Rivian R1T's Troubled Power Tonneau Is Gone—at Least for Now

• Rivian has notified R1T reservation holders that it is removing the powered tonneau option on the electric truck and will "upgrade" the system to reintroduce it at an unspecified future time.

• Reservation holders waiting for an R1T who want to receive their truck as scheduled will need to choose between getting a manual cover or no cover option at all.

• Choosing no tonneau results in a $1500 reduction in price, while choosing the manual cover option reduces the price by $700.

It's no secret that EV startup Rivian has had some growing pains in its first year of delivering vehicles. Deliveries of the highly anticipated R1S SUV experienced delays earlier this year, and Car and Driver experienced our share of electronic glitches throughout our testing process earlier this year. In September, Rivian reached out to R1T owners to lay out plans for a replacement tonneau cover due to a litany of issues cropping up for owners. On Friday the company announced that as it works on a solution, or as they put it, an "upgrade," the current tonneau will be pulled from production. The company plans to reintroduce the option in the future but has not indicated how long before that happens.

Preorder holders are being given two options: choose a manual tonneau cover and see the price of the R1T drop by $700, or forgo the tonneau option entirely and have the price drop by $1500. Rivian made it clear in a statement to C/D that neither choice will affect vehicle delivery date. The company is still working on updating its online configurator, something it expects to complete later this month.