The repairs cost over half the starting price for the Rivian EV. The owner said he'd expected it wouldn't be cheap, but it was a "shocking number."

A Rivian owner was in a fender bender. The repair bill was $42,000.::The repairs cost over half the starting price for the Rivian EV. The owner said he’d expected it wouldn’t be cheap, but it was a “shocking number.”

  • ultratiem English
    46•1 year ago

    Yeah this. I was reading expecting some critical board got damaged or something with the electrical system that also had to be replaced, but nah, they just had to take more apart to get to it.

    My uncle was a mechanic, he’d have to take engines apart he wasn’t charging no $42k for even 3 days labour.

    Just dealership shenanigans it sounds like.

    • FuglyDuckEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      EV’s have a much smaller pool of people qualified to repair them.

      but also, one of the reasons I’m not buying a tesla or a rivian is because a “traditional” car maker would have known about repair-ability and made plans to simply things. the lack of automotive experience is telling, especially in Tesla’s.

      • Chaotic EntropyEnglish
        6•1 year ago

        You think non-EV car manufacturers don’t make their vehicles deliberately more obtuse to maintain, in order to make their repair and maintenance a specialism? They’re all at it, it just happens that EVs can be created as far more of a black box of proprietary systems.

        • FuglyDuckEnglish
          5•1 year ago

          not exactly, no. they do design for their people to be able to repair it efficiently, though. generally, it’s more in the “you need this super special tool only we make” kind of thing, as apposed to a fender bender causes needing to basically disassemble the entire vehicle just to reach a part.

        • ultratiem English
          2•1 year ago

          Yeah I agree that while EVs might require special training or additional skills, car manufacturers have been gating repairs for decades. Lots of the late model cars my uncle worked on required special codes only available thru the manufacturer. They would also withhold data and repair info to third party shops. It got so bad that my uncle was turning away BMW and others that would require codes for simply things like oil changes. Hell take you if the check engine light came on!

          I feel like EVs may simply allow them to charge more simply because it’s an EV.