Two days after it arrived, Chase Merrill's electric R1S SUV was bricked in the snow. The company said it would cost $2,100 to transport for repairs.
www.businessinsider.com
Merrill, 24, put down a deposit on an R1S three years ago at the urging of family members who also own Rivians.
On March 10, 2023 the $85,626 vehicle arrived.
Two days later, Merrill drove his R1S to his family's shared property in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. He wanted to put his rugged electric SUV to the test, so he drove it on the unplowed, snow-covered road into the property.
At first, the R1S sliced through the snow. Then, a large snowdrift stymied the car, he said.
"I hit about 2 ½-feet of snow and it just stopped right there," Merrill said. "I had seen all the Rivian marketing campaigns with the cars just eating through the snow so it was kind of like, man this is disappointing."
Merrill said he's dislodged cars from snow banks before, and enlisted another vehicle to help pull him out. While he was sitting in the driver's seat, unbuckled, rocking the R1S out of the snow bank, he said he accidentally triggered a safety feature that got the car stuck between the park and drive gears.
His Rivian was bricked, rendering it completely useless.
The brand new Rivian ultimately had to be loaded onto a flatbed and driven to a service center in Chelsea, Massachusetts, hundreds of miles away. The towing fee was $2,100.
The ordeal now has Merrill considering trading the R1S for a Toyota Tacoma or a similar gas-powered pickup truck, he said.
