Rivian R1T Launch Edition and R1S reservation and order holders received a message yesterday announcing a significant price hike on their upcoming electric pickup truck and SUVs orders. Here we have a message from one of the order holders – Benjamin. We have a RivianOwnerForum.com poll to get an idea of whether order holders will follow through on their purchase or leave. Rivian drops more news about upcoming 2024 Rivian vehicles with a 2-motor AWD system (versus a 4-motor setup in the current models). Here are the details.
Rivian published the following to the Rivian User Portal site. The message informs the pre-order holder about the price increase and explains the reason as “inflationary pressure on the cost of supplier components and raw materials across the world.”
Update 3/3/2022: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe announced the company has reversed course on applying the price hike to current pre-order holders as of March 1. More information here (link opens new tab).
Here is the message that Benjamin sent to us. Benjamin writes:
“The user portal updated and the changes are pretty significant including some interesting 2-motor options as well. My R1T Launch Edition price jumped from $86,625 to $102,220! I was somewhat expecting something like this as the R1T has (HAD) effectively become a bargain truck compared to the market. Nonetheless, I am perturbed that it is now a reality.”
“I am still planning on purchasing as I believe the R1T to be the best option for my lifestyle/use/size needs, etc. However, I’ve dropped the camp kitchen and tent option to get the pricing to $92,870, and I may end up dropping the heavy-duty skid plates to reduce it by another $2,000. We will do without the kitchen and the top-side tent can be purchased from any number of companies at a later date.”
Here are the original price, new price, and new modified truck order pricing that Benjamin sent us.
You can see the base R1T Launch Edition price went from $73,000 to $85,000. This includes the 4-motor drivetrain and the large battery pack (approximately 135 kWh).
RivianOwnersForum.com published this poll. At the time of this writing, 226 people responded to the poll and 67.7% of people said that they plan to walk away from their orders.
Rivian stock price (RIVN) took a significant downturn today (March 2, 2022). The stock price went down approximately -12.85% to $53.96 during the middle of the day. During the same time, GM stock price is up +3.03% and Ford stock price is up +6.41%.
Rivian also announced that a 2-motor version of their electric vehicles will be available in 2024. The 2-motor system is said to offer AWD (all-wheel-drive) capability and a 4.0-second 0-60 MPH acceleration time. This is not much slower than their current 4-motor system with a claimed acceleration time of 3.0-second 0-60 MPH. Also, a smaller standard battery pack is said to go on sale in 2024 with a driving range of 260+ miles, according to Rivian. The current large pack Rivian R1T is EPA-rated at 314 miles of range.
Here is the new Rivian R1T towing an 8,100 lbs trailer on the Ike Gauntlet™ – the world’s toughest towing test.
