The past 12 months have been exciting here at Rivian. We’ve seen our first deliveries to customers, the opening of our initial service centers, deployment of our mobile service fleet, installation of our first charging sites, and most recently, our early days as a publicly traded company. It has been a journey filled with many twists and turns, and I can’t thank our team and their families enough for helping us get to where we are today. The next several months will remain a steep climb as we continue to ramp our operations.

Earlier this month, we held our first quarterly earnings call where we were able to speak directly with our shareholders about how we’re doing and where we’re headed. Some of you being shareholders may have even listened in. I wanted to take this opportunity to touch on some of the topics from the call, as well as cover a few things we weren’t able to get to.

Our team is incredibly focused on ramping our production output to get vehicles to you. It is important to recognize that while we are not where we would have liked to have been from a production output perspective, we are encouraged by the progress our team continues to make in our operations.

As you may know, many of our first R1T deliveries have been to Rivian team members as part of an employee purchase program. This program was implemented to provide us an opportunity to internally test the entire customer experience – this includes transaction, financing, and insurance as well as overall vehicle quality. With several hundred employees as early customers, we were also able to identify and address a wide range of enhancements to our software stack through over-the-air (OTA) updates – we are excited to continually add more features and refinements to our vehicles through ongoing OTAs. We’ve also been making deliveries to non-Rivian employees, which continue to increase week over week.

I’m also happy to share we made our first R1S deliveries earlier this month. I was lucky enough to take delivery of the first one and can report it’s incredibly fun to drive — my wife and I debate daily about who gets to drive it. I can’t wait to start getting these to customers as we ramp production over the next several months.

As of December 15, we had approximately 71,000 preorders for the R1T and R1S in the US and Canada, with the large majority having configured an Adventure Package with a Large pack battery (our Max pack represents approximately 20% of our preorders). In order to serve the largest number of preorder holders, we will be prioritizing building the Adventure Package with Large pack battery during the next year. Explore Package preorders and vehicles with a Max pack battery configuration will follow in 2023. In setting our delivery timing, we optimized our build sequence around the build combination that would support us ramping as quickly as possible and therefore have the largest possible positive climate impact.

To bring added clarity and better understanding to delivery timing, in early 2022 we are introducing a new feature on your Rivian Account Page that will display your current delivery timing estimate. The information will be tailored specifically to you and the exact vehicle you configured. Our goal is to give you accurate, up-to-date details about your specific preorder so you can better plan and stay more informed.

We realize these timing estimates may be different than what some of you had originally expected. We know any shifts in timing can be challenging as you try to plan vehicle purchases and trips you want to take. To Max pack and Explore preorder holders who have been with us since 2018 and 2019 whose delivery windows may push into 2023 — we value your loyalty and commitment and will be reaching out to you in January to gauge your interest in reconfiguring to an Adventure Package with Large pack battery so that you can take delivery in 2022.

The publication said, “MotorTrend’s 2022 Truck of the Year announcement may be our most significant since 1949. The Rivian R1T is a monumental achievement and astonishes with a quality of design, engineering, materials, and technology unmatched in trucks today, while providing a driving experience like that of a high-performance luxury car.”

Since the R1T’s launch in September, we’ve received positive reviews from a diverse range of media and social outlets. In addition, over the last few weeks, we’ve been awarded a number of major recognitions and acknowledgments from editorial and news outlets including Newsweek, Forbes, Electrek, Popular Science and Edmunds. We are honored by this recognition and the opportunity to illustrate how a clean-sheet, technology-focused vehicle can eliminate long-accepted compromises.

As we look ahead to 2022, we are excited to continue expanding our service footprint, customer drive program, Rivian Adventure Network and Waypoints charging sites, Rivian Spaces and our membership program. We’ll also be adding new Adventure Gear to our Gear Shop.

Thank you again for your support and patience as we build for the future. I wish you and your family a Happy New Year.

RJ