Tesla exploded the electric car market, becoming the clear leader in the industry with the mass-market Tesla Model 3, and eventually even having the #1 best selling model of any kind in the world with the Tesla Model Y. Recently, though, BYD sales have climbed much faster, and Tesla sales have actually declined. Perhaps it’s just a bump in the road for Tesla, but this is definitely the year of BYD. There are several other Chinese EV startups rising fast as well — from NIO to Xpeng to Zeekr. Does that mean the US is just going to be left in the dust? Maybe, but we’ve got some cavalry on the way. In particular, watch out for the rise of Rivian.
In the latest CleanTechnica Talk podcast, CleanTechnica’s Scott Cooney and Rob Simon discuss the great potential of Rivian, the quality of Rivian vehicles, the company’s coming mass-market (read: cheaper) models, and the opening Tesla is leaving for another young EV startup to climb that always daunting mass-adoption scaling graph. Enjoy the discussion!
Can you be more specific about the reliability issues?
For starters, Consumer Reports lists it near the bottom in reliability:
https://www.autoblog.com/article/predicted-car-reliability/
"We study 20 trouble areas, from nuisances—such as squeaky brakes and broken interior trim—to major bummers, such as potentially expensive out-of-warranty engine, transmission, EV battery, and EV charging problems. We use that information to give reliability ratings for every major mainstream model.
We weigh the severity of each type of problem to create a predicted reliability score for each vehicle, from 1 to 100. We use that information to give reliability ratings for every major mainstream vehicle. (The reliability rating is then combined with data collected from our track testing, as well as our owner satisfaction survey results and safety data, to calculate each test vehicle’s Overall Score.)"
Even if one doesn’t believe in CR and their reporting methods, it does show that there are multiple complaints.
Second, heading to the Rivian forums, you can find issues ranging from squeaks and creeks to powertain and home charging issues.
While many of the complaints I read seem circumstantial, many are build quality issues.
Rivian is still a new company and is bound to have some problems that need to be ironed out, which seems to be the case.
First of all, full disclosure: I own a Gen 1 R1T, my VIN is sub 10K.
You’re right in that I don’t believe in CR’s methods (for almost anything, not just vehicles). Many of their reviews have left a bad taste in my mouth, and their methodology for testing EVs is sub-par.
Also, squeaks snd creeks don’t automatically mean that the vehicle itself is “unreliable”. Sure, it shouldn’t have them since its an expensive EV, but you can still drive it with most of those issues, it doesn’t inheritly mean your vehicle is going to break down if a panel squeaks.
That being said, transmission and battery issues are alarming, however not very widespread as if this were the case you’d hear a lot more about it via the media.
You also have to remember people are more likely to complain than say nothing is wrong - you can’t use forum posts to gauge reliability because of that. For example, I have not had any issues related to battery, transmission, or anything integral to driving. The only issue I have personally had was a speaker rattle, which was easily fixed. I haven’t posted anywhere that I have had no problems (until now). It goes both ways of course, just because I haven’t had problems doesn’t mean other people haven’t, but that’s kind of my point: forum posts mean nothing when it comes to gauging reliability.
Once again, I want to emphasize that I definitely have some bias here because I own one and have for about 3 years. It’s the best vehicle I’ve ever owned.