Rivian Plans EV Door Redesign to Address Safety Concerns

(Bloomberg) – Rivian Automotive Inc., According to employees and customers familiar with the issue, employees and customers re -process an important element of the vehicle gates after expressing concerns about potential safety problems with existing design.

Rivian plans to add a manual version near the electrically operating internal handles near the electrical -powered internal handles. The new low -cost model line, known as R2, is scheduled for deliveries to begin in the first half of 2026.

The electric stalk designs are in the light of spot in the automobile industry following the events that people cannot open the doors of the vehicle due to loss of power, and that they could not catch children and other inhabitants inside. In some cases, passengers died after they could not escape the collapsed vehicles caught on fire. After giving information about Tesla Inc.’s doors last month, Bloomberg News, US automobile security regulators opened a defect investigation.

The change in R2 aims to address the problems caused by the re -design of the existing R1 models, which carried Rivian’s rear manual versions to a difficult place to difficult access to a difficult place, and familiar people slow down the efforts of passengers when they lose power. To manually open the rear doors of R1 from the inside, passengers must remove an unprecedented panel and pull a release cable.

In R2, the rear doors and the positioning mechanism are similar to the front doors.

“Security said in the center of everything we do in Rivian and R2 is no different, Riv Rivian said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Similar to R1, R2 will meet or overcome all federal motor vehicle safety standards, including a passenger output from all doors in case of a collision or emergency.”

It was not immediately clear whether the new design would be limited to the R2 line or that the current vehicles would be re -processed. Rivian did not specify in the statement, but the company said that the latest R1 was not reported to be reported in the R1 models caused by the rear door electrical failure.

Rivian shares changed very little in New York on Friday at 12:15. The stock increased by about 2% this year.

In June, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an anonymous complaint about Rivian’s R1 handles, a consumer release cable for the rear doors for the rear doors of an emergency release cable is not “intuitive or not to believe in a small child or older inhabitants”. Bloomberg identified several other complaints about the door in Nhtsa’s database.

There are reasons why some car manufacturers prefer electricity doors beyond more modern aesthetics. According to a familiar person, some have mechanisms to prevent the opening of the doors by accident, especially when moving, avoids a potential problem with manual latches.

Although there are federal arrangements around the door handles in the US, the standards for more modern electrical systems are limited or absent. The Executive Director of the Auto Security Center Michael Brooks said that NHTSA should immediately create standards for electric arms for the ease of exit for the inhabitants of the vehicle ”.

“The lack of federal security regulations in this area means that the manufacturers are not necessary to standardize the vehicle emergency exit functions, which leaves the burden of examining various emergency escape configurations for each vehicle they travel,” he said. In case of emergency, the cost of residents without a vehicle’s manual door controls may be tragic. ”

Tesla’s chief designer said that on September 17, Bloomberg was working to integrate manual and electric door versions to make more intuitive for residents in emergencies. Futuristic designs have manual versions for the front and rear doors of the home manufacturer followed by many competitors, but the places may vary according to the model and may be at difficult to find.

During an interview last month, TESLA President Robyn Denholm refused to comment on Bloomberg’s investigation into the company’s door handles, as well as saying that the board of directors took any security incidents seriously ”.

The company, which will be Rivian, was launched in 2009 by RJ Scaringe, an advanced engineer from MIT. A team hired in the first days to build a high -performance, gas -fueled sports car.

A few years later, Rivian appeared as a high -level, battery -powered magnetic and SUVs manufacturer, which is a solid but polished answer to Tesla’s stylish city cars. The company is also the best shareholder of e-commerce giant amazon.com Inc. electricity distribution vans for.

Since the first public offering in 2021, which broke the box office records, Rivian has fought to measure production as it passes through its starting stage. The company tried to reduce costs, but since the end of last year, it was losing almost 40,000 dollars in vehicles that it sold, which regularly reported this figure in its last three -month results.

Expense reduction was an important issue in the decision to renew consumer models last year. Scaringe, investors in June 2024 presentation, “the vehicle and the vehicles to withdraw and steps are really a heavy emphasis,” he said. The rear doors showed especially Rivian as an area where R2 was preparing to open the R2 line.

“Ultimately, the vehicle reaches the same level of safety, so the safest SUV and the safest truck you can buy today,” he said.

Rivian’s original design for R1 vehicles had a very traditional handle with both electric and manual components. According to people familiar with the issue, rear manual versions were moved to 2024 renovation due to cost savings and design issues. One of the people said at least one senior manager described the decision as a mistake.

-Help from Carlson, Max Rivera and Craig Trudell.

(Updates with sharing movement in the eighth paragraph.)

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