How Many Miles Can You Rack Up On Your Rivian Before a Major Repair?

For Antonio, it was precisely 61,000 miles.

Antonio Zavarce is an EV veteran. Over the past nine years, he has owned six EVs from four different car makers: a FIAT® 500e, a Chevrolet Bolt, three Audi e-trons (2020, 2021, 2022), and a Rivian R1S. That makes for a smorgasbord of experience, ranging from the flawless (the Chevy Bolt went to 82,000 miles from brand new without a hitch) to the frustrating (Antonio’s second Audi e-tron left him stranded a few times).

Originally, Antonio bought an electric vehicle because he wanted to do the right thing by the environment. When he lost his job, he discovered a much more pragmatic reason to drive electric: affordable transportation. But he didn’t think about warranties until he found his dream car.

The future of transportation is in EVs. And I'm not saying this because I drive an EV, I am saying it because it makes financial sense, and it's also a matter of national security— when you are able to produce your own energy."

- Antonio Zavarce

I don't need no stinking warranty.... wait yes I do.

With his first five EVs, Antonio never gave a second thought to warranties. "The reason why I never concerned myself with warranties [for the e-tron], "he explains, "is because, long story short, I wasn't 100% in love with the car. It kind of did what it needed to do, and it served a tax write-off purpose [for my business]."

That all changed when he got the Rivian, which "checked every single one of our boxes—like absolutely everything that we want." It was at that point that Antonio and his husband decided to protect the car they fell in love with—they knew repairing a luxury EV like a Rivian would be prohibitively expensive.

There was only one problem: Rivian's manufacturer warranty runs out at 60,000 miles, and the company doesn't offer extended warranties.

That left Antonio in a bit of an EV pickle. Given the mileage he was pulling every year for his job, he knew he'd be hitting that 60k-mile wall fast. "So what am I supposed to do once I hit 60,000 miles and something does, in fact, happen?" he asked, rhetorically.

The problem is, most extended warranty companies that offer EV policies are legacy firms whose focus is still on ICE cars. "They don't understand what it means to own an EV," says Antonio, adding that their argument for not covering what EVs, require is that it's "too expensive." That doesn't fly for Antonio: "Then why are they covering Mercedes Benz or BMWs? I owned a Mercedes, they're extremely expensive [to repair]"

So Antonio started researching. He had questions not only about obvious things like the high voltage battery, but also the interactive screen and all the software. "I called each and every agent. I spoke with them, read their reviews. What intrigued me about XCare EV Protection was that they already had experience dealing with EVs from brand new manufacturers such as Tesla. And lo and behold, they already had a few Rivians in their inventory that they had already covered. That was it for me."

Superhuman hearing—and XCare—save the day

Antonio signed up for XCare in the spring, and not a moment too soon. A few months later, he hit that 60k-mile wall, which is when Rivian's manufacturer warranty ran out, and just 1,000 miles after that, his beloved R1 had an issue—that no one would have noticed in time were it not for Antonio's unique hearing. Yes, you read that right. Antonio has a condition called hyperacusis, which means he has a much higher sensitivity to sound that the typical person. That's what alerted him to the strange metallic tapping sounds his Rivian had started to make.

"We have really poor infrastructure here [in Shreveport]," he says. "Heavy vehicles [the Rivian weights in at 6,462 pounds] and potholes do not do well. The rubber ball joint on the right control arm cracked, and the metal parts started to rub against each other."

When Antonio called the Rivian Service Center in Dallas, he was told that under Rivian's policy it's a non serviceable item, and they would have to replace the entire control arm mechanism—at Antonio's expense. Antonio turned to XCare's comprehensive coverage. "They covered everything, minus my deductible. Without XCare, it would have cost me $1,768."

What impressed Antonio even more was the total time it took from the moment he placed the call to Xcelerate to the claim being processed—less than 24 hours. "I called Xcelerate on a Thursday, at around three in the afternoon. By 10 a.m. the following day, my claim had been approved, and a check sent out. Amazing."

By 10 a.m. the following day, my claim had been approved, and a check sent out. Amazing."

- Antonio Zavarce

Warranty wisdom

For new EV owners, Antonio has a few words of advice: "What I would say is, do your research on who is underwriting your policies and your claims. See what repairs those companies [list] as approved and not approved. You may be interviewing three, four or five different insurance companies, but all of them are being underwritten by one. So you need to do your research."

Antonio certainly did his. "Xcelerate built their systems from the ground up to be able to service every aspect of an EV, and then hired a third-party company [to fulfill their underwriting requirements]. The other insurance companies just go with what a third-party underwriter would want. So that's where the power is at."

As for Xcelerate, Antonio has his personal why.

"The founders are EV owners themselves—so they know all of the vicissitudes for what it means to own an EV. Ultimately, as an EV owner, I'm going to trust somebody who is also an EV owner."

If you want to have a positive EV ownership experience like Antonio and prevent any unpredictable service costs, contact XCare for more information!