Ever since Rivian launched the R1T – an all-electric pickup truck and its first production model – customers have been wondering when the R1S SUV announced long ago would join it at last. According to Bloomberg, this may take a while due to arrangements the young automaker has with Amazon.
The newspaper quotes Rivian CEO R. J. Scaringe saying that the company wanted to prioritize making commercial electric vans for Amazon’s delivery network. He apparently went as far as to specify expected production volumes: 300 units until the end of 2021, 10,000 until the end of 2022, and 100,000 units total (this is the size of the pre-order placed by Amazon).
Rivian does not say so outright, but all of the above inevitably means that production of the mass-market R1T and R1S models will slow down, as it will no longer have the priority. Are you prepared to wait?