Rivian has struggled through a difficult production ramp as it attempts to bring three electric vehicles (EVs) to market at the same time. One of those EVs, the R1T electric pickup truck, may have a serious defect based on the experience of an owner on the Rivian Forums.
According to the owner, the incident occurred one week after taking delivery of his R1T when stepping out of his truck in Salt Lake City, Utah. With the appropriate username of TheSasquatch, the owner says his size 14 shoe snagged the accelerator pedal as he was getting out, something which for him is not uncommon in his previous vehicles.
What hasn’t happened before though is the accelerator pedal breaking completely off, which is exactly what happened in his one-week old Rivian.
The owner said the pedal broke off “right at the top where the “spring housing” screwed the pedal to the mechanism up under the kick panel,” and shared pictures to prove it.
Based on his assessment of the damage, he believes the spring housing that attaches the pedal to the truck is just thin plastic, “and obviously very brittle.”
The good news is that Rivian towed his truck away within 30 minutes of him contacting them, and had it ready for him the following morning. He is not sure if Rivian replaced the whole pedal with one from a truck that has yet to be delivered, or if they had the required parts to make the repair.
Rivian didn’t comment on the damage when he picked up his vehicle, but this is hopefully not a widespread defect that results in a recall.
Rivian has been delivering the R1T to employees and customers since late last year, and has already had to issue one recall to fix a defective child or child seat detection system.
The automaker has delivered a handful of R1S electric SUVs to employees, but recently delayed deliveries for customers (again) to later this summer.
Source: Rivian Forums
