Rivian fully-autonomous system pricing revealed

American EV upstart Rivian has revealed pricing for its fully-autonomous system ahead of its R1T production vehicles hitting the road.

Off the back of its first R1T rolling off the production line last month, Rivian's initial public offering (IPO) was made available ahead of an expected November reveal – detailing a breakdown of life-time revenue categories for the business and its vehicles.

While costs of regular factors such as financing, insurance and servicing are shown, the IPO also lists a US$10,000 (AU$13,730) one-off fee for the R1T truck and R1S SUV's fully-autonomous systems – the same cost as Tesla's controversial Full-Self Driving (FSD) tech which went live at the end of September.

3

Rivian founder RJ Scaringe

On top of this, Rivian will also introduce a US$5500 (AU$7550) subscription fee for "infotainment, connectivity, diagnostics, and other services" which will be spaced out over a 10-year period, potentially across multiple owners if the vehicle changes hands.

To the end of September this year, Rivian has received a total of 48,390 pre-orders across the United States and Canada for the R1T and R1S, all of which were paid with a US$1000 (AU$1370) fully-refundable deposit.

Although two vehicles are currently testing in Australia, Rivian hasn’t fully committed to bringing its vehicle to the local market, with the IPO stating:

"[It has] analyzed [sic] the principal laws in the United States, EU, China, Japan, United Kingdom, and Australia relating to our distribution model and believe we comply with such laws, the laws in this area can be complex, difficult to interpret and may change over time, and thus require ongoing review."

3

Rivian has been fortunate to secure these preorders as the company recorded massive losses over the past two years, totalling US$1.426 billion (AU$1.96bn) at the end of 2020, although it is only US$3 million (AU$4.12m) in debt as of July 2021.

Rivian received a major funding boost in 2019 from an Amazon-led consortium, which poured in US$700 million (AU$954m) in February, as well as Ford subsequently taking a US$500m (AU$681m) stake in the company in April of the same year.