Rivian Automotive, Inc RIVN Otherwise good week ended with bad news for the electric vehicle manufacturer.
What happened: Rivian announced a voluntary recall of electric vehicles shipped to customers after it discovered problems with a fastener, according to a letter from the CEO R.J. Scaringe to customers that Benzinga viewed. In rare cases, the mother can detach completely, he added.
“Although we have only seen seven reports across our entire fleet that may relate to this issue, even one is too many,” he added.
As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the company has delivered 13,198 electric vehicles to date.
Rivian currently manufactures the R1T electric pickup r1s suv, and the EV van it was contracted to deliver Amazon, Inc. AMZN.
The company said customer safety is its top priority and is committed to getting the issue fixed at one of its service centers as quickly as possible and free of charge. The official recall notice will be released Saturday by the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration, the CEO’s letter said.
Scaringe said in the letter that the fix – tightening the fastener to a higher torque tolerance – will only take a few minutes and in some cases the part may need to be replaced.
A Rivian spokesman told Benzinga in an emailed statement that the company had built up enough capacity to complete the necessary actions in about 30 days.
“To date, we are not aware of any injuries resulting from this issue,” the spokesman added.
See also: Rivian is finally starting to turn the tide, analyst says ahead of second-quarter results
Why it matters: Rivian is among the EV startups that has managed to transition into commercial manufacturing, and its electric pickups are beating out industry titans such as Tesla, Inc. TSLA and Ford Motor Company f to the finish line.
After initial difficulties due to supply chain challenges that forced Rivian to halve its 2022 production forecast, things went slowly and steadily…
