Rivian expanding EV service centers in U.S., Canada

Rivian is gearing up for the job, with 21 assistance centers now open in U.S. metropolitan places, these kinds of as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas and Orlando. Half a dozen more are prepared by the conclude of the calendar year, the automaker mentioned. Its to start with provider facility outdoors the U.S. — in Vancouver, British Columbia — opens in the slide.

While the Irvine, Calif., automaker announced layoffs very last week of about 6 per cent of its perform drive, it mentioned it will continue on using the services of for company positions and spare manufacturing facility personnel.

Rivian will not have conventional retail spots. Instead, its 1st “Rivian Hub” in Venice, Calif., near Los Angeles, serves as a community centre for situations and an expertise center for Rivian solutions.

1 innovation Rivian and other startups are utilizing to outflank traditional automakers is cell assistance. The firm’s Bay Spot support heart uses each specifically equipped R1Ts and larger vans for more substantial service positions, Tomafsky explained.

“A whole lot of individuals will choose for us to go to their home or put of organization alternatively than occur in excess of in this article,” Tomafsky reported. “We are going to reduce that suffering level,” particularly the crushing targeted visitors in the course of lengthy stretches of the working day in the location.

Rivian vehicles, with around-the-air updates, can also be preset with software package alone sometimes. And simply because they are related to the cloud, some diagnostic providers can be done remotely, creating in-man or woman repairs more rapidly.

“We are genuinely in a great rhythm proper now,” Tomafsky mentioned. “We will not want the consumers to hold out.”

The South San Francisco location will get reduction from a Rivian company heart in San Jose scheduled to open up this year. The increased Silicon Valley space continues to be the coronary heart of the EV sector — with Tesla’s manufacturing unit in Fremont and Lucid’s headquarters in Newark.