Rivian builds the first customer R1T electric pickup

It’s been a very long road, but today, Rivian reached a milestone. The startup company produced the first R1T electric pickup truck for a customer on Tuesday, and CEO RJ Scaringe had the honors of driving it off the assembly line. It’s the first of thousands more pickups to come, and before R1S SUV production kicks off as well.

Scaringe tweeted photos of the first truck and said he “Can’t wait to get these into the hands of our customers!”

After months of building pre-production vehicles, this morning our first customer vehicle drove off our production line in Normal!  Our team’s collective efforts have made this moment possible. Can’t wait to get these into the hands of our customers! pic.twitter.com/8ZidwTaXRI

— RJ Scaringe (@RJScaringe) September 14, 2021

Rivian spent months building preproduction trucks in preparation for series production of customer vehicles. It also instituted a handful of delays along the way, but not anymore. After delaying the highly anticipated electric truck from 2020 to 2021, the R1T was meant to start production in July. That turned into September, but Rivian was able to work through pandemic-related delays and supply chain issues to fire up its assembly line in Normal, Illinois. Hopefully the R1S is on a similarly smooth track to customers.

With the first customer R1T heading to a predictably stoked new owner, Rivian becomes the first to deliver a light-duty electric pickup truck in the crowded space. Tesla won’t begin Cybertruck deliveries until late 2022 at the earliest. Ford’s F-150 Lightning won’t be ready until next spring. Chevrolet and Ram haven’t even revealed their challengers yet. And Lordstown Motors, which promised to be first, remains in a shaky financial state.