Rivian Recalls 35,000 EVs In The U.S. Over Seatbelt Issue

• American EV startup Rivian is recalling nearly 35,000 EVs sold in the United States.
• The driver’s seat belt pretension cable may be damaged due to improper use.
• The company determined that the cable may be damaged if the driver repeatedly sits on the seat belt instead of wearing it over the body.

Rivian is recalling nearly 35,000 electric vehicles sold in the United States over a potential issue with the driver’s seat belt pretensioner cable. However, neither the R1S SUV nor the R1T pickup truck is included in the recall.

Instead, the company’s electric commercial van makes up the entirety of the recall population, with 34,824 vehicles affected by the issue, according to documents submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The seat belt pretensioner on the driver’s side may be damaged from repeated misuse, with Rivian saying that a major cause for the issue is drivers sitting on top of the seat belt while it is buckled. The majority of Rivian commercial vans are part of Amazon’s delivery fleet, so it’s not hard to see why this would happen, even though it’s not legal. Delivery drivers need to hop in and out of their vehicles dozens of times on every shift, so they might leave the belt buckled to get in and out of the van faster, while also disabling the seat belt warning sound.

To fix the problem, Rivian will inspect the driver’s seat belt pretensioner assemblies in the affected vans and replace them if needed. What’s more, the company has already released an over-the-air (OTA) software update that enables automatic detection of any seat belt misuse by the driver, to minimize the risk of damage to the pretensioner. Rivian said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this issue.

The company’s commercial van went into production in 2021 as part of a deal with the American e-commerce giant Amazon. Rivian signed on to deliver 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030, and over 20,000 have already been handed over to Amazon. The exclusivity agreement between the two companies ended in 2023, after Rivian announced that any business in the U.S. could buy one of its electric vans, but the delivery target remained.

So far, Rivian’s Electric Delivery Van (EDV) or Commercial Van (RCV) has proven quite a hit, thanks in no small part to the Amazon deal. Last year, the battery-powered commercial vehicle outsold all of its competitors, and data from Cox Automotive shows that the same thing might happen this year. From January through September, Rivian sold 6,809 electric vans, securing a comfortable lead over the Ford E-Transit (4,604 sales) and the Chevrolet BrightDrop (3,976 sales).

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Insideevs.com?

Take our 3 minute survey.

– The InsideEVs team