Rivian quietly changed how the ventilated seats work in the R2. The company's fans and would-be buyers aren't happy about it.

To be clear, the ventilated seat feature isn't completely gone. Rather, Rivian has removed the ability for the seat to push air through the seat back and instead focused all of the airflow through the base of the seat. News of the change bubbled up on forums and was also reported on by the RivianTrackr blog.

Rivian forums, subreddits, and Facebook groups have exploded with intense criticism over the decision, with some users even going as far to cancel their preorders and threatening to file credit card chargebacks on non-refundable order fees. The EV startup has built up an unusually loyal fanbase of people who dig its outdoorsy image and friendlier-than-Tesla vibes. The seat-ventilation dustup has many of those same fans feeling played.

"The strong ventilation was one of the best features of the R2," said one Redditor, echoing what our very own Mack Hogan shared about his experience with the R2's powerful ventilated seats. "Quietly breaking that functionality and pretending it’s not a big deal is a really bad look."

"Not gonna lie, this one pisses me off," wrote another. "If you're going to take something away, do the right thing and tell people. I want to know why they took it out and why they aren't compensating people that are getting less of a car than what they test drove."

"I placed my order a week ago and I'm pretty pissed about it.

Source link