[Taake69]

I am the one on Oahu with the Launch Green Rivian. I hope someone at Rivian reads this and gets their act together. Hawaii has 1.25 million registered vehicles and over 10% are EV's and growing exponentially every day. That means there are approximately 125,000 EV's registered on the roadways in Hawaii making it the second most of all 50 states, California is 1st with over 1/2 million registered EV's. Also Rivan needs to wake up and take into consideration Cost of Living in Hawaii, there are more Ferraris, Lambos, Jags, and Teslas per Capita then any other state, I see two or three Teslas at every red light I stop at. Hawaii may be small, but it has more disposable income then most states. Tesla has done it right by putting a focus on Sales/Service centers, Solar, and Battery Backup here. Hawaii is the quintessential place for EV's and a top choice for most businesses. Weather is perfect for EV's for Max range, there is sun 365 days a year and being close to equator means 12 hours of sun shine 365 days a year as well. Gas prices are high and Solar production is free!! This is the perfect place to build an adventure network, install some solar and charging stations on trails and beaches. Companies like Lowe's built the second larges Lowes with a drive through indoor lumber yard on Maui, because now they have a place in Maui to send executives and well deserving employees for training all as a Tax right off. I guarantee people will work a lot harder for an all expense paid trip to Hawaii for being a top employee. People like recognition, and perceived as valuable to their company more then actual money, and Rivan tags itself as being a Life Style, not a company, again making Hawaii a perfect fit as Hawaii is all about life style. Lastly if Rivian looks at the truck segment the #1 truck sold in Hawaii is the Toyota Tacoma, the exact size/style truck that Rivan is marketing towards.... Why compete against Ford Lightnings and GMC Hummers, Rivian is not the same category, Why not market in a state where your vehicle would be a top market segment?

 

[Taake69]

Rivian was out here to complete all the warrantee and recall work. My Rivian failed the torque test. Rivain offered a rental car, had the mechanic pick up the Rivian and take it to the rented service shop they had and then outsourced the alignment to local shop. They had the truck for a day and returned it with all services completed. The mechanic was flown out and serviced all Rivians in islands and was here for about three weeks completing all service calls. Fist work was done on location, following week it was taken to a shop for more repairs. So far my biggest problem is with phantom drain. It is very expensive to own a Rivian and charge with 110. My HOA is not letting me get 220 in my car port so limited to 110 and it is extremely inefficient. Currently it has been charging for two days, it has used 31KW to add 53 miles. That is only 1.7miles per KW with the charger even though I am averaging 2.8miles per KW while driving. That means I am losing over 40% of my range in the charging process and only being 60% efficient, this seems very poor. Also with phantom drain when not charging is 5 to 7 miles a day (After last two updates, before that it was losing 10 to 14 miles per day), again gets very expensive in Hawaii at $.44 a KWH If charging was efficient and there was no phantom drain my MPG would be equivalent to 25 MPG @ $5 gas, but with all the losses in charging efficiencies and phantom draining it has been averaging out to 7MPG @ $5 gas, so less efficient than a Ram TRX. If you drive every day and charge on fast chargers this is less noticeable, but since I work on several Islands there are times I park it at the airport for a week with a full battery and come back to less then 50% charge. I don't think anyone would ever put up with buying a new car that had a hole in the fill line and pissed 25% or more of you gas away every time you drove it, don't know how much people will tolerate the excessive inefficiency's over time? For anyone buying a Rivian in Hawaii just average $4 per day in wasted electricity just to park it on top of whatever you drive.

 

[Taake69]

Jan 2019 preorder.

Now JUL-SEP 2023 estimated.

Pathetic. These guys are just screwing up left and right.

My Preorder was 2018 Launch edition, have had it for two months now

@Taake69 congrats on having the first in HI. What is your plan on service/recalls? ship it back and forth? I'm on my 8 step right now and thinking of bringing it over to my BI home.

At first I thought I'd ship it for about $2700 RT if I had to, that but now that I'm reading about HV battery failures, drive unit failures, full brick failures, etc it would be darn near impossible to drop it at Matson if it was fully dead. Same with unloading it dead in Seattle or CA. I guess it could be moved as freight rather then as an auto but the rates are higher & I'd need to provide a trailer or flatbed type vehicle AFAIK to get it on to the boat. Even more headaches.

My preorder was mid 2018 for a Launch edition. I have had it for two months now. Rivian is horible with communications, kept getting emails, Expect delivery on XXXXX, then two weeks later it would change. This went on for months. In that time I was transferred to Hickam AFB in Hawaii. Once I update my address Rivian tried to cancel my preorder!! Again after weeks of back and forth with the Guide I really never got any information other then to continue to wait. I offered to pick it up in IL from the factory, they said no, have it shipped to house in California, they said no, house in Florida was a no, families house in Nebraska was a no. I figured I just would never get it then two months later I got a phone call from the service center in Atlanta asking when I was going to pick it up!! no call from the Guide, no ability to update configurator, and not even the one I configured I asked for 20" AT and this had 22's. I was told if I did not take this one I would be bumped at least two more months or possibly canceled all together. So the Service Center helped me to get paperwork and I arranged transport for pickup ($3700) to go from Atlanta to Hawaii. Once I got it here it was supper simple to do title and self registration, probably the easiest part of the whole buying process, even though the guide tried to tell me I could not title it in Hawaii. Owning is not to bad They have a service technician that flies to all the islands and services all Rivians remotely. For larger repairs they rent shop space and do it on Island. They have a few spots they are considering building out a service center on Oahu, but I would not count on it until mid 2024. I think a huge loss for Rivian, and for those saying Hawaii cant support it you must never been to Hawaii. Hawaii is the second largest register of EV's behind California. I see a minimum of three Teslas at every red light. It is big enough that Kia has a EV display/preorder station in the shopping mall between Louis Viton, and Prada. It is Sad when Kia is out selling you on EV's and customer market share. Tesla is all over with no issues, the bigger malls have two or three tesla shops in each mall. It is not that hard to open a store front in the mall to assist with pre orders and shipping, and they are already providing the same mobile support system that Tesla has, so don't know why there is not a presence here. I get stopped two or three times every time I go out shopping by people asking what truck this is, where I got it, how I like it ........ It gets me more attention then driving my Ferrari.