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00:00We're in Irvine, California at Rivian's Design Studio to take a look at an R1S, but not any
00:20R1S. This is the R1S Pebble Beach Edition. It's a one-off special edition that was created to go
00:26to auction at the upcoming Pebble Beach Auto Show, and it is full of unique details from the
00:31interior to the exterior. We're here to take a closer look at those details to find out what
00:35makes the R1S Pebble Beach Edition unique and what it might mean for Rivian's future. So let's take
00:40a closer look. So Jeff, thanks for having us. And what are we looking at here? So this is our first
00:47one-of-one edition we've done for Rivian. We're calling this part of a series we want to continue
00:52to build off of called Studio Originals, where this vehicle is going to be auctioned off in Pebble
00:58Beach and Monterey in the next coming weeks. We're really excited about this one because we got an
01:03opportunity to really explore how we can sort of shape the Rivian brand depending on where it's
01:08being shown or the type of customer demographics. And knowing the event at Pebble Beach and the
01:14Quail being a much more elevated event, we wanted to see how we could sort of push the boundaries
01:20of what we think Rivian can be perceived as in terms of being elevated but still maintaining
01:25the rugged capability and the inviting feel of a Rivian. Sure. Okay, so this is the Pebble Beach
01:31Edition, but fundamentally it's just an R1S quad, right? There's no mechanical difference under the
01:37skin here. Okay, so would it be fair to say that the Pebble Beach Edition is focused on aesthetics
01:41for the most part? Yes. Okay, so let's get into those aesthetics. Well, if you're looking at it right
01:45now, one thing that I would hopefully you can already notice is very hard to capture in the
01:50studio on camera, but really just would see this outside in daylight is this paint. Yeah. This
01:56is a multi four-stage paint that we put on the vehicle with a very liquid metallic finish to it.
02:02We're calling this color Monterey Silver, and the beautiful part of this color is not only does it
02:07have a little bit of warmth to it, you can see it has a sort of champagne feeling to it, but as you
02:11walk around the vehicle, it transitions from looking from silver to a gray to a champagne, and depending
02:19on the reflections of what it's capturing, the color really shifts. For sure. And it provides a really
02:24great detail of all the surfacing that's on the car. Absolutely. And this is completely hand painted.
02:29Wow. It's been buffed and polished, so from a paint perspective, yeah, the quality is extremely high.
02:34It's very impressive, yeah. And I'm seeing some accents on here too that look a little bit different.
02:38Yeah, we have this, this is our burnished bronze finish that we have not only now it's in the interior,
02:42we brought it to the exterior. So any of the tow hooks, the skid plates, also the halo trim that's
02:48around the, you know, daylight opening are all done in that burnished bronze. Okay. But then we're
02:53continuing that theme of having these warm colors that accentuate some of the flop that's in the
03:00paint. It's more of a discovered read, and that's what we really like to look at is like, what is
03:04first read, second read, and third read? Sure. So when you look at it from a distance, I don't think many
03:08people would notice, for example, that the roof is brown, but as you start to see it, you're like,
03:12it has this other feeling where you're looking at the vehicle, it looks different than an R1S,
03:17and you kind of have to look at it and be like, well, this looks a lot better. It looks, you know,
03:21way more premium. Sure. But what is it? What are the things that you're finding? The cladding,
03:26for example, which is on our vehicles is done in mold and color. These are all painted. They're
03:33painted in a really nice dark gray satin finish. Okay. That's also got some warmth to it. You
03:38can't see it here, but in the sunlight, there is a pearlescent effect in it. So as the sunlight hits
03:44it, you'll get some of that warmth in it that really complements the exterior color, giving it
03:48this very much this tone on tone feeling. Cool. And the wheels are another unique aspect of the
03:53addition, I understand. Yes. The wheels are bespoke. They're custom for this car. These are
03:59one-off set that have been, you know, machined specifically for this car. They're multi-stage on
04:05this. The amount of work to paint these wheels was quite, quite a lot of time. Yeah. Three
04:09tones. I've seen two tone wheels, but three tone is really unusual. The inside pockets match the finish
04:15that's on the cladding. So really using a lot of the colors that are already on the car. Absolutely.
