Rich Rebuilds Salvages $17,000 From $37K Repair Bill for His Rivian R1T and Here's Why

At first, the youtuber believed that the reason for spending so much money to fix his electric pickup truck was the flank of the truck bed. Take a good look at it; you'll see it extends up the C-pillar and onto the roof side until the seamless body panel reaches the A-pillar. If a fender bender damages its edge, it may have to be entirely replaced, as it happened in another repair that cost $42,000. Even the back glass had to be removed, which shows Rivian was worried about the design, not about how to fix its cars. Luckily, it seems that this was something either the company or its certified body shops managed to correct. Sadly, it still is a concerning situation.

Instead of paying $37,475, Benoit's insurance company paid $20,000 for the repair. Although that is still expensive, the almost 50% price reduction was possible because the rear window and the spoiler above it were both spared. To do that, the body shop cut the replacement panel below the C-pillar, welding it to the rest of the body in a way that the youtuber said was almost impossible to notice. The entire side of the R1T will still have to be painted, but at least some pretty expensive components will not have to be swapped. Believe it or not, the rear window and the spoiler cost thousands of dollars. Benoit did not disclose the prices of these parts, possibly because he also does not have them.

One explanation for the rear glass being so expensive is that it is a one-time-use component. Surprisingly, so is the spoiler placed right above the window. I supposed it is glued to the body, just like modern windscreens are – for safety reasons. In a frontal crash, that ensures passengers are not thrown out of the car. In a pickup truck, the back window is not affected in crashes, so it used to be joined to the body only by a rubber glass seal. Some glasses were fixed with screws. The deal is that any of these solutions allowed the component to be removed and put back in place when any repair was over. With the Rivian R1T, that is not possible.

That obviously does not answer the question about why a back glass and a spoiler cost "several thousand dollars." Is it because they are produced on a small scale? If this is the answer, used R1Ts in need of repair may compete with the ones Rivian is fighting to manufacture and deliver. If it is not, do they have any technology that makes them cost more than similar parts? Only Rivian and its certified repair shops have the answers. The fact that they are avoiding the removal of these elements speaks a bunch.

Automotive startups are learning the hard way that repairability is a crucial aspect of product design and development. It is laudable that they want to simplify manufacturing and break established standards that nobody else perceived could be perfected. It is almost a scientific approach compared to a dogmatic policy. Yet, there is a difference between procedures and principles, which were not randomly established. There was a reason for legacy automakers to worry about how to fix their products. Customers eventually learn about that, too – especially when they face hefty repair estimates such as the one Benoit received to repair his electric pickup truck. Even if they have insurance, these steep repair prices will bite them back when it is time to renew their policies.

In December 2022, Thatcham Research started a five-month investigation on BEV fixing costs. Considering that deadline goal, we should have seen the first results in May, but we are yet to hear from the British organization about its findings. The bottom line is that BEV repairability is a concerning subject that is baking the noodles of several people in the automotive industry.

As the video shows, the battery pack in Benoit's Rivian R1T was not affected by the fender bender. Even so, the repair would cost $37,475. As I already wrote, a similar incident was repaired for $42,000. What if the BEV's main component had been damaged? The truth is that it did not have to: if the fender benders had happened with an entry-level R1T, which starts at $73,000, they would probably have ended as total losses.

While it was nice to know the body shop managed to cut the repair price in half, it is still concerning that it demanded $20,000. Worse than that: half of that massive price tag had to do with a rear glass and a plastic component. The deeper we dig, the worse it gets.