It’s been a wild ride for RIVN shareholders, and the thrills show no signs of easing up as the company issues its first child safety recall.
The recall– while relatively small, affecting just 502 vehicles– comes at a time when Rivian is pushing to ramp up production of its R1T electric pickup truck. It’s worth noting here that, while the company began delivering the trucks to customers late last year, it still only has a couple of thousand vehicles on the road.
What does that mean? It means that, while recalling 502 vehicles might not be a big deal for Tesla– who delivered 300,000 EVs in Q1 of this year– it could be a very big deal for Rivian.
Worse, this isn’t a software update that’s being labeled a “recall” in the press. This is a safety issue wherein the sensors in the seat may not disable the truck’s airbags when a child is present– as such, the NHTSA is involved, making this, “an official recall.”
“The potentially affected vehicle production period began on September 21, 2021, when Rivian Automotive, LLC (“Rivian”) started to build vehicles with the suspect seat assemblies and ended on April 12, 2022, when Rivian stopped building with the suspect seat assemblies,” reads a statement. “The suspect population was determined using the supplier’s seat manufacturing records, seat calibration data, and Rivian component traceability information.”
The recall involves physically replacing the affected seats with brand-new units. If there’s any good news for Rivian here, it’s that the cost of the recall will be covered by the seats’ supplier.
SOURCE | IMAGES: RIVIAN, NHTSA.
