For the second time in a short period of time, Rivian has issued a recall due to airbag-related problems. Owners of the R1S SUV (2022-23) who may be affected are being informed by the EV automaker about possibly malfunctioning side-curtain airbags.
According to the recall, one or more of the vehicles’ left- or right-side side-curtain airbags may not have been securely connected. The concerned cars were produced at the company’s Normal, Illinois plant between October 28th, 2022 and January 21st, 2023, according to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). On March 2nd, Rivian started calling clients to arrange an inspection and securely secure them. Additionally, according to the business, it will pay back any owners who previously paid for the repair elsewhere.
Even though the most recent recall only pertains to 30 vehicles, it is the second airbag-related recall the carmaker has issued in less than a month. A far larger one on March 1st, involving approximately 12,000 R1T pickup trucks and R1S SUVs (2022), was due to a fault with airbag deployment. In that incident, defective seatbelt sensors from a supplier were to blame for stopping the front passenger airbags from inflating. Rivian calculated that only 1% of the recalled vehicles were compromised, therefore the great majority of those will probably not be affected.
Rivian’s finances won’t likely be greatly harmed by the recalls, but it’s still not a good picture for the budding carmaker, especially since it just let go of 6% of its workers for the second time in less than a year.
