How could this happen?
American EV truck startup Rivian has poured tremendous resources into marketing a message that its trucks can go virtually anywhere. Not only has the company shown its vehicles traveling on rugged trails, including engaging in some serious rock crawling, it’s reassured potential owners the electric vehicles can plow through snow, ford water crossings, and do anything a gas- or diesel-powered rig can.
Learn how the government plans to crack down further on the car hobby here.
Unfortunately for a man who lives in the Adirondack Mountains in New York, a 2.5-foot snowdrift brought his $85,000-plus Rivian R1S SUV to its knees. Two days after the 24-year-old plopped down serious cash for the EV at the behest of family members who also own Rivians, the man decided to test it out on an unplowed road to his family’s property in the mountains.
There, in the snowy mountains of New York, the Rivian met its match. While the man said the R1S at first just plowed through the snow, it suddenly stopped when it ran into the shallow snowbank. Undeterred, the man recruited another vehicle to pull him out, something that just comes with driving off-road.
However, as the man rocked the Rivian back and forth, the transmission became stuck between the park and drive gears. That function is apparently a safety feature to guard against slide-away scenarios, but it was triggered just by the rocking motion of trying to get an off-roader unstuck. One would think a company which markets to people with active lifestyles would take that exact situation into account, but Rivian apparently didn’t.
Unable to be driven at all, the EV had to be loaded onto a wrecker and transported to Chelsea, Massachusetts for servicing. That little trip cost the Rivian owner a sweet $2,100.
Rivian told Business Insider that the “unfortunate cascade of events” has provided “input for us to improve the product.” That reportedly means Rivian is coming up with ways to prevent this kind of scenario from happening again. However, the young man who bought the R1S says he might get a Toyota Tacoma or something else that runs on gas. His days of being an early adopter are over.
This incident just adds to the bad news Rivian has been swimming in since last year. The company has missed production targets, had to deal with unplanned shutdowns, and is losing cash faster than a sailor in a strip club. What everyone wonders is will Rivian survive long enough to straighten out all its problems?
Source: Business Insider
Images via Rivian
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