Specializing in electric trucks and sport utility vehicles, Rivian has been hit with a recall that boggles the mind. As it happens, certain 2024 models have been produced without dashboard airbag warning labels. Considering that R1T production started in September 2021, what gives?
According to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the California-based automaker identified a 2024 model with a missing dashboard airbag label on April 4, 2024. The Field Performance Engineering team was made aware of this worrying discovery on April 25, 2024 rather than immediately, prompting an investigation that continued until May 1, 2024.
Rivian did not clarify who is to blame for the missing labels, yet in the attached report, Rivian did mention that it's "an assembly issue." In any case, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 for occupant crash protection requires all vehicles produced after December 1, 2023 to have a warning label attached to a location on the dashboard or the steering control hub. The label in question should be visible from all front seating positions, and the label's purpose is to warn occupants of the risks a deploying airbag may pose to infants and children.
That is precisely the reason why modern vehicles feature a front-passenger airbag deactivation lock. RL00000043-G is Rivian's part number for the dashboard airbag warning label. The company determined the potential noncompliance to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 on May 2, which brings us to the recall comprising 127 vehicles.
Of said vehicles, an estimated 4 percent are believed to have been shipped without said label. The recall population was produced in the period between February 20, 2024 and March 5, 2024. Thankfully for owners and Rivian's legal department, Rivian isn't aware of any injuries related to this concern.
Photo: State Of Charge on YouTube
Owners will be informed by first-class mail no later than June 21, 2024, while retailers will be notified through internal means prior to June 21, 2024. As you might have guessed already, owner notification envelopes will include a copy of the warning label.
To be updated sometime in 2025, the R1T pickup truck and R1S utility vehicle will be joined by the R2 utility vehicle in 2026. The R3 line should follow suit in late 2026 or early 2027. The R3 and hi-po R3X are compacts. The R2 slots below the R1 line, whereas the R1T and R1S blur the line between the mid- and full-size truck and SUV segments.
On April 2, the battery-electric vehicle manufacturer announced that it had produced 13,980 vehicles and delivered 13,588 vehicles in the quarter ending March 31. Last year, Rivian's key metrics were 57,232 vehicles produced and 50,122 deliveries, which is a drop in the bucket compared to Tesla. Rival battery-electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid fared much worse, having made 8,428 vehicles and delivered 6,001 units of the Air sedan.
Available with dual- and quad-motor setups, the R1T currently starts at $69,900 before taxes and optional extras. The three-row sport utility vehicle twinned with the R1T, meanwhile, kicks off at $74,900 for the dual-motor drivetrain (533 horsepower) with the standard battery pack, which nets up to 270 miles or 435 kilometers of range.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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