

News
Rivian backtracks price increase on all R1T, R1S preorders before March 1
Rivian said on Thursday morning that it would honor all preorder pricing on orders for its R1T and R1S all-electric vehicles placed on or before March 1. The decision comes just two days after Rivian placed a series of hefty price increases to its vehicles. The increases also affected those who had preordered but not finalized an order for one of Rivian’s vehicles, causing many to cancel their reservations for the all-electric R1T pickup or R1S SUV.
Earlier this week, Rivian announced it would increase the prices of the R1T and R1S by at least 17 percent. Rivian clarified that those in the “final steps of the transaction” would not be affected by the price increases.
UPDATE: Rivian launches new Dual Motor options for R1T and R1S, increases Quad Motor pricing
“You may have heard that Rivian’s vehicle and option pricing have increased as a result of price inflation of supplier components and raw materials across the world. Since you are in the final steps of completing your transaction, your Rivian preorder will not be affected by these adjustments,” Rivian wrote to one preorder holder, who shared the message with Teslarati.
Those who had placed an order but had not finalized their trim and interior options, or accessories, were subjected to the price increases as well. Some notable EV influencers spoke out about the price increases.
Price of my @Rivian Truck just went up $10k. As a day one preorder holder this feels suuuuper bait and switchy. Not a fan.
The tone of my video would have changed if I had known it was a $100,000 dollar truck. Extra zeros matter.
— JerryRigEverything (@ZacksJerryRig) March 2, 2022
This morning, Rivian is revising the price increases, reverting anyone with a preorder as of March 1 to their original pricing.
CEO RJ Scaringe penned a letter that clarified any confusion regarding the price increases. Scaringe said:
“For anyone with a Rivian preorder as of the March 1 pricing announcement, your original configured price will be honored. If you canceled your preorder on or after March 1 and would like to reinstate it, we will restore your original configuration, pricing and delivery timing. Our team will be sending an email in the next few days with more details.”
Rivian announced the price increases late Tuesday, citing supply chain issues and inflation for the rise in costs. However, the company realizes it was a bad decision to place price increases on already-placed orders. Many Rivian pre-orderers contemplated whether the increase in price was justifiable, especially as their orders were already confirmed, just not finalized.
Scaringe said Rivian could have communicated to its customers better. “We didn’t give you enough insight into what was driving these decisions,” he said in the letter. “The most important aspect of what we are building is our relationship with all of you. As we demonstrated earlier this week, trust is hard to build and easy to break. In speaking with many of you over the last two days, I fully realize and acknowledge how upset many of you felt. I have made a lot of mistakes since starting Rivian more than 12 years ago, but this one has been the most painful. I am truly sorry and committed to rebuilding your trust.”
Rivian also announced that it would offer a new Dual-Motor powertrain for both vehicles, along with a Standard Battery Pack option that can help alleviate costs for customers. “Regarding our updated pricing for future preorders, the introduction of our Dual-Motor configuration and Standard battery pack has been designed to enable us to maintain lower starting prices while adjusting the pricing of the Quad-Motor and larger battery packs to reflect rising costs.”
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
Scaringe’s full letter is available below:
“Hello Everyone,
Earlier this week, we announced pricing increases that broke the trust we have worked to build with you. Since originally setting our pricing structure, and most especially in recent months, a lot has changed. The costs of the components and materials that go into building our vehicles have risen considerably. Everything from semiconductors to sheet metal to seats has become more expensive and with this we have seen average new vehicle pricing across the U.S. rise more than 30% since 2018. Given our build lead up times, we need to plan production costs not only for today, but also for the future.
As we worked to update pricing to reflect these cost increases, we wrongly decided to make these changes apply to all future deliveries, including pre-existing configured preorders. We failed to appreciate how you viewed your configuration as price locked, and we wrongly assumed the announced Dual-Motor and Standard battery pack would provide configurations that would deliver price points similar to your original configuration. While this was the logic, it was wrong and we broke your trust in Rivian.
We also didn’t manage communications well. We didn’t give you enough insight into what was driving these decisions. The most important aspect of what we are building is our relationship with all of you. As we demonstrated earlier this week, trust is hard to build and easy to break. In speaking with many of you over the last two days, I fully realize and acknowledge how upset many of you felt. I have made a lot of mistakes since starting Rivian more than 12 years ago, but this one has been the most painful. I am truly sorry and committed to rebuilding your trust.
