Up until recently, Rivian provided free towing between its service locations and customers’ vehicles.
It will be some time before Rivian has its factories and service centers built out, let alone starts consistently posting a profit. However, the company is finally starting to produce and deliver enough vehicles to be more relevant. This makes it fairly understandable that it would want to make more money or lose less money. Some individuals, however, might object to having to pay for towing for covered repairs.
Currently, Rivian’s mobile service staff, which comes to you, handles many of its repairs. The new electric car manufacturer does have some service locations, though. The hope is that Rivian R1T or R1S owners who don’t live close to a service center can benefit from the mobile repair service. If you can’t, you might have a very long drive ahead of you unless you want to shell out a lot of money for towing.
Previously, if a mobile repair expert couldn’t fix an EV for a Rivian owner, the business would tow the vehicle to the closest service facility, fix it, and then deliver it back to the owner. With the exception of a few rare instances where the problem was not covered by the electric truck’s guarantee, everything was provided without charge.
An R1T owner from Virginia commented on RivianForums that the business now charges a $55 towing fee plus an additional $6.50 per mile, according to a report by Drive Tesla Canada. Some Rivian service locations are located hundreds of miles from the houses of the owners.
The owner from Virginia posted on the site that the nearest Rivian service center is more than 200 miles away and that the cost of transporting his vehicle there alone may be more than $1,300. Rivian apparently made clarifications to the regulations governing the circumstance, and these were posted as an update on RivianForums. This is how the post is written:
“Starting on October 6, 2022, Rivian will no longer offer free towing for vehicles in order to fund the following:Only vehicles that are INOPERABLY broken down and in need of repairs because of warranty-related issues will be provided with free flatbed towing services.
Free towing is available to and from the SC.On rare occasions, a Rivian SC will organize the tow, towing services are normally arranged through certified third-party carriers who are trained on how to properly load, secure, and transport Rivian vehicles.As far as we can tell, Rivian hasn’t released a statement regarding the rumored policy change, but it seems the business intends to do so soon. Another Rivian owner claims that after learning about the towing fees, he contacted Rivian’s customer service team and was informed that the new regulations had already been communicated to the center’s service advisor.
Rivian has been contacted for comment on the situation. If we receive a response, we’ll update this article. Do you believe that owners ought to pay for towing in the interim? Post your comments in the space provided below.
