Rivian reported Friday that because of a continued manufacturing ramp the wait time for brand new orders on its R1T is now all the way down to 14 days or much less in some circumstances. 

The electrical truck maker is catching up on a manufacturing backlog that after appeared prefer it may take years to work by, and it’s made important headway—to the diploma that some may surprise if pricing might quickly must be adjusted downward. 

Rivian value lower coming?

Primarily based on remarks made this previous week to Reuters, by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, that’s unlikely to be the case, and Rivian has no plans to observe EV value cuts from Tesla and Ford. 

“We’ll provide a decrease priced variant, however not essentially decrease costs on the issues we’re providing at present,” stated Scaringe to Reuters. “These (R1S and R1T) are the merchandise which can be constructing our model. They don’t seem to be meant to promote a whole bunch of hundreds of items.”

Rivian does plan to introduce a extra reasonably priced, mass-market R2 lineup, resulting from be made at a brand new plant in Georgia, and undoubtedly within the a whole bunch of hundreds yearly, however that received’t arrive till 2026. 

“Our long-term success as a enterprise shall be decided by our capacity to supply excessive volumes of automobiles profitably,” it stated final week, as a part of its quarterly replace for shareholders.

2023 Rivian R1T

Rivian manufacturing exceeds deliveries

For the primary quarter of the yr, Rivian introduced that it produced 9,395 automobiles and delivered 7,946. “We anticipate to proceed to see a variance between manufacturing and supply volumes as we ramp our manufacturing facility,” it stated. 

The R1T at the moment begins at $74,800, together with the obligatory $1,800 vacation spot payment, whereas the R1S begins at $79,800. That’s for the Twin-Motor and LFP battery pack. Quad-Motor variations with the Massive pack (328 miles for the R1T, 321 miles for the R1S) price $19,000 extra—though Twin-Motor fashions with the Massive Pack, but to be delivered, are pegged at round 350 and 340 miles, respectively. 

Neither the Rivian R1S nor R1T are eligible for the complete $7,500 Clear Car Credit score, in line with the IRS, however they do each qualify for a $3,750 credit score if their MSRP (not together with vacation spot) quantities to $80,000 or much less. Those that declare it’s going to additionally want to suit inside a most $150,000 adjusted gross revenue for single filers ($300,000 for joint filers). 

Rivian additionally final yr dropped probably the most reasonably priced Discover variations of its R1T and R1S, which additional hiked up base costs. 

Past that, the corporate has an answer to lift quantity with out decreasing the value on these flagship variations: It’s steered price-conscious consumers towards Twin-Motor variations of its vans with the Commonplace pack and its lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry. 

Rivian dual-motor elements

Rivian dual-motor elements

Longer-range Rivian Twin-Motor deliveries begin quickly

Maybe additionally in lieu of dropping costs, Rivian has enormously accelerated the timeline for delivering lower-priced Twin-Motor variations, which as just lately as final yr hadn’t been anticipated till late in 2023. Within the first quarter of the yr, Rivian launched manufacturing of its personal in-house Enduro motor line. Whereas these are already going into Rivian’s vans, it confirmed in final week’s replace that these motors are going into dual-motor R1 fashions beginning later this month. 

Rivian Enduro drive unit

Rivian final week reported that as of March 31 it had made about 35,000 automobiles because the begin of manufacturing for the R1T. It additionally reaffirmed a 50,000 manufacturing goal for calendar yr 2023. That’s what the goal had initially been for 2022, however final March it halved that concentrate on to 25,000, pointing to persistent provide points. 

As a part of its replace it stated it’s finishing the success of its “pre-March 2022 preoder base.” That’s the timing of a poorly communicated value hike on its vans that resulted within the firm retaining to earlier, considerably decrease, costs for many who had made a deposit by then. 

2023 Rivian R1S

The corporate, at its final quarterly replace, stated that its order backlog stretches into 2024, however within the context of brief supply timelines at present that seems to incorporate construct combos that merely received’t but be made this yr. 

Simply getting a drive in a Rivian was a problem for potential consumers early on, however now the corporate additionally clarified that demo drives are actually open to everybody, not simply reservation-holders. Rivian Service Facilities will even have ready-to-go configurations that could be obtainable for supply, in line with the corporate.