04:19Really matching the sort of exterior paint color with the bright part, the bronze, and then the
04:24cladding color. So once again, going with this tone on tone feeling. We've got the Rivian badging
04:30also all done in burnished bronze to match. And then we have our little gear guard character
04:36there, GG, showing that his hair flown back to signify that, hey, this is a really fast car.
04:43This is another badge that only the quad motor power train wear, correct? Correct. So all of the
04:47claddings are painted on this car. Okay. And it has that really nice, as you walk around, you can see
04:52it really shifts and it gets more of a tonal feeling to it. Totally. Yeah. The paint, the degree at which it
04:58really kind of shifts tone in different lights is really remarkable.
05:08Wonderful. Well, let's take a look inside. Yeah. Well, one thing I'd like to start with is our UI that
05:14even though this is a one of one, we were able to work with our software team to make sure that in
05:19your mobile app and in the vehicle that the representation of the vehicle matches this one
05:23on one. So this is actually rendered to match the vehicle you're in. That's cool. So there's
05:28a lot of physical unique aspects of this too, but there's a little bit of unique software code in
05:32this too. One of one code. Exactly. Which is something that we would like to really spend a
05:38lot of time on and with Rivian is like these extra little attention to the detail or the things that
05:42maybe you don't know right away or you see right away, but as a customer, the more time you spend
05:47with it, you start to find these little discovered elements and that's what makes the vehicle feel
05:51special. Yeah. Yeah. And we can see from like the contrast between, you know, the really light
05:56colored, you know, Advantex material we have here versus the headliner, which really is tonal with
06:01the wood and just a subtle amount of the, you know, we really used it sparingly, but some really nice
06:07areas of adding some of that gradient detail, which really provides this vehicle to feel very warm,
06:13inviting, premium, but once again, not feeling pretentious or, or something that requires you
06:21to be very worried about using it and getting it dirty, feeling more like a inviting living space.
06:27Even down to the stitching that we've done on the fabric portion, you know, doing these, this
06:31cross-stitched and normal to do this, enable to do this cross-stitching. It's all has to be hand
06:36done. Wow. So we have that on the doors. We have it on the, on the center console. We have it on IP.
06:42And then you'll also see it on the back of the seats as well. Just once again, giving a little
06:46bit of that crafted detail. The, the floor mats, which have that gradient on, on them using the
06:51seesaw, those were sprayed by our team. We use a combination of dyeing them, but then also just
06:57spraying them with literally dye to get the finish that we were after. And this was done by hand to
07:04make sure that we got the night, the right gradient that we wanted really makes you feel like the sunset
07:09if you're looking outside, we've got this very warm glow to, to the cool colors.
07:14Yeah. Yeah. Really evokes the coast of Monterey. Definitely. When you look around this space,
07:19is there any particular single tiny aspect that stands out to you as like being particularly
07:23challenging to accomplish or that you iterated on, you know, a significant amount,
07:28or that kind of didn't fit in with the rest, but you just got it to work?
07:31I'd say a couple of them. One, to get this pattern to sit right and get this line, these lines to line
07:37up was actually really difficult. Um, probably something that would be very hard to replicate
07:43in production, but because this is crafted and we could, you know, make, make some mistakes and
07:48rewrap them a few times that that was able to, we were able to do that. Also, if you look at this
07:52small strip here with this gradient in here, for this to be an operated procedure for production,
07:58it would be almost impossible to get that level without actually cutting it at that exact location
08:04where it's hand laid in to get those. And those were things that were challenges that we had to
08:09work through, but because it is a one-on-one, we're able to spend a lot more time knowing. It's
08:16obvious, but it's a lot easier to do something really nice and perfect once than it is to do it,
08:21you know, tens of thousands of times. Absolutely. You're not limited by supplier capability,
08:25you're not limited by manufacturing. So you're able to do things that are much more bespoke
08:30and crafted that normally is very difficult to do at scale for a production vehicle. Actually,
08:36some of them are just not possible. You're not using the exterior paint for an example. Sure.
