Rivian eliminates entry-level Explore trim for R1T and R1S

With the supply chain crisis making building cars ridiculously difficult even for longtime OEMs and all automakers are streamlining options to make the most of the situation, the pressure’s that much greater for new guys like Rivian. That’s why the electric adventure pickup and SUV maker has discontinued its entry-level Explore trim for the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, as reported by The Verge. The unexpected bit is that the elimination applies to those who had pre-orders and confirmed orders. Intenders with pre-orders that were waiting to confirm have until September 1 to upgrade their pre-order to the Adventure trim, or have their pre-orders canceled and their deposits refunded. Buyers with confirmed orders for the Explore trim have until September 16 to convert their orders, or be removed from the queue and get their money back.

Rivian gave two reasons for the axe in a letter to customers, the first being that the company expected more people to order the entry-level version. At the end of June, Rivian told shareholders the pre-order line counted 98,000 people in the U.S. and Canada aside from the 100,000 vans going into Amazon service; however, since we don’t know how many of those pickup orders were the Explore trim, it’s impossible to know how many buyers have been thwarted. None of the several thousand R1T pickups delivered so far have been Explore models, but that’s to be expected as the company focuses on high-value builds to offset the cash burn that toasted $1.7 billion in Q2 of this year.

The second reason follows on from the first, being that Rivian believes it can build more trucks if it has only one kind of truck to build. The letter stated, “When we initially launched our vehicles, we planned for two packages, Adventure and Explore, to offer more variety to our customers. The Explore Package was designed as our entry option and it was our expectation that a large number of customers would choose it. To date, only a small percentage of customers have chosen this configuration, with the vast majority selecting the Adventure trim. By focusing on the Adventure trim package, we’re able to streamline our supply chain and ultimately deliver vehicles more quickly.”

When Rivian announced prices for its range in 2018, the R1T started at $67,500, the R1S at $70,000. With the trim reshuffle, the R1T starts $73,000 and the R1S starts at $78,000. This has caused the expected wailing and gnashing of teeth on forums. It’s easy to pile on Rivian over this, but we see this same thing everywhere we look. Remember the $35,000 Tesla Model 3 and $40,000 Cybertruck? Remember EVs like the Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning picking up substantial price increases heading into their second years on the market? Remember every OEM reconfiguring packages and cutting a la carte options to get vehicles delivered to dealers instead of parking lots? Yeah, well, so.

The real head-shaker about this is that Rivian got outrun by its own news again. Despite its customer letter including the line, “We have an update that affects your preorder and want to make sure you hear about it directly from us,” it was forum posters who discovered the change and had to wait for confirmation from Rivian.