R2 Launch Watch

[robothero]

Rivian had a specific question about your current lease (Rivian or otherwise) end date earlier this year. I think the play there is, if your lease is up in August, they want your R2 to be available in August so you make the move. If your lease is up in August and the R2 isn't available until December (or visa versa), you're going to end up in a different car instead of giving them your business.

Honestly a good move on their part to drive conversions.

 

[cyure]

Rivian had a specific question about your current lease (Rivian or otherwise) end date earlier this year. I think the play there is, if your lease is up in August, they want your R2 to be available in August so you make the move. If your lease is up in August and the R2 isn't available until December (or visa versa), you're going to end up in a different car instead of giving them your business.

Honestly a good move on their part to drive conversions.

But conversely what if someone who has a day one reservation but no lease keeps getting pushed to the back of the line in favor of more recent reservation holders with expiring leases and that customer gets so frustrated by the whole process they don’t convert and go buy something else. Just because someone doesn’t have an expiring lease doesn’t mean they don’t need a vehicle.

 

[J Alynn]

I can kind of understand if someone is leasing an R1, because then Rivian can probably flip that to another buyer. But why they'd care about someone with a Bolt lease is beyond me?

Have to agree. So you have 3 year res holders but a 6 month res takes priority because of a non brand lease ending. That seems wrong. Poor planning on buyers part and bad taste in mouth of many others

 

[J Alynn]

But conversely what if someone who has a day one reservation but no lease keeps getting pushed to the back of the line in favor of more recent reservation holders with expiring leases and that customer gets so frustrated by the whole process they don’t convert and go buy something else. Just because someone doesn’t have an expiring lease doesn’t mean they don’t need a vehicle.

Exactly this point. And what happens now when people start gaming the system and saying they have a lease ending. No different than people dragging a wheelchair bound guest along to Disney to move to front of line. That didn’t last long and Disney did away with that. It feels like rewarding people for possible lack of planning but hopefully scout doesn’t even consider that

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Okay I have been seeing some posts from people getting their emails to order their R2 and I have thoughts.

I guess I get the proximity to a service center being a factor that would lead to someone to jump the line so to speak, but I do not agree with getting bumped because your current vehicles lease is expiring.

I am purposely not leasing anything because I do not want to have it expire too soon and I don’t have a vehicle or conversely have it not expiring for months and it’s my turn for my Scout. I am hoping that Scout does not take current lease of another vehicle into consideration when determining place in line.

I don’t think there’ll be a way to distribute order invitations that feels fair to everyone.
I also don’t think it’ll feel fair if they just open up order invitations to everyone.
I also don’t think it’ll feel fair if they send some to influencers early…

There’s basically no way for Scout to win with everyone. Even if they distributed order invitations randomly to all the reservation holders, someone will find some reason to complain.

 

[Chuckles]

Rivian VP Says Half of R2 Buyers Chose to Lease in Opening Days

Rivian VP Says Half of R2 Buyers Chose to Lease in Opening Days | EV

Roughly half of Rivian's R2 customers opted to lease the midsize SUV in the first few days of deliveries, a rate the company said matched internal projections.

eletric-vehicles.com

 

[TigerEyeJazz]

I’ve been looking at posts online and have been seeing lots of people who reserved last week due to the test drives and got an invite to order the car. I really hope that Scout doesn’t do this for when they go live with their order system.

 

[cyure]

I’ve been looking at posts online and have been seeing lots of people who reserved last week due to the test drives and got an invite to order the car. I really hope that Scout doesn’t do this for when they go live with their order system.

Oh that’s not right at all. Completely agree. I don’t know what Rivian is doing but I don’t like it.

 

[J Alynn]

It’s one thing if you have a build sheet that has unavailable or delayed parts that you get pushed-that’s a fair assumption but from day one of reservations Scout implied it would be based on reservation timing and any restrictions to builds so guess time will tell

 

[Scout_Lookout]

I think this whole debacle around the R2 reservations is being largely misunderstood. While it may seem "unfair" to early res holders not getting their allocation first, you have to remember how high the importance of R2 is to the success of Rivian. Both early Tesla and R1 Gen 1 owners can tell you all about growing pains. I think Rivian is playing their strongest hand here by smartly putting R2's into the driveways of those who it is the most convenient and time appropriate for (regarding lease endings) which will ultimately lead to a much better experience.

When I worked for Tesla, and Model Y came out the amount of newly adopted to EV owners was extremely high and at the time GA only had 2 service centers and as a result the service experience was extremely bad which quickly gave Tesla a bad reputation. I had owners coming in from Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina etc and they were pissed because of how long it took to get a service appointment, then how long they had to drive to get to us, and if the work wasn't completed and we had to put them in a hotel (this was super early Model Y only) I can't repeat on here the kind of things they said to me then.

All this to say that Rivian has undoubtedly learned this, and is going to do everything they can to ensure the best possible experience for new owners of their most important vehicle to date.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

My point was it doesn’t matter in what order the vehicles are sold, some people are going to be unhappy. Therefore Rivian (and later, Scout) needs to do what’s best for their long-term health. If that means ruffling the feathers of some influencers or early adopters, then that’s going to happen.

I’ve said it before: More EV buyers is better for everyone.

Rivian bringing new EV owners into the community helps themselves and everyone else, even if it makes previous owners feel a little left out. I’m not surprised by Rivian's loyalty program because we have a weird culture around “loyalty," and I’m also not surprised by their offering up sales to new customers—they need the new customers just as much as they need existing customers—more so, in fact. And they need to sell to those who “just came in to see what all the fuss was about” as quickly as they can.

The R1 is an Innovators and pre-Chasm Early Adopters vehicle. Rivian needs to make the R2 a post-Chasm Early Adopter and an Early Majority vehicle, and they cannot do that by selling to their Innovators; they must sell to people who will tell their “I hadn’t even thought about an EV” neighbors how great a vehicle it is. And they need to do that early in the lifecycle.

 

[robothero]

I'm not in the room with the people deciding how to order the reservations, but I agree that it's not an either/or situation. They arent just saying "lease people first" they're definitely taking a series of attributes (reservation date, lease end, distance to service, previous Rivian owner, etc.) and finding the right balance to get the car into the hands of the "right" people as soon as possible.

 

[robothero]

Also on the flip side I'd be angry if I got invited to order after I test drive!

I am in the absolute minority of 1 but I want to wait longer lol