Rivian CEO issues apology for breaking trust with customers following pricing increase

Posted on March 4, 2022
“As we worked to update pricing to reflect these cost increases, we wrongly decided to make these changes apply to all future deliveries, including pre-existing configured preorders,” Scaringe said. (WJBC File Photo)

By Jake Fogal

BLOOMINGTON-Rivian Automotive has retracted the pricing increase that was announced by the company earlier this week for pre-ordered EVs. CEO R.J. Scaringe issued a company wide apology to it’s customers Thursday.

“As we worked to update pricing to reflect these cost increases, we wrongly decided to make these changes apply to all future deliveries, including pre-existing configured preorders,” Scaringe said.

“We failed to appreciate how you viewed your configuration as price locked, and we wrongly assumed the announced Dual-Motor and Standard battery pack would provide configurations that would deliver price points similar to your original configuration. While this was the logic, it was wrong and we broke your trust in Rivian.”

In an effort to rebuild that trust, Rivian has announced that anyone that has a made a preorder as of the March 1 pricing adjustment, the original configured price will be honored.

“If you canceled your preorder on or after March 1 and would like to reinstate it, we will restore your original configuration, pricing and delivery timing. Our team will be sending an email in the next few days with more details,” Scaringe wrote.

Pricing costs are assumed to increase in the future for the automotive company and it’s future customers.

Jake Fogal can be reached at [email protected].

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