Rivian Walks Back Price Hikes Following Backlash From Reservation Holders

Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN announced unexpected price hikes earlier this week, which was particularly unfortunate for reservation holders. 

It appears the electric vehicle startup is walking back the price increases following a backlash from customers. 

What Happened: Rivian on Tuesday announced plans to raise the prices of its vehicles by about 20%, citing inflationary pressures, increasing component costs and unprecedented supply chain shortages.

"This rise in cost and complexity due to these challenging circumstances necessitate an increase to the prices of the R1T and R1S models we offer today — prices originally set in 2018,” Jiten Behl, chief growth officer of Rivian, told Benzinga. 

Related Link: Rivian Faces Growing Online Backlash After Increasing Car Prices, Thousands Claim To Cancel Orders

The announcement came as a slap in the face to longtime reservation holders who thought they had locked in pricing with their preorders. 

"I have the reservation for R1S Launch Edition since April of 2019. They should at least have some regard for customers who have been waiting for the delivery for three years," said one Reddit user in response to a customer sentiment poll posted on the platform. 

What Else Happened: It seems the widespread dissatisfaction has reached the Rivian management team. On Thursday morning, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in an email to customers the company would walk back the pricing update for anyone who ordered before the March 1 announcement, according to reports.

"For anyone with a Rivian preorder as of the March 1 pricing announcement, your original configured price will be honored," Scaringe wrote in the email. "If you canceled your preorder on or after March 1 and would like to reinstate it, we will restore your original configuration, pricing and delivery timing."

The Rivian CEO told reservation holders that he would provide further details in a follow-up email over the next couple of days. 

RIVN Price Action: Rivian has traded between $50 and $179.46 over a 52-week period.

The stock was down 3.53% at $51.67 late Thursday morning. 

Photo: courtesy of Rivian.