Rivian started developing its electric adventure offerings in 2009. It took almost 10 years before the automaker had a final production model before it could start taking preorders.
The electric truck and SUV maker first began taking pre-orders for its cars in 2018, and soon after, gained financial support from major backers including Amazon. It opened its configurator platform to customers on.
In late 2021, Rivian told R1S reservation holders that their vehicles would start arriving from March 2022, although it noted that the majority of the first wave of deliveries were expected in the summer and autumn of 2022.
Its been a long wait for many who ordered the quad moto R1T and will be a long wait for those who ordered the R1S or the dual-motor version of any of Rivians offerings. Today, we will talk about Rivian’s strategy to make possible early deliveries for those who are running out of patience to get their trucks.
Here’s How to Get Your 2022 Rivian R1T Faster
If you’re waiting for your 2022 Rivian R1T model to arrive, you can cut down the wait from a few months to about six to eight weeks, or even sooner. There is a way to get your 2022 Rivian R1T in a few weeks instead of waiting for a couple more months. Rivian preorder holders with scheduled delivery times from October to November have taken orders of the preconfigured Rivian R1T and their delivery times cut down to 6 to 8 weeks or sooner.
However, this is a bit of a catch. Rivian has created a new R1 shop where Reservation holders can choose a pre-configured model from the options listed in the shop.
Once you select a pre-configured model, your preordered model will be canceled. So, you might have to choose a different color or miss out on unique options such as the fold-out kitchen. It doesn’t feel like a fair tradeoff, but you will get behind the wheel faster.
Another thing is that access to the new Rivian R1 shop is by invitation only. After you get invited to the shop, you will be allowed to pick an option from the shop and have one week to decide. current Rivian R1T reservation holders may be able to take advantage of delivery in six to eight weeks or sooner using this method.
To be clear, the program only applies to people who are already waiting on the delivery of a Rivian R1T that they previously configured. Furthermore, It’s not 100 percent clear if this option applied for those an R1S electric SUV preorder, or if there are even pre-configured R1S options available at this point.
Rivian is inviting people via email. The invitations will be sent to the earliest reservation holders first. Currently, the shop only provides basic information about each truck without the VIN numbers listed.
Reportedly, the beginning of the email explains that in May, Rivian reached out to reservation holders via surveys and guide conversations to gauge the interest in accepting pre-configured models to accept deliveries earlier.
According to the invitation letter Rivian sent out, The automaker made a survey in May to see if customers were interested in reconfiguring their preorder to take delivery sooner. The volume and enthusiasm of the responses were a strong indication from customers to pursue the path.
The email goes on to explain that starting in June 2022, Rivian is introducing the new R1 Shop online experience to provide “invited preorder holders the opportunity to swap” their previously configured R1 vehicle for a pre-configured option that can be delivered sooner. Since it specifically notes “R1 vehicle,” and not R1T or R1S, perhaps there’s a plan for pre-configured R1S options in the pipeline.
Though this is a very innovative approach from Rivian to deliver as many trucks as possible, it makes the case for some questions which we cannot answer.
For instance, Are these pre-configured models being built before the custom preordered models? Will people be compensated for the missing features?
Rivian did cut down its delivery projections for the year 2022 by half from 50000 trucks to 25000 trucks.
The company said it would be able to produce only 25,000 vehicles this year, half the number it said it could make if the supply chain were not a “fundamental limiting factor.”
Problems securing parts and materials are affecting all automakers, but they are hitting Rivian when it has sold very few vehicles and faces competition from larger companies.
Seems Rivian has made a special model of the R1 vehicles that could be made with the fewest number of parts possible which gives almost the same experience a fully configured R1T will provide. These are the models Rivian is passing off as pre-configured models.
This is rather a genius move from rivian. This move will allow them to deliver probably more vehicles than they planned for 2022which is very good for them as a company and at the same time, make more customers happy as they cut wait times and take deliveries of their vehicles.
How long is the wait for a Rivian R1T?
If you enter a new reservation today, you’re looking at receiving your 2022 Rivian R1T model by the end of 2023. Deliveries of new orders are expected to begin later in 2023, so you could be waiting for up to a year or more. If you ordered the dual-motor 260-mile variant, you will be waiting till 2024 or later.
The automaker noted last week that the first shop invitations would go out to some of the earliest R1T reservation holders. However, some customers have shared with us that the shop currently only provides “basic” details about vehicle configurations, and there’s no VIN provided.
A customer reported that his guide simply told him that the access email to the shop is on a rolling basis with the earliest pre-orders set up to be the first to get access to it. Once you get access, and if you choose one of the available options in the shop, then it could be 6-8 weeks before you take delivery, or sooner based on where that truck is in the build phase.
We hope Rivian doesn’t experience further delays caused b the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage and other supply chain issues. We will update you if anything changes.
