According to a detailer, panel fit has gotten worse.
Rivian is ramping up production and it looks as though corners are being cut.
Assembling a new vehicle is a matter of getting hundreds and even thousands of pieces and parts to line up. Most legacy automakers have narrowed the process down to a science however start-ups like Rivian still have a long way to go.
Rivian R1T | Photo: Rivian
Tesla is the first car company that comes to mind when discussing assembly quality. Despite more than a decade of experience and a few million vehicles built, panel gaps, fit, and finish still remain uneven. In other, one person’s Model Y might be nicer than another’s.
In this video by Out of Spec Detailing, the host goes over a viewer’s brand-new Rivian R1T and goes on to enumerate a long laundry list of issues, poorly fitted panels, and general quality issues.
What’s most telling or worrisome about the video is that the quality is not improving. In fact, the first Rivian they looked over sported a VIN number in the 4,000s and looked quite good overall. The one featured in this review is in the 13,200th build, and it’s not good. Typically, quality improves or at the very least remains unchanged over time. The overview of this latest R1T pickup shows that quality has dropped.
We’re guessing that the pressure to meet revised delivery numbers is rushing the production and assembly process. Even so, cracked dashboard trim pieces in a $100,000 should not make it through quality control.
