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What will we learn 6/7 - 6/13?

cc84

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This is just not practical. You cannot spend millions without any revenue coming in to replenish the well. Would it have been better if Rivian refused orders from areas where they do not have coverage and don't plan to have it in the next few years? I look at it like that local pizza joint that everyone loves, but only has a limited delivery area. They just refuse deliver orders if you are outside the delivery area. The flaw in Rivian's logic is people move and vehicles travel. When you need service you could end up being a long way away from a service center. They are banking on most purchasers staying local. I think this is more out of necessity than anything else. It's an approach to roll out and I for one am not in the know to second guess it.
I agree with your logic about people moving, etc., which is why I'm not so sure that service center buildings play a major part in determining where Rivian's vehicles are shipped first. It appears to be though. Like you said, it may be they're not counting on that many people moving to an area without a service center close by.

From my understanding, mobile service will provide the majority of care, while supplying a "borrow" vehicle if they need to tow the Rivian to a service building. That would be on Rivian as to where they would tow the vehicle. They should have this all figured out prior to sales and I think they did.

"You cannot spend millions without any revenue coming in to replenish the well."
I don't know what time limit you're referring to, as I agree with your comment in general, but they've done a good job so far without revenue from Rivian vehicle sales. What, maybe 11-12 years so far? Not only that, but I believe they have made donations and even refused a million dollars from their home town, Normal. Seems like I read something about that. Could be mistaken.

"It's an approach to roll out and I for one am not in the know to second guess it."......Me either, but I can sure give my opinion. :)

" Lack of information leads to speculation."
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Driveout

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Picture this old man sitting in full lotus listening to The Moody Blues 'OM' manifesting a shimmering twisting mandala in the air over his head in perfect harmony and peaceful repose patient unto the end of time. Now picture a squirming little boy hand on crotch desperate to find a place to pee. These being either end of a scale, I'm much closer the little boy than the guy calmly amused at the Silliness of it all. I do realize that how I feel about it wont change a thing though. I don't think I'll abandon ship for the Lightning or Hummer or vaporware offered by the underfunded or just plain unscrupulous. Rivian is more real and it's uniqueness has it's own attraction regardless of the delay.
 

SeaGeo

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The fence was up but the front gate was opened, so I drove in. I use a reflective vest at work so I guess they thought I was another contractor working on site. Haha. Those orange vests come handy every now and then. Lol
Lol, I should do that with my stuff.
 

BoltEVowner

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I agree with your logic about people moving, etc., which is why I'm not so sure that service center buildings play a major part in determining where Rivian's vehicles are shipped first. It appears to be though. Like you said, it may be they're not counting on that many people moving to an area without a service center close by.

From my understanding, mobile service will provide the majority of care, while supplying a "borrow" vehicle if they need to tow the Rivian to a service building. That would be on Rivian as to where they would tow the vehicle. They should have this all figured out prior to sales and I think they did.

" Lack of information leads to speculation."
Again, without information coming from Rivian, we are left with what appears to be most if not all pre-order contacts in and around known service centers. Makes one speculate that the "mobile service" personnel/training is behind schedule. A lot of parts to the Rivian puzzle.

I believe I received one of the first 2017 Chevy BoltEV's in Georgia, purchased and shipped from California, and GM found out what the California dealers were doing, and shut down those sales in short order, as they had no trained service people in the Southeast at the time. Made sense. Could be a similar thing going on here, just doesn't make early pre-order holders in other parts of the country feel so good, but that's how business works sometimes.
 

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timesinks

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Mobile service doesn't make much sense if the nearest place they can tow your truck off to for an in-shop repair is thousands of miles away. Said another way, even mobile service needs to be centered around some base of operations.
 

RWerksman

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Mobile service doesn't make much sense if the nearest place they can tow your truck off to for an in-shop repair is thousands of miles away. Said another way, even mobile service needs to be centered around some base of operations.
They can sublet repair facilities and/or subcontract it out to independent shops, national chains, or non-competing manufacturers like Mitsubishi. They don't need to build out sparkling new shops just to deliver a bunch of vehicles to a metro area.

