Rivian forced to recall every electric vehicle including EDV Amazon vans

It may sound like it is bad news for Rivian, it certainly isn’t good news but the company is not playing the potential issues down and decided to issue full recall of every car it has manufactured so far. That means nearly 13,000 vehicles coming in for a full mechanical checkup.

The company has announced that it was made aware of seven reports where fasteners connecting the front upper control arm and steering knuckle weren’t tightened to the correct torque values. Although there were no issues reported as a result of these findings, the company has decided to play it safe and issued a full recall for every car manufactured so far.

Lucky for Rivian, it didn't make so many cars then. Still, nearly 13,000 of R1T, R1S and EDV Amazon vans will have to be inspected and if faults are found, they will need to be corrected. At 3 hours per car it can be as much as 39,000 working hours to rectify the fault, then there is the inconvenience for individual customers and service disruptions for Amazon.

The company issued a warning to the drivers with common signs of the issue getting worse and resulting in the separation of parts. Drivers were told to watch out for increased noises coming from the front suspensions and steering response getting worse over time.

This is going to be a huge test for Rivian’s logistics and service departments, the company only had minor recalls so far. There was the airbag sensor issue that affected about 500 vehicles and only minor situations that were addressed with the OTA update. This one will require an inspection of every vehicle.

Both institutional and retail investors will be watching Rivian like hawks, paying attention to how swiftly - or not - the company deals with its first serious recall. All Rivian customers are advised to call the service hotline and either make an appointment for a mobile technician visit or bring the car to the Rivian service center.

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