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Why the 6-month delay from Oct ‘21 to Mar ‘22?

Trekkie

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For the news sites that aren't just reporting on the email messages...

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1134282_rivian-r1s-order-timing-delivery-start

The Important Bit:

Rivian asserted to Green Car Reports that there's a simple reason for this misunderstanding: This is just part of the process of Rivian telling customers when to expect their vehicles, with timelines varying depending on individual build configurations or a customer's place in line—or their location.

Guess we will see.
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Zoidz

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Maybe it's greed. Maybe it's incompetence. Maybe it's just to get the company public so they can take a holiday somewhere with no internet access.
Maybe it's people doing their very best to forecast the future despite the numerous challenges, snd unfortunately getting it wrong.
 

Whmorken

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My guess is its a combination of things going on.

  1. Chip shortage
  2. Supply chain issues
  3. Battery production (EVs are in demand globally, which means battery production is likely constrained)
  4. Production hell (first time car maker, learning curve)
  5. Design issues (tonneau cover, UI, Driver+, rust near tailgate - these are just some of the issues that's been brought up across forums, FB, YT). With more of these being discovered by beta testers (cough-cough), employee deliveries, they might be trying to address them in design and/or production.
  6. Battery optimization - i think they are using the employee deliveries to optimize battery management and charging curves. I'm sure they collected a lot from the past year or so of testing on mules but real world, at larger scale, is what really brings out useful data. Thats better for us long term and sucks short term.
  7. Amazon vans - there's definitely a high priority on this, even more so now that its a public company. Fail Amazon and Rivian could come completely crashing down.
  8. Too many eggs in different baskets (R1T, R1S, Amazon Van, insurance, RAN, mobile service, Fleet, IPO, etc). Maybe they were too ambitious all at once... somethings gotta give, right?
  9. Organizational challenges. The discrimination lawsuit points to some issues internally. Hard to believe its a single, isolated incident and probably a symptom of other issues. Something they need to go through and hopefully come out better for.
My guess is its a combination of things going on.

  1. Chip shortage
  2. Supply chain issues
  3. Battery production (EVs are in demand globally, which means battery production is likely constrained)
  4. Production hell (first time car maker, learning curve)
  5. Design issues (tonneau cover, UI, Driver+, rust near tailgate - these are just some of the issues that's been brought up across forums, FB, YT). With more of these being discovered by beta testers (cough-cough), employee deliveries, they might be trying to address them in design and/or production.
  6. Battery optimization - i think they are using the employee deliveries to optimize battery management and charging curves. I'm sure they collected a lot from the past year or so of testing on mules but real world, at larger scale, is what really brings out useful data. Thats better for us long term and sucks short term.
  7. Amazon vans - there's definitely a high priority on this, even more so now that its a public company. Fail Amazon and Rivian could come completely crashing down.
  8. Too many eggs in different baskets (R1T, R1S, Amazon Van, insurance, RAN, mobile service, Fleet, IPO, etc). Maybe they were too ambitious all at once... somethings gotta give, right?
  9. Organizational challenges. The discrimination lawsuit points to some issues internally. Hard to believe its a single, isolated incident and probably a symptom of other issues. Something they need to go through and hopefully come out better for.
My guess is its a combination of things going on.

  1. Chip shortage
  2. Supply chain issues
  3. Battery production (EVs are in demand globally, which means battery production is likely constrained)
  4. Production hell (first time car maker, learning curve)
  5. Design issues (tonneau cover, UI, Driver+, rust near tailgate - these are just some of the issues that's been brought up across forums, FB, YT). With more of these being discovered by beta testers (cough-cough), employee deliveries, they might be trying to address them in design and/or production.
  6. Battery optimization - i think they are using the employee deliveries to optimize battery management and charging curves. I'm sure they collected a lot from the past year or so of testing on mules but real world, at larger scale, is what really brings out useful data. Thats better for us long term and sucks short term.
  7. Amazon vans - there's definitely a high priority on this, even more so now that its a public company. Fail Amazon and Rivian could come completely crashing down.
  8. Too many eggs in different baskets (R1T, R1S, Amazon Van, insurance, RAN, mobile service, Fleet, IPO, etc). Maybe they were too ambitious all at once... somethings gotta give, right?
  9. Organizational challenges. The discrimination lawsuit points to some issues internally. Hard to believe its a single, isolated incident and probably a symptom of other issues. Something they need to go through and hopefully come out better for.
Good list of reasons for March window delivery date. But it is not clear why the surprise, why the announcement took so long to make pre-Thanksgiving. Was it simply a complicated task to assign the dates to each pre-order?
 
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Craigins

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For the news sites that aren't just reporting on the email messages...
I do enjoy all the articles simply quoting this forum. Then other articles quoting those articles.

"Journalism"
 

kurtlikevonnegut

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Why no deliveries in Jan/Feb 2022? You guys think they need those two months for employee deliveries?
Anyone else think it might have to do with availability of the new material for the tonneau cover if it did indeed need to be replaced?
 

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kurtlikevonnegut

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I do enjoy all the articles simply quoting this forum. Then other articles quoting those articles.

"Journalism"
Yeah I've seen several of those. Those clowns who complained about not being invited to Colorado had an article titled "R1S is delayed?" Stating that the R1S isn't going to be delivered to anyone until May. So not only are they just quoting this forum, they are doing it selectively.
 