I'm hoping this very initial batch is just that, very initial. Sure would help if there was some legit info about it though FFS...
 

CommodoreAmiga

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They can sublet repair facilities and/or subcontract it out to independent shops, national chains, or non-competing manufacturers like Mitsubishi. They don't need to build out sparkling new shops just to deliver a bunch of vehicles to a metro area.
I wouldn’t feel good about Mitsubishi dealers working on my Rivian.

I don’t think that they have to use non-competing manufacturers if they subcontract work. Ford, for example, has an ownership interest in Rivian so perhaps they could leverage that relationship to work with Ford dealers to rent bays, when necessary. The Rivian tech could still do the work, but use the bay/lift at the Ford dealer and Rivan could pay the dealer by the hour/day. It could be an opt-in program so if a dealer doesn’t want to participate, they don’t have to.

I have no inside knowledge to say that is happening…. I’m just saying it sounds like a good idea, to me, in areas where Rivian doesn‘t yet have a service center.

As for “competing” or “non-competing” I don’t think it matters. Ford/GM/Mercedes sell components to competitors, all the time. Tesla, for example, has pulled a lot of parts out of the Mercedes parts bin. All three have sold engines to competitors. Ford and GM co-developed the 10-speed automatic that is currently used in both the F-150 and Silverado. Toyota and BMW co-developed the Supra and M4. Toyota and Subaru co-developed the FRS/AE-86/BRZ. Isuzu licensed the Trooper to Honda/Acura. Mercedes licensed the GLA to Infiniti. The Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix were the same car…. Lots of examples out there! In business, you want to diversify and make money. If you can make money off of your competitor, then that’s even better!
 

LeoH

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I wouldn’t feel good about Mitsubishi dealers working on my Rivian.

I don’t think that they have to use non-competing manufacturers if they subcontract work. Ford, for example, has an ownership interest in Rivian so perhaps they could leverage that relationship to work with Ford dealers to rent bays, when necessary. The Rivian tech could still do the work, but use the bay/lift at the Ford dealer and Rivan could pay the dealer by the hour/day. It could be an opt-in program so if a dealer doesn’t want to participate, they don’t have to.

I have no inside knowledge to say that is happening…. I’m just saying it sounds like a good idea, to me, in areas where Rivian doesn‘t yet have a service center.

As for “competing” or “non-competing” I don’t think it matters. Ford/GM/Mercedes sell components to competitors, all the time. Tesla, for example, has pulled a lot of parts out of the Mercedes parts bin. All three have sold engines to competitors. Ford and GM co-developed the 10-speed automatic that is currently used in both the F-150 and Silverado. Toyota and BMW co-developed the Supra and M4. Toyota and Subaru co-developed the FRS/AE-86/BRZ. Isuzu licensed the Trooper to Honda/Acura. Mercedes licensed the GLA to Infiniti. The Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix were the same car…. Lots of examples out there! In business, you want to diversify and make money. If you can make money off of your competitor, then that’s even better!
I think you hit the nail on the head. Isuzu rebadged the Rodeo as a Honda Passport as well, not to mention how many rebadged cars exist overseas. On a little note, although not related to cars, Samsung (The main company ) makes more money on each Iphone sold more than Galaxy phones. This type of business exists everywhere, they could also license major repair shops the way tesla did as well. I am not too worried about that.
 

BoltEVowner

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I learned this week...according to my Chevy dealer, that my 2017 BoltEV has a good battery, and got it reprogrammed so if there IS a battery issue in the future, it will be recognized, and I won't have to worry so much about burning my house down. Hopefully, Rivian has learned a lot about battery pack construction from the experience of so many others over the last few years, and battery longevity and related fires should not be an issue. For those of you with no prior experience with an EV, you have a real treat in store. Even my BoltEV leaves almost everything in the dust except for Tesla. Instant torque is really something to behold, and the low center of gravity makes driving such a pleasure! Going to be the same with Rivian, only better. And fast charging at 200, hopefully even 300 kW is so much faster than the 54 kW in my BoltEV. So, here is some mostly old, but still good news! Happy Friday, and let's all hurry up and wait.
 

