Earlier this week, Rivian announced that its capable new EV truck, the Rivian R1T, would be offered in a cheaper dual-motor configuration. However, that news also came with a massive price increase of up to 20% to current options, including those already pre-ordered. After instant backlash and cancelations, the company reversed its decision, but it’s not all good news.

It turns out that being the first one to release an electric truck is hard. The new Rivian R1T is a stunning EV truck, but the company faced several launch delays. From there, it struggled to ramp up production, had more pre-orders than it could handle, and then raised the price on everyone.

The exciting $67k truck now costs $79k, and those that pre-ordered were notified that their orders would cost upwards of $10,000 to $15,000 more than they initially signed up for. Ouch.

Price of my @Rivian Truck just went up $10k. As a day one preorder holder this feels suuuuper bait and switchy. Not a fan.

The tone of my video would have changed if I had known it was a $100,000 dollar truck. Extra zeros matter.

— JerryRigEverything (@ZacksJerryRig) March 2, 2022

Imagine buying a truck for $60,000, waiting over a year for production, and then when it came time to pick it up, the company wanted $75,000 instead. Unfortunately, that’s precisely what happened for Rivian pre-order holders, many of which instantly canceled their order.

Today, CEO and Rivian Founder RJ Scaringe released a lengthy statement owning up to the mistake. Telling owners it would reverse the pricing update for anyone who ordered before the March 1 announcement. Furthermore, anyone who canceled due to the increase can reinstate their order at the original price.

As we all know, everything is more expensive right now. Supply chains are tight, materials cost more, chip shortages are still ongoing, all of which contributed to Rivian’s price increase. And while it’s great that they’ll honor the original price for pre-orders, as it should, the huge price increase isn’t going anywhere.

The higher price tag and lower dual-motor model configurations will remain, and anyone who’d like to order the Rivian R1T or R1S SUV will see vastly higher prices than initially promised several years ago.

While this is good news for pre-order holders, it’s not good news for consumers overall, as the company will likely face financial problems as a result. We’ve already seen the stock price tank after the IPO, and Rivian’s stock is down again on this latest news. Tesla barely avoided bankruptcy in the early days, and we hope Rivian can do the same.

Source: Rivian