“I’ve made a lot of mistakes since I started Rivian more than 12 years ago, but this one was the most painful. I’m really sorry,” Scaringe wrote. “Trust is hard to build and easy to break. Speaking to many of you over the last two days, I fully realize and acknowledge how upset many of you have felt.”
Rivian announced price increases for its R1T pickup and its R1S SUV on Tuesday. The base price of the four-engine R1T increased from $ 67,500 to $ 79,500, and the base price of the four-engine R1T increased from $ 70,000 to $ 84,500.
Customers can configure and reserve their R1T or R1S with a refundable deposit of $ 1000. In general, new pre-orders are unlikely to receive their vehicles before 2023.
The carmaker cited inflation, supply chain shortages and rising component costs as reasons for rising prices.
“This increase in costs and complexity due to these challenging circumstances necessitates an increase in the prices of the R1T and R1S models we offer today – prices that were originally set in 2018,” Rivian CEO Giten Bell said in a statement announcing the original. price increase at that time.
Many Rivian customers were angry and canceled their pre-orders. Some described the price of their vehicles rising to $ 20,000 due to the change.
Dallas resident Brendan McCauley, who had a pre-order for R1T, said its price had risen from $ 87,700 to $ 100,700.
McCauley described Rivian’s first e-mail about the price hike as a very “corporate conversation” and a “hard pill to swallow.” He said he appreciated Scaringe’s apology and the cancellation of the marches for pre-order holders.
“The email this morning looked more like the company I was a fan of,” McCauley said of receiving Scaringe’s letter. “I thought it was a real move by the class. He took ownership of it.”
Scaringe said in a letter Thursday that the company had not communicated well about price increases. Rivian will respect the initially configured price for anyone who has ordered a vehicle in advance since the announcement of prices on March 1. Customers who have canceled their pre-order after the price increase will be able to refund it with the original prices and delivery times, he said.
Rivian is facing ups and downs after its initial public offering in November, which raised approximately $ 12 billion, the most money from Facebook’s IPO in 2012. Rivian’s R1T was named MotorTrend Truck of the Year in December.
Rivian was sometimes valued more than Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors in 2021, but its shares fell 50% this year.
The carmaker is expected not to reach its target of producing 1,200 cars last year. He also plans to build his second manufacturing plant this year outside of Atlanta, Georgia. The factory must be able to produce up to 400,000 cars a year.
Scaringe said in a letter that the most important thing Rivian is building is customer relationships.
“We will make mistakes – this is part of building something complex. The key is to learn from them and deal with them when they are made,” he wrote. “That’s how we grow.”