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Rivian Starts Charging People For Towing, Even For Covered Work

Until recently, Rivian towed vehicles to and from its service centers free of charge.

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Rivian is finally beginning to produce and deliver enough vehicles to be more relevant, but it will be a long time before the company has its factories and service centers built out, let alone begins posting a consistent profit. For this reason, it really comes as no surprise that it’s trying to bring in extra cash, or lose less money. However, some people may be upset about having to pay for towing for covered repairs.

Currently, Rivian handles many of its repairs with its mobile service team, meaning they come to you. However, the startup electric automaker does have some service centers. If you’re a Rivian R1T or R1S owner, and you don’t live near a service center, the hope is you can take advantage of the mobile repair service. If you can’t, you could be looking at a very long drive, unless you want to pay a large towing bill.

In the past, if a Rivian owner’s EV couldn’t be fixed by a mobile repair technician, the company used to tow it to the nearest service center, fix it, and then get it back to the owner. All of this happened free of charge, aside from rare cases in which the issue wasn’t covered under the electric truck’s warranty.

According to a report by Drive Tesla Canada, an R1T owner who lives in Virginia posted on RivianForums that the company is now charging a $55 towing fee, plus another $6.50 per mile. Some Rivian service centers are hundreds of miles away from owners’ homes.

The owner in Virginia noted on the forum that the closest Rivian service center is more than 200 miles away, and his towing bill could be more than $1,300 just for the trip to the location. However, Rivian reportedly clarified the rules surrounding the situation, and it was posted as an update on RivianForums. The post reads as follows:

“Effective 10/06/2022, Rivian’s policy for providing no-cost towing services for vehicles has changed to support the following:

  • Free flatbed towing services will only be offered for vehicles that are INOPERABLE and need repairs due to warranty-related issues
  • No-cost towing is offered to-and-from the SC
  • Towing services are typically arranged through trained third-party carriers that are trained on how to properly load, secure and transport Rivian vehicles, but on occasion a Rivian SC will facilitate the tow”

As far as we can tell, Rivian hasn’t made an announcement about the reported policy change, but it appears the company plans to make it official in the near future. After having heard about the towing charges, another Rivian owner claims he contacted Rivian’s customer service team and was told that the new rules have already been shared with the center’s service advisor.

We’ve reached out to Rivian for comment on the matter. If we hear back, we’ll provide an update to this article. In the meantime, do you think owners should be responsible for the cost of towing? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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