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Rivian R1T R1S What will we learn 6/7 - 6/13? 61893985-5AC8-41AC-B5AF-0B6B6FCB19CA

This week, I was reviewing the accessories I added and noticed that the all weather floor mats only cover the front and rear passenger floors. I started an online chat with CS to ask why the trunk and frunk were not included. He told me the frunk doesn’t need a mat, which I found interesting since all the pictures I have seen show a Chilewich floor in the frunk. It makes me wonder if the frunk will have a drain plug similar to the Mustang MachE that allows the frunk to be hosed down.
 

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This is just not practical. You cannot spend millions without any revenue coming in to replenish the well. Would it have been better if Rivian refused orders from areas where they do not have coverage and don't plan to have it in the next few years? I look at it like that local pizza joint that everyone loves, but only has a limited delivery area. They just refuse deliver orders if you are outside the delivery area. The flaw in Rivian's logic is people move and vehicles travel. When you need service you could end up being a long way away from a service center. They are banking on most purchasers staying local. I think this is more out of necessity than anything else. It's an approach to roll out and I for one am not in the know to second guess it.
I disagree Rivian must spend Billions to have the machine that is an EV startup fully functional even if at limited capacity before they deliver to customers. I'ts only after this that said machine can ramp up to scale and hopefully become profitable before they burn through all their cash. Ask Lordstown how challenging it is and the consequences for not having all your ducks in a row.
 

azbill

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I learned this week...according to my Chevy dealer, that my 2017 BoltEV has a good battery, and got it reprogrammed so if there IS a battery issue in the future, it will be recognized, and I won't have to worry so much about burning my house down. Hopefully, Rivian has learned a lot about battery pack construction from the experience of so many others over the last few years, and battery longevity and related fires should not be an issue. For those of you with no prior experience with an EV, you have a real treat in store. Even my BoltEV leaves almost everything in the dust except for Tesla. Instant torque is really something to behold, and the low center of gravity makes driving such a pleasure! Going to be the same with Rivian, only better. And fast charging at 200, hopefully even 300 kW is so much faster than the 54 kW in my BoltEV. So, here is some mostly old, but still good news! Happy Friday, and let's all hurry up and wait.
I got my battery checked last Friday, and it too was good. I now have 96K on that car and all the cells were perfectly balanced. What is interesting about GM is that if they had found a bad module, they would have replaced it with the newer 2020 version battery module, with no incompatibilities with the rest of the battery. They are also making this claim with the Ultium architecture, that they will be able to use newer modules with older ones, due to the architecture and wireless BMS.
 

CommodoreAmiga

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61893985-5AC8-41AC-B5AF-0B6B6FCB19CA.png

This week, I was reviewing the accessories I added and noticed that the all weather floor mats only cover the front and rear passenger floors. I started an online chat with CS to ask why the trunk and frunk were not included. He told me the frunk doesn’t need a mat, which I found interesting since all the pictures I have seen show a Chilewich floor in the frunk. It makes me wonder if the frunk will have a drain plug similar to the Mustang MachE that allows the frunk to be hosed down.
Recent pictures seem to indicate the frunk has been redesigned and greatly simplified. We haven't seen the grocery hooks or carpeting in the recent builds; instead, it's a simple plastic tub.

I hope they go back to the carpeted design with grocery hooks.
 

Jarico75

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I disagree Rivian must spend Billions to have the machine that is an EV startup fully functional even if at limited capacity before they deliver to customers. I'ts only after this that said machine can ramp up to scale and hopefully become profitable before they burn through all their cash. Ask Lordstown how challenging it is and the consequences for not having all your ducks in a row.
You can substitute billions in for millions and my comment is the same. Hemorrhaging cash without incoming revenue is not sustainable. My point was to chill out as Rivian will be making decisions based on the P&L and investor expectations all while working to deliver a high quality vehicle.
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