Rivian R1T Owner’s $42,000 Repair Bill — The Shocking Cost Of A Minor Fender Bender On A $73,000 Electric Truck. Not only is the repair bill incredible, but the fact they didn’t total the truck out is also even more impressive. We now wonder how much everyone’s auto insurance goes up to cover the cost of repairing electric vehicles that have been in accidents.
Rivian R1T owner Chris Apfelstadt experienced an unexpected financial shock after a seemingly minor rear-end collision in February. Although the damage appeared limited to the rear bumper, the repair costs escalated to $42,000 when he took his vehicle to a certified Rivian Automotive Inc. repair shop. This repair bill is particularly surprising considering that the starting price of a brand-new Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) R1T is around $73,000.
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Reason number four million (or so) why you are an idiot if you buy an EV. And meanwhile GM is being criticized for designing a new EV that uses steel instead of aluminum to house the giant battery, and making membranes between the battery cells thicker, these two decisions resulting in a heavier vehicle than critics deem necessary... but I realized one paragraph in that GM is thereby reducing the fire danger. So I say good for them. EVs are already ridiculously heavy but clearly GM is thinking more clearly than the rest of them. If they don't solve the EV fire problem, sooner or later the lawsuits are going to bankrupt automakers. Anybody else remember the Pinto gas tank lawsuits? And Tesla has both fire lawsuits and autopilot lawsuits. How long before we see TV ads from lawyers about class actions against Tesla?
(Many people do not realize that aluminum is highly flammable. Once the temperature gets high enough and it catches fire, it goes up like gasoline. That's why I laughed out loud when I heard the Navy was making new destroyers lighter by using aluminum for the hulls. It's like the ship designers never took basic chemistry.)
Just short of totaling the damn thing.