08:40I mean, you see it on very, very, very high-end, you know, hypercars where they'll actually
08:46do a multi-stage paint and they'll wet sand it and buff it. It's not to say that doesn't happen,
08:51but it happens at a much, much higher price point.
09:09So, Jeff, we've gotten a really thorough tour of all the special details of the R1S Pebble Beach
09:13Edition here, and it's going to be headed to Pebble Beach in just a few days to be auctioned to a
09:16lucky buyer. But I think the really bigger picture idea here is what this represents for the future of
09:22Rivian, potentially. You said at the start that this could be a project that blossoms into more
09:30one-off vehicles and allows Rivian's design department to explore different special editions
09:34and different finishes. So tell me about your vision with what this could unlock for you.
09:39So this vehicle here we're calling our first series of our studio originals, where it is something that
09:44is very crafted. It's a one-on-one. I think it's also a great opportunity for us, as you mentioned,
09:48to really explore and experiment what we can do from a color materials perspective and really push
09:53the boundaries in terms of design. When you're doing something for one-on-one or a limited number,
09:59it allows you that opportunity not only we talked about in terms of creating something that maybe
10:04you wouldn't do from a manufacturing or cost perspective, but also for something that doesn't
10:09need to meet an extremely wide demographic. When you look at color materials for vehicles, I mean,
10:14the United States has been that way for a while, that the most common interior color is black,
10:18the most common exterior is white. And when you're trying to design something for serious production,
10:23you want to invoke your personality, but then also know that it needs to not be so polarizing or maybe
10:30not just polarizing, but very custom that might only fit to a certain demographic. But with these
10:35vehicles, when we do them, we can really have fun and really push the boundaries, what we want to
10:39do from a design standpoint, and also just get market feedback. It's a great way to get input from
10:44our customers or fans that are saying, I love this. Can you do this? And we've gotten a lot of feedback
10:49already by posting, you know, some of the photos of the vehicle and a lot of customers saying, Hey,
10:53I love this color. Can you, can you do this? And, and maybe we wouldn't do this exact color, for example,
10:58but if we said we wanted to invest in this color space, we could do something similar. So what you address is very
11:03interesting to me, because as I was thinking about this, I find it very interesting that as Rivian
11:08works to get some of its more mass market vehicles into production, which is no small undertaking and
11:12doing your own color material finish profiles for those as well, you have the capacity to do this one
11:17off. So is it possible that Rivian would make options like this a little more accessible to,
11:23you know, consumers? Because as you said, you know, we're entering into new market segments here,
11:27but you haven't found the ceiling for what your pricing could be either. So does this indicate
11:31potentially any sort of expanded option palette for Rivian customers to personalize their vehicles
11:37in the future? Potentially. We haven't, we haven't quite decided. We want to see how this one goes,
11:41but it is something that definitely we're interested in continuing to build off of
11:45and creating these one offs. And when I say one offs, the way we would like to approach this is more
11:49like a sneaker drop, something that you could get, get in there, get excited by, customers see it,
11:55get involved, where we can be a little bit more expressive and experimental with something,
11:59and then continue to build off of those. And in some cases we can get inspired by the special
12:04editions that we do and help it through customer feedback. Once again, maybe influence what we do
12:10for a regular trim level. Sure. So fair to say, this is not going to be the last of the studio
12:15original Rivians that we see. No. Well, it's a great place to start this R1S quad motor pebble beach
12:21edition. It's going to be heading to auction in Northern California in just a few days. Good luck with
12:26your bidding. Until then, for all the details, head to MotorTrend.com. Thanks for the tour, Jeff.
12:30Thank you, Alex. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. That was great.
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