I have to say that reading the post reported on in the tweet this article is reporting on (lol) it sounds like this may be more a case of writing a check with other people's money than anything else. The post that the tweeter is reporting on says that "they were incredibly meticulous and detailed and completely disassembled the rear end of my truck to discover all of the damage," but doesn't say if they actually discovered any meaningful damage. The article assumes that, but for all we know, most of that $40,000 was spent on taking it apart, checking it, and putting it back together over the course of two-and-a-half months.
I could be way off base and maybe some critical internal system in this truck is made out of wet papier-mâché, but my guess is that this guy either got fleeced by the repair center or outright told them "I'm not paying the bill, just do literally everything you can even sort of justify" and because he isn't footing the expense, he's happy about it. I do agree that EVs are a scam, but this seems like a scam within the scam.
Not sure about the Rivian but the electric F-150 has 120v/240v outlets all over the place, so it's quite possible seemingly minor damage could lead to electrical fires.
That's one of the big problems with EVs is making them safe.
A normal gas car if it turns on and runs for a bit without catching fire you're probably fine, in an EV it might run fine for weeks before it spontaneously ignites in your garage.
I have to say that reading the post reported on in the tweet this article is reporting on (lol) it sounds like this may be more a case of writing a check with other people's money than anything else. The post that the tweeter is reporting on says that "they were incredibly meticulous and detailed and completely disassembled the rear end of my truck to discover all of the damage," but doesn't say if they actually discovered any meaningful damage. The article assumes that, but for all we know, most of that $40,000 was spent on taking it apart, checking it, and putting it back together over the course of two-and-a-half months.
Here is an image of the accident.
Here is a picture of the damage.
Here is what the repair center did to "discover all the damage."
I could be way off base and maybe some critical internal system in this truck is made out of wet papier-mâché, but my guess is that this guy either got fleeced by the repair center or outright told them "I'm not paying the bill, just do literally everything you can even sort of justify" and because he isn't footing the expense, he's happy about it. I do agree that EVs are a scam, but this seems like a scam within the scam.
Not sure about the Rivian but the electric F-150 has 120v/240v outlets all over the place, so it's quite possible seemingly minor damage could lead to electrical fires.
That's one of the big problems with EVs is making them safe.
A normal gas car if it turns on and runs for a bit without catching fire you're probably fine, in an EV it might run fine for weeks before it spontaneously ignites in your garage.