy123]

A new email from Rivian!


About the gear shop, which may be the #1 revenue source depending on delivery rate.

I don't think their MarComms team could be any more tone deaf to what's happening with the pre-order community. It's actually impressive.

 

[IThinkFreely]

Production rate has exceeded 200/week. And R1S is now rolling off the line in limited quantity.



We talked to a "real" customer this week who took delivery...in December! Interview segments should go online S00N. An anomaly for sure, but real preorder holders have received vehicles. I'm also hearing that real customer vehicles have made their way to "certain areas". No direct knowledge of this, but I do believe that trucking logistics is probably a limiting factor at the moment.

In short, stay tuned folks. It's not a farce, and we'll start to see/hear more in the coming weeks.

Skyote remains resolutely positive despite the considerable headwinds.

 

[crashmtb]

I joined this forum because I am also getting annoyed at the lack of communication and it was nice to have a community of aggrieved people to commiserate with. I'm scratching my chin this morning and thinking about how we might escape the circular discussions and turn this energy into action. The "VP of Communications" at Rivian is Nick Mulholland. Ideas for getting on his radar and creating more transparency for him regarding the negative groundswell and how to mitigate it?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mr-nicholas-mulholland/

Maybe their problem here is that they trusted the job of VP of Communication to a gentleman whose pedigree was built on shilling Haircare products *eyeroll*. Not that this means he isn't qualified, but I might have chosen someone closer to an industry associated with launching technology products, not Mousse.

<update> Reached out to him with the following:

Good morning Nick!
I've been constructing enterprise customer care platforms for various companies for 20+ years. Rivian intrigues me and I'm a preorder holder since March 2019. I'd love to hear about the process if you have anything to share. Informative comms to preorder holders have been scarce.

I was limited to 150 chars so that's what I could squeeze in. Hopefully that delivers the concern that informative communications are too few and far between.

“Let me tell you how to do your job” may not be the best foot to start on…

 

[therealhoff]

“Let me tell you how to do your job” may not be the best foot to start on…

True that. However the performance of his team has led to this and likely other forums for any scraps of information so he may not have experienced a similar community in his previous role as CEO of Vernon Francois Haircare. I highly doubt there was a years long line of 40,000+ people willing to drop 80,000 dollars on Pure~Fro® conditioner so he may benefit from a few strategic suggestions.

<edit/>
All right, all right. He was in the communications industry for a long time at Freud Communications and he does have magnificent hair and a zeus beard so perhaps he picked up a thing or two along the way. The situation is still disturbing. The company is investing far too much in branding and not enough in planting the seeds to grow an owners community.

 

[therealhoff]

A new email from Rivian!


About the gear shop, which may be the #1 revenue source depending on delivery rate.

You know I bought one of their coffee mugs a while back and even that gave me concern. It was a knockoff of a YETI type mug at a YETI price but without YETI quality. If you are supposed to be building a premium, outdoor adventure vehicle, why put your brand on a low quality, knockoff mug? Wouldn't you want your swag to be as nice as your vehicle?

 

[therealhoff]

This is what I'm talking about with their main source of revenue, Rivian Mugs. Why put your brand on a crappy mug that no one who has ever camped in truly cold weather would use (handle too small for thick gloves)?:

Cost of Rivian Mug $35
Cost of YETI Tumbler $25

Place of manufacture - both in China

YETI Lid? Well insulated, durable and thick with removable magnetic slider for easy and sanitary washing.

Rivian Mug lid? Thin garbage with crappy, non removable slider:

Yeti construction? Thick, double insulated walls for hours of hot drink. Dishwasher safe.

Rivian Mug construction? Thin walls, insulation dubious. Handle too small for gloved hands. Not dishwasher safe.

I know I know, you are probably like, "Dude, are you kidding me? It's their marketing swag. What does it matter?" To me, details matter. This is my first and only impression of a product delivered by Rivian, someone forgot to pay attention to detail, and the mug kind of sucks. I would never use it in the field. I won't even put it on my desk because I own numerous superior mugs. I'm hoping all that attention has gone into the truck because it didn't go into this branded product.

 

[Guy]

I, like a lot of forum members I imagine, traveled extensively for work before Covid. Inevitably there were flight delays, sometimes at the gate sometimes on the tarmac.

And, essentially, there were two ways these delays were handled wrt communications.

they almost all started with: "Sorry for the delay, we're waiting on a maintenance tech (or part or flight crew or an arriving aircraft0" then they diverge.

"we expect it's going to take about 20 minutes to get the tech on the aircraft, and after that we'll know how much longer the delay might be. So, expect to hear back from us in about 25-35 minutes"

or

"we'll give you an update just as soon as we know anything. don't go anywhere"

Which is the better message? Clearly for me it's #1, here's what we know, here's what we don't know, and here's when we'll tell you what we've learned.

Studies have shown time and again, you can alleviate anxiety and customer dissatisfaction with timing delays if you communicate effectively. So, research actually says many would feel better if we knew what was going on.

Now a flight delay doesn't materially affect the stock price of an airline. Nor does it generally result in me saying "I'm canceling this flight and am going to book another one" (although sometimes it has). That is to say Rivian has a lot more at stake wrt communicating delays and have a made a strategic decision that the animus and anxiety of a bunch of reservation holders is less important than the effect communicating those delays would have on other parts of the business. I don't think this is incompetence, I believe it's a conscious decision based on their business priorities which doesn't align with what a lot of folks here would like.

Parting thought:
Where am I gonna go if I cancel my R1S order? Some of y'all have multiple reservations, many of us do not - because personally I don't want to drive a Ford, GM, Dodge, or Chevy. There is nothing I've seen on sale (let alone announced) that competes with the R1S in the BEV space (I might go out and buy a Defender if I wanted to stay in the ICE realm) so my choices are lose my place in line or wait for some product that has much more uncertainty around it than the R1S

I would say the Lucid Gravity competes, due out late next year. Maybe superior interior space, superior efficiency, range and charging time. Inferior off road capability and around $10k more expensive. The Kia EV9 is also due late next year. Likely more discounts, cheaper but slower and less off road capable. Rivian have a 18 months head start in the three row SUV space. Other options are coming.

Additionally Ford could do something with the
Explorer and as with the lightening show it about a year before sales start, not three plus years!

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