My New R1S Died 4 Hours After Purchase, Then Completely Stranded Us Days Later, Rivian's Nearest Service Center is 8 Hours Away

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As a new Rivian R1S owner, I've experienced firsthand how quickly the excitement of owning a cutting-edge electric SUV can turn to frustration. Within just four hours of delivery, my $90,000 vehicle displayed a battery warning.

We live in an era where your car can do 0–60 in under four seconds and still ghost itself on the side of the road like a moody teenager who just discovered existential dread. That’s precisely what happened to one Rivian R1S owner, or more specifically, the partner of a Redditor who took to the platform to air some justifiable grievances after their brand-new, $90K electric SUV morphed from a cutting-edge adventure vehicle into a 7,000-pound driveway sculpture. 

When High-Tech Fails at the Worst Time

While Rivian has, until now, enjoyed a fairly glowing reputation for both customer satisfaction and vehicle reliability, this incident casts a shadow that’s hard to ignore. And while we’ve only heard one side of the story, the timing, and the optics couldn’t be worse.

"My partner received his brand new R1S last week and within four hours a battery warning popped up saying service was needed. After several days of back and forth with Rivian, they reviewed diagnostics and confirmed that the vehicle is fine to drive but will need service soon and they scheduled transport to the nearest service center. It’s unclear why this issue wasn’t identified before the vehicle was delivered, eight hours away from the nearest service center.

Then, yesterday, the vehicle completely died while he was on the road. He had to pull over and then get a tow back home. The vehicle won’t move on its own at all, not even the 15mph crawl. It’s now parked outside our house until the previously scheduled tow back to the service center.

I’m posting this because my partner doesn’t have a Reddit account and I want to make sure others are aware of another instance of poor QA and reliability. I’ve been a fan of Rivian for years and even had a R1T reserved at one point. I had mainly been concerned about charging access in the mountains, but apparently the real concern is where it will randomly strand you."

That’s the whole post, unfiltered and not without merit. It doesn’t read like some anti-EV hit piece or disgruntled trolling. It sounds like what it is: a real-world owner who expected a flagship experience and instead got a cautionary tale. The irony is cruel, one moment, you're basking in the glow of futuristic driving tech, the next, you're watching your $90,000 SUV get winched onto a flatbed while you wonder how the nearest service center ended up being in a different time zone.

The Sudden Failure of a Brand-New Rivian R1S

To Rivian’s credit, the company is still overwhelmingly well-regarded by most owners. Across forums, surveys, and social media, customers rave about service quality, attentive staff, and mobile repair teams that show up like roadside superheroes. J.D. Power’s EV Experience studies place Rivian above average, and many stories exist of Rivian techs flying into remote towns or wilderness cabins to service stranded vehicles. 

Rivian R1T vs. Tesla Cybertruck: Performance, Design, & Towing Showdown

  • The Rivian R1T offers multiple configurations, including a tri-motor setup delivering 850 horsepower, enabling acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in approximately 3.0 seconds. In comparison, the Tesla Cybertruck's tri-motor "Cyberbeast" variant boasts 845 horsepower and achieves 0 to 60 mph in about 2.6 seconds. ​
  • The R1T presents a more conventional pickup design with modern touches, offering amenities like an 11-cubic-foot gear tunnel for additional storage and a luxurious interior. Conversely, the Cybertruck showcases a distinctive, futuristic exterior crafted from ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel, emphasizing durability and a unique aesthetic. ​
  • The R1T is rated to tow up to 11,000 pounds, with a payload capacity of 1,764 pounds. The Cybertruck, on the other hand, offers a higher towing capacity of 14,000 pounds and a payload capacity of 3,500 pounds, making it more suitable for heavier-duty tasks.

One anecdote even mentions a customer in Colorado receiving same-day diagnostics and repair in the middle of a snowstorm. But that makes this Reddit post even more peculiar. Why the delay? Why the eight-hour trek to the service center? Why the radio silence on what caused the vehicle to completely brick just days after delivery?

Demanding a Full Replacement for Faulty Rivian R1S Vehicles

Naturally, Reddit weighed in with solutions and expectations. The dominant opinion: Rivian should swap the vehicle, no questions asked. This is, after all, why Lemon Laws exist. If the vehicle is genuinely defective and the issue can't be resolved after a reasonable number of attempts, or worse, if it's undrivable, then a replacement or refund should be automatic. The automotive world has legal guardrails for this kind of scenario, and the public expects Rivian to honor them, not to protect its balance sheet but to protect its brand.

That said, we need to keep our feet on the ground. Every automaker, no matter how prestigious, has sent out vehicles with catastrophic faults. BMW had its infamous high-pressure fuel pump failures. Ford’s 1.6L EcoBoost turned the 2013 Escape into a self-lighting fireplace. Even Honda, long held as the gold standard for reliability, issued over a million recalls in 2023 for fuel pump defects. And the idea that electric vehicles are uniquely prone to stranding people is a myth wrapped in anxiety. An EV failing to start is no different than a gas car that won’t turn over. What is different is how quickly the company responds and how transparently it communicates the resolution.

How One EV Failure Can Erode Consumer Trust

This brings us to the more delicate point: how this kind of incident ripples through personal circles. A 2022 MIT study on consumer trust in EV brands revealed that word-of-mouth recommendations, or condemnations, are often more influential than advertising or media reviews. One friend has a bad experience, and suddenly, no one in their social orbit wants to risk it. That’s how reputational rot begins, not in shareholder meetings or investor decks but around dinner tables and campfires. Rivian's challenge isn’t just to fix the car. It’s to fix the narrative before it spreads into a wildfire of doubt.

Restoring Trust and Delivering on Promises

There’s still plenty of time for Rivian to do the right thing, and most Reddit commenters seem optimistic they will. Whether that means a full replacement, a loaner vehicle, or a deep public explanation of what went wrong remains to be seen. But it’s a moment that matters. One owner’s ordeal, however isolated, carries the weight of a thousand watchful eyes. 

Even among Rivian’s loyal base, frustration is beginning to seep in. On Reddit, seasoned owners are advising others to escalate service issues through delivery teams, while others are openly calling for immediate vehicle swaps. “Should be an immediate vehicle swap, insane,” one commenter bluntly put it, a sentiment echoed by many. Another longtime Rivian customer detailed their own unresolved tri-motor saga, noting that while Rivian was willing to buy the vehicle back, they refused a straight replacement, potentially leaving the customer $7,000 out of pocket due to current pricing differences. That’s not just a service issue, that’s a trust fracture.

 

This isn’t just an isolated forum gripe, either. Even prospective buyers are taking note. One user, who reserved an R2 on launch day, confessed they’re now reconsidering early adoption entirely. Despite acknowledging Tesla’s faults, they noted that their Model Y has been trouble-free for over 22,000 miles, and that kind of reliability leaves an impression. Rivian may still have time to write a better ending to this chapter, but each unresolved case, each customer who walks away a few thousand dollars lighter or with a bad taste in their mouth, chips away at the company’s once-bulletproof brand mystique.

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.