One of the things we talk about a lot internally is that we will make mistakes – it’s part of building something complex. The key is to learn from them and address them when they are made. It is how we grow. We made a mistake in how we approached our pricing changes, and what is important now is that we fix it.
For anyone with a Rivian preorder as of the March 1 pricing announcement, your original configured price will be honored. If you canceled your preorder on or after March 1 and would like to reinstate it, we will restore your original configuration, pricing and delivery timing. Our team will be sending an email in the next few days with more details.
Regarding our updated pricing for future preorders, the introduction of our Dual-Motor configuration and Standard battery pack has been designed to enable us to maintain lower starting prices while adjusting the pricing of the Quad-Motor and larger battery packs to reflect rising costs. Building a durable business is core to the continued impact we can deliver as a company. We are focused on building a brand and products that will continue to scale to different vehicle sizes, use cases, price points and markets – this growth will only be possible with your support and continued feedback.
Thank you for the personal notes and discussions I had with so many of you. Your feedback makes us better.
RJ”
News
Tesla to make app change for easier communication following Service
“Looking into it. After a service visit is complete, we close the in-app messaging option after 2 hours. We will change this to 24hours or more.”

Tesla will enhance the ability to communicate through the mobile app with Service after work has been done on your car.
One of the biggest weaknesses of Tesla’s automotive division has been Service, as Service Centers are not necessarily plentiful, and wait times, in some regions of the country, are over a month in duration.
Getting in touch with Service after a car has work done to it is also difficult. Calling showrooms in some regions has proven to be difficult to enable direct communication between the customer and the company.
If something is not resolved properly, Tesla keeps the in-app messaging option active for two hours after the service visit is complete.
However, that doesn’t resolve everything, as some issues may arise again more than two hours later. Then the issue of communication presents itself once again.
Tesla is going to extend that time frame to a day or more, according to Raj Jegannathan, Tesla’s AI/IT-Infra, Cybersecurity, IT Apps & Vehicle Service VP.
Looking into it. After a service visit is complete, we close the in-app messaging option after 2 hours. We will change this to 24hours or more.
— Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa) August 18, 2025
Tesla has made several changes over the past few years to attempt to improve its Service. Recently, for Collision repair, it started offering a $45-per-day loaner program with free FSD, free tolls, and free Supercharging.
It also recently started sharing local and regional leader contact information so customers have the ability to reach out when they have complaints or disagree with warranty claims, changes in estimates, or initial diagnostics.
Tesla creates clever solution to simplify and improve its Service
However, this is only available at a few showrooms and is currently a pilot program.
These improvements are aimed at resolving communication breakdown, which appears to be a problem that many owners experience.
Tesla is one of the few companies that also operates a fleet of Mobile Repair vehicles, which will perform service at your house or place of business. However, the size of it has gone down by 11 percent year over year.
News
Tesla is overhauling its Full Self-Driving subscription for easier access
The subscription model is more accessible to many owners, as it is reasonably priced and offers the option to take a month off from using it if they are interested in saving money.

Tesla is overhauling its Full Self-Driving subscription and how it markets it to customers after several owners and fans of the company complained about the accessibility of the monthly access to its driver assistance suite.
Tesla Full Self-Driving is the automaker’s semi-autonomous driving suite, which is widely regarded as the most robust and capable on the market today. Owners can purchase the suite outright for $8,000, or they can subscribe to the program for $99 per month, an option it enabled a few years ago.
However, it is not super easy to subscribe to the subscription model, nor is it even recognized on the company’s Online Design Studio. Without some research or prior knowledge, a consumer might not even know they could pay monthly to experience Full Self-Driving.
That is set to change, according to Tesla’s AI/IT Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, IT Apps, and Vehicle Service head Raj Jegannathan, who said the company is planning to change that.
Instead of having customers only have the option to pay outright for the suite, Tesla is now planning to offer the subscription model in its Online Design Studio, making it easier to activate that option:
Yes, will optimize the design to offer both full purchase, subscriptions(with free trial) on the configurator.
— Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa) August 24, 2025
It will be the second major change Tesla makes to how it sells Full Self-Driving to customers, the first being videos of real-life operation of FSD in the Design Studio. Previously, the site only showed animations of Full Self-Driving’s capabilities.
Tesla added the videos of FSD handling some tricky situations, as well as general operation of the suite, to the Design Studio in recent weeks.
