Rivian CEO Apologizes, Walks Back Preorder Price Hikes After Customer Backlash (motorauthority.com) 30
cartechboy writes: Rivian's CEO, RJ Scaringe, admitted the company messed up. In a lengthy apology, the executive said the company broke people's trust. Rivian's walking back the large, in some cases 20%, price increases introduced earlier in the week for any preorder holder prior to March 1. [However, the price increases stay in effect for anyone who ordered after March 1.] "We wrongly decided to make these changes apply to all future deliveries, including pre-existing configured preorders," Scaringe said, noting that the company "failed to to appreciate" how customers viewed their configurations and pricing.
Scaringe also acknowledged the company "wrongly assumed" the newly announced dual-motor models and standard battery pack would provide satisfactory price points similar to the original configurations.
Scaringe also acknowledged the company "wrongly assumed" the newly announced dual-motor models and standard battery pack would provide satisfactory price points similar to the original configurations.
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If anyone else is wondering, the article and summary vaguely hint at Rivian being a vehicle manufacturing company.
Has Rivian actually produced *ANYTHING* yet? Or is it all just vaporware?
Is it really that hard to look into these things?
I get that not everyone follows the auto industry and isn't maybe aware of Rivian, even though they've been in the news for years now, and maybe didn't see the Amazon vans they were building, and maybe also missed that they started shipping their trucks late last year. But really, just look this shit up.
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How dare you. This is Slashdot, where the current political waves mean way more than any form of actual truth.
Also, I kinda wanted to put in a Rivian truck order, but I'm sort of on the fence if they can deliver and support. If you have some handy research links, I'd appreciate. :)
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Has anyone looked into if RJ Scaringe will get a bonus of more options ?
Scaringe owns about three times as many options as shares...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
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Why should I look up a random company name because it's mentioned in a summary on /.? The vast majority of companies on Earth are of no interest what so ever to the vast majority of people on Earth.
Some context to place the company in, to realize why this is worth even thirty seconds of my time, would be enough. When they can't even provide that, thus indirectly explaining how unimportant the company and this event is, why should I go look it up?
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What I'm saying is, there is a constant barrage of irrelevant information, and if someone considers their information important, they better put in the most basic of effort to show that or I won't put in the effort to research what it's about.
In this case, it's about some kind of truck manufacturing company. It could have saved me two comments of effort if I had known that.
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What I'm saying is, there is a constant barrage of irrelevant information, and if someone considers their information important, they better put in the most basic of effort to show that or I won't put in the effort to research what it's about.
In this case, it's about some kind of truck manufacturing company. It could have saved me two comments of effort if I had known that.
I'll go ahead and agree with you then. This very much reminds me of a situation where they have something specific about something in the UK (much more common on /. nowadays) or a particular video game, and just assume I'm going to WTF they are talking about.
I'm from the area of the US where most automobile companies are located or at least have to maintain a presence. In fact, Rivian discovered early on they needed to be here themselves, so I guess I hear about them a lot more than someone in another cou
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Rivian - they seem to be a little a head of some of the outright bullshit organizations like RIDE, in that they have vehicles that actually meet DOT requirements they can demo. As to their ability to actually produce these things in quantity and where near the price points they have previously indicated; I have no idea.
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Rivian - they seem to be a little a head of some of the outright bullshit organizations like RIDE
Rivian is shipping products, and there are a lot of people waiting for their deliveries.
Lordstown is in no position to build anything and will likely fold pretty soon.
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I've seen three of their trucks on the road in the last month. They're out there.
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Yes, they have been delivering trucks to customers since last October. They aren't making them very fast at the moment, a lot like Tesla in the early days.
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"Mansplaining" but for companies? (Score:2)
"Scaringe said, noting that the company "failed to to appreciate" how customers viewed their configurations and pricing" - Is there actually a term like "mansplaining" but for companies trying to explain why they did something indefensible?
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Is there actually a term like "mansplaining" but for companies trying to explain why they did something indefensible?
Business as usual, or just the short form: Business.
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Yeah, I know. I'm not surprised at all about what they did, just how poorly they tried to explain it. The term I'm looking for involves digging yourself in deeper than necessary by trying to explain more than is necessary. It's like the difference between saying "Sorry" and "Sorry this upset you". Those 3 extra words do the opposite of helping your apology, and that's exactly what they did.
Its sorry alright (Score:2)
It's like the difference between saying "Sorry" and "Sorry this upset you".
Sorry they got caught. Sorry not sorry. unashamed. non-apology. unrepentant. unregretful. remorseless. impenitent. or my fave: aholes.
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"Being cunts" comes to mind but it's rather universal.
Bold move (Score:2)
Pretty bold move to just completely ignore a sales/build contract ... especially when you're not really proven to be able to produce in the first place.
If somebody wanted it in pink and it suddenly came in orange they would probably be pissed too.
The perceived difference between 4 and 2 motors, and 'large' and 'standard' battery packs probably matter a little more than color.
I'm a huge fan of legit ordering a vehicle the way you want on the internet without having to spend 4 hours convincing some jackass lo
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Turmoil (Score:1)
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GM selling off their shares of the EV truck company at a loss.
Sort of, they divested themselves of Lordstown motors stock.
Ford spinning off its EV division into a separate company.
This is just plain wrong, internally they will have two divisions (ICE and EV) but Ford's goal is to become an EV company.
Tesla is by most accounts successful. No churn there either.
Nothing you mentioned are fledgling companies, at least mention Fisker, Lucid, or Nikola and it's cancelled Badger truck if you are going to talk about fledgling companies that might not make it.
Who do they think they are? Elon Musk? (Score:3)
I drive a Model Y in Fremont, and a few weeks ago I saw a Rivian parked on the street just below the Mission Peak trail head. White paint, dark trim. It is a fine looking truck doing what it is supposed to be doing -- serving the owners that can afford it in their outdoorsy activities. (That trail is quite challenging BTW).
But people are learning that there are EVs and there are EVs. Currently the demand is so high that anybody who has halfway decent product will pretty much sell all they can make. That probably led the Rivian people to believe they were perfectly safe jacking up the price. After all Tesla upped their prices recently and didn't suffer for it so why shouldn't they?
Well we just saw why not. You don't renege on deposit contracts. Tesla did not do that at least.
But I am more interested in why they even tried. It sounds like they have cost-of-goods problems that are serious enough that they wouldn't be able to make a profit on them at the price quoted two years ago. Two reasons for this: 1) the supply chain is crazy, driving inflation: parts when you can get them can cost double what they did just a short while ago and everybody is in the same boat (literally). 2) They did not obsessively cost optimize their product the way Tesla did. What was important to them was getting to market.
It doesn't get much press but there are dozens if not hundreds of innovations that Tesla has used its engineering/design talent for that was focused on getting the cost of the product down. Add that to the willingness to vertically integrate and spend like drunken Rajas on factory innovations and that gives them a massive competitive advantage for the day - whenever it comes - that supply will catch up with demand.
Rivian is in a pinch but I think they will do OK. Tesla will continue to cruise to their revenue/profit targets. But Rivian is not Elon Musk just because they have a pretty good EV product.