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A Rivian owner in Alaska needs warranty work on his 2024 R1T. Rivian will only do it at its nearest service center in Seattle—a big inconvenience in the best of times, but right now, it’s a bona fide logistical quagmire. Commercial barges won’t take EVs out of Alaska since one caught fire last summer, and passenger ferries will only take them in extremely limited quantities. Even if you’re willing to cough up a couple of grand to send your EV on the boat ride, the lead time for a slot is months, not weeks. Rivians in the land of the midnight sun are currently caught in a perfect storm of a super-limited service infrastructure and impossible shipping stipulations.
The R1T driver who reached out to us has been understandably frustrated that he can’t access the warranty work he’s entitled to. A few seconds of searching on Reddit revealed that while some Rivian service in Alaska has been handled by mobile technicians and authorized third parties, getting work done at the Seattle center has been arduous. Rivian does promise “complimentary emergency towing to transport the inoperable Vehicle to either the nearest authorized Rivian service location or to a mutually agreed-upon location for warranty-related issues,” but there are asterisks, and being far as hell from a service center appears to be one of them…