Tesla makes big change to encourage Full Self-Driving purchases
The subscription model is more accessible to many owners, as it is reasonably priced and offers the option to take a month off from using it if they are interested in saving money.
Many cannot justify paying for the suite outright, especially as it adds $8,000 to the cost of their car. After they experience its capabilities for themselves, they might.
Both moves appear to be an effort to increase the take rate of Full Self-Driving, particularly as autonomy takes center stage at Tesla.
With the rollout of Robotaxi and some teased capabilities of the upcoming v14 iteration of Full Self-Driving, Tesla is gearing up to continue advancing its self-driving technology.
News
Tesla talks Semi ramp, Optimus, Robotaxi rollout, FSD with Wall Street firm

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) recently talked about a variety of topics with Wall Street firm Piper Sandler, as the firm released a new note on Friday about their meeting with the company’s Investor Relations team.
According to the note from Piper Sandler, Tesla talked in detail about the Semi program, Optimus, and its potential valuation given its capabilities, the rollout of Robotaxi in Austin, and Full Self-Driving progress in the United States.
Tesla Semi Ramp
The Tesla Semi is set to enter mass production in 2026 at a dedicated factory near the company’s Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada.
The Semi has already been in pilot program testing, as Tesla has partnered with a few companies, like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo., to perform regional logistics. It has been met with excellent reviews from drivers, and it has helped give Tesla a good idea of what to expect when it makes its way to more companies in the coming years.
Piper Sandler said that it is evident Tesla is preparing for a “major ramp,” but it is keeping its expectations low:
“We’ve never expected much from this product, but we’d love to be proven wrong (Tesla is clearly prepping for a major ramp).”
Tesla Optimus and its value internally and externally
Optimus has been working in Tesla factories for some time, but its expectations as a product offering outside of the company internally have major implications.
Its role within Tesla factories, for now, is relatively low, but Optimus is still doing things to assist. By this time next year, Piper Sandler said Optimus should have bigger responsibilities:
“By this time in 2026, Optimus should be moving/staging parts within Tesla’s facilities.”
Outside of Tesla, Optimus could be a major beneficiary for companies as it could be a more affordable way to handle tedious tasks and manual labor. The firm believes that if Optimus can work 18-hour shifts, a cost of $100,000 per unit “would be justified.”
Tesla Robotaxi Expansion
The big focus of the firm with Robotaxi was Tesla’s expansion of the geofence in Austin this week. It was substantial, bringing the Robotaxi’s total service area to around 170 square miles, up from the roughly 90 square miles that rival Waymo is offering in the city.
Tesla Robotaxi geofence expansion enters Plaid Mode and includes a surprise
Tesla has doubled its geofence three times since its launch in late June, and it also revealed that its fleet of vehicles has expanded by 50 percent. It did not give a solid number of how many vehicles are operating in the fleet.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 launch
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite is set to have a fresh version, v14, rolled out in either September or October, and there are some pretty high expectations for it.
CEO Elon Musk said:
“The FSD release in about 6 weeks will be a dramatic gain with a 10X higher parameter count and many other improvements. It’s going through training & testing now. Once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less.”
There is also some expectation that v14 could be the public release of what Tesla is running in Austin for Robotaxi. The firm confirmed this in their note by stating it “should enable Tesla owners to use software that is on par with Robotaxis in Austin.”
The only real hold up would be regulator skepticism, but Tesla can alleviate this with strong data.
The firm maintained its ‘Overweight’ rating and the $400 price target it holds on the stock.
-
Elon Musk2 days ago
Elon Musk shares unbelievable Starship Flight 10 landing feat
-
Elon Musk4 days ago
SpaceX Starship Flight 10 was so successful, it’s breaking the anti-Musk narrative
-
Elon Musk3 days ago
Elon Musk reveals when SpaceX will perform first-ever Starship catch
-
News3 days ago
Tesla launches Full Self-Driving in a new region
-
News3 days ago
Tesla Robotaxi rival Waymo confirms massive fleet expansion in Bay Area
-
News1 day ago
Tesla is overhauling its Full Self-Driving subscription for easier access
-
News2 days ago
Tesla expands crazy new lease deal for insane savings on used inventory
-
News2 days ago
Tesla talks Semi ramp, Optimus, Robotaxi rollout, FSD with Wall Street firm