Less than a week after pulling its first demand lever to get new customers behind the wheel of its existing R1T pickup inventory, Rivian is further incentivizing would-be drivers by introducing a lease program for the first time, ahead of Tesla’s Cybertruck launch on November 30th.
Rivians held a mainstay on Electrek’s homepage the last month, following a promising Q3 report detailing better-than-expected production numbers alongside continued strong demand. There was that one little OTA hiccup this month, but the automaker quickly amended the situation before a full-on disaster broke out.
While Rivian remains one of the few EV automakers holding pat on its MSRPs amid bolstered production and increased sales, it’s still trying to maximize profits as we segue into the home stretch of the fiscal year 2023.
Last week, Rivian introduced its first demand lever, offering a complimentary home charger and up to $2,000 in installation credits for new customers purchasing an R1T pickup from its existing inventory.
To further liquidate those lots of existing pickup configurations, Rivian is finally offering leases on the R1T for the first time, beginning next week. Here’s what we know.
Rivian begins to lease R1T for the first time ever next week
To be completely transparent, details remain extremely light regarding a potential Rivian lease. The American automaker has mentioned leasing options for over a year now, most recently during its Q3 call with investors, yet we have not seen those plans come to fruition until now.
This afternoon, the email pictured above went out to Rivian’s email subscribers, stating that R1T leases will become available as early as next week. However, the automaker explains those leases will only cater to certain states that have yet to be announced.
It is clear that R1T trucks available to lease will come from the existing inventory Rivian has already been pushing using the incentives announced last week, in an attempt to maximize sales before year’s end.
No mention at all of the R1S as part of either the charger, installation, or lease programs as the flagship SUV hasn’t been in production as long and Rivian likely doesn’t have as much inventory to move. Trust that R1S leases are surely in the works though. Perhaps we see those in 2024.
We’ve reached out to Rivian for more details about leasing an R1T, but they’re keeping things under wraps for now. We will just have to wait until sometime next week when the full details come out. More to come soon.
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