Temerarius

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Was it simply a complicated task to assign the dates to each pre-order?
Yes.

To put it into perspective, I have a sofa I ordered months ago.

A sofa.

Some fabric, some wood, a bit of steal wire, a touch of foam, and smattering of stuffing.

...it will take until April to get that.

We also queued up a remodel of our kitchen for this year. And while contractors are known to take... time... to finish work, they usually don't have a problem penciling you in and snapping up a chunk of cash to get underway. However, what was supposed to start in Sept, moved to Oct, then Dec, then Jan, now March (and even now, it's looking like that date is at risk and slipping to April due to cabinets not being on schedule)... all do to supply line issues.

A kitchen remodel, is a great deal less complex then building a car (let alone 55,000) of them, it has less dependency on parts arriving "Just in Time" then a vehicle production line... and yet, the entire project time line for my remodel has been a shit show.

So, I can't imagine trying to not just produce a net new product, but ramp production of that product in the middle of this all... and supply a timeline that is anything more than lawn darts.

I can't imagine the nightmare it must be, and could not imagine how much more worse it would be if they gave you all dates when you ordered your rigs.. only to continually have to move it back due to X, Y, or Z.

...think people are pissy now... I can't imagine how pissy people would be to get a date and have it move over and over.

I may well be using the Camp Kitchen on my R1T to cook meals as my kitchen remodel may take longer than the truck.
 

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Yeah I've seen several of those. Those clowns who complained about not being invited to Colorado had an article titled "R1S is delayed?" Stating that the R1S isn't going to be delivered to anyone until May. So not only are they just quoting this forum, they are doing it selectively.
Surprisingly InsideEVs wrote a similar article. Comment section is attempting to set the author straight and it appears one correction has been made. Unfortunately the article is still far from journalism and based more on assumptions than facts.
 

Taycanfrank

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Be prepared for even more delays. There is good reason to believe delays will only get worse as some areas undergo partial or full lockdowns in predicted winter surges. Plus normal holiday slowdowns.

It's clear Rivian doesn't have the required supplies to begin serious production and they're just hoping their stuff gets through the ports and shows up in usable condition.

Not only do they have to wait for it to show up, they have to hope it shows up to spec. If one item doesn't you're talking months and months of further delay. Air freighting in car parts isn't a realistic option for mass production, although it's probably how they're getting any cars built right now.
 

SANZC02

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I have to say I must be one of the few people that does not see this as a major delay. There were a couple of people that had a November delivery but most LE reservations they have been saying for almost a year now they were on target for them to be delivered by spring of 22 which takes us to June 21st. They have been saying the backlog of the reservations should be able to be delivered by end of 23.

Looking at most of the reported LE scheduled dates a lot of them are before July so it is a small slip. I guess we will see at the end of December what the delivery schedules look like for non-LE reservations.

Lets see where these new targets take us, at lest through the first quarter of 22. After all this is really the first time we have had projected deliveries for individuals based on order date, delivery address, and configuration.
 

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Well, I am upset.

But I would rather wait 6 extra months and get a well built car that was not rushed out of the door that get one now with some issues. That's why I leased a car for 2 years, because I made myself believe that my R1S will not show up till 2023, and I ordered mid 2019.

Go to car dealers, they got few cars left on the lot, the dealer "special" fees are raking up to 40K on a freaking Rav4!


As for the timeline, during the IPO they mentioned that they expect to fulfill their current log by end of 2023. So those emails should not have come as a surprise, but I totally understand the disappointment.
 

dleewla

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Someone posted an email with jan/feb.

Seems to be just a few people in that time window
Got it, saw a couple of those as well.
 

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From the recently shared delivery windows it looks like customer deliveries of Launch Edition R1T’s won’t happen until March 2022.

What do you think is going on behind the scenes to cause this delay?
They overpromised, and under delivered.

< insert excuses here >

They original promised deliveries would start in 2020. Then the pandemic pushed it to June 2021. Then they changed that and said "September 2021". Then they said it would definitely be Oct/Nov 2021. Now we are talking after March 2022.

Obviously they are not meeting their own timelines. And, yes it is true it ain't easy to ramp car production. It is very hard. Ask Elon Musk.

Let's hope Rivian is making progress and can meet their new promised deadlines. That would be awesome. If they don't make deliveries on time in the spring, they will deserve any criticism that comes their way.

Just be open and honest about the delays and COMMUNICATE to preorder holders.
 
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Rivian_Hugh_III

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I found myself wondering if they might need one more winter to get the charging curves right.


Also I'll bet they're improving various parts that others have mentioned -- cameras, tonneau, the cheap latches on the gear tunnel platforms (that you pull to access the first aid kit, for example), maybe some essential software tweaks.

Then there's the issue of needing service centers, call center employees, service technicians.

Plus the mass production ramp up.

It's certainly understandable that customer deliveries will come slow. Better to get it right.
 

CharonPDX

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They clearly were not ready to deliver on time and withheld the info until after the IPO. They could leave themselves open to Lawsuits from Investors.
I've already had one EV company I invested in the IPO that had a class action lawsuit relating to "lack of honesty immediately prior to IPO regarding production readiness" - ironically the stock is now *WELL* above both IPO and what it was at when the class action was filed.

I'm happy with that EV company stock (I've since purchased an additional 2000 shares,) I'm sure I'll be happy with Rivian longer-term.
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