Federal safety regulators have opened a preliminary evaluation covering 114,922 Rivian R1S and R1T electric vehicles after two owner complaints reported the left rear toe link separating while driving and sending the vehicles swerving across multiple lanes of traffic. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation designated the inquiry PE26004 after receiving two Vehicle Owner Questionnaires involving Model Year 2023–2024 R1S vehicles, within a population that spans the 2022–2025 model years. One of the incidents ended in a collision with an adjacent vehicle and a roadside barrier, and in both cases the bolt that holds the toe link together fractured.
Highlights
- The preliminary evaluation covers 114,922 Rivian R1S and R1T vehicles from the 2022–2025 model years.
- Two Vehicle Owner Questionnaires reported left rear toe link separation in Model Year 2023–2024 R1S vehicles.
- One incident resulted in a collision with another vehicle and a roadside barrier; the agency has recorded no injuries or fatalities.
- Both failures involved a fractured toe link bolt; the investigation, PE26004, opened on May 26, 2026.
What Is NHTSA Investigating?
The agency describes the defect as a rear toe link that may separate while driving, leading to vehicle lane departures. The Office of Defects Investigation opened the preliminary evaluation to pursue four questions:
- Joint sensitivity — whether the rear toe link joint is vulnerable to foreseeable road and service conditions.
- Failure comparison — how the physical evidence from the two complaints compares, identifying apparent similarities and potential differences.
- Repair procedure — whether Rivian’s current toe link repair procedure is adequate.
- Fleet condition — the state of the toe links across the in-field vehicle population.
How the Reported Failures Occurred
Both questionnaires describe the left rear toe link separating while the vehicle was in motion, causing a loss of stability that pushed the SUV across several lanes. The agency’s failure summary logs two incidents and one crash, with no injuries or fatalities. The two vehicles had different histories: one had received prior service, and the other had been involved in an earlier collision. In each case, the vehicle had operated for several months and thousands of miles without apparent problems between that prior event and the failure that prompted the complaint.
Investigators collected repair histories, onboard video, imagery of the damaged components, and a police accident report from the complaint vehicles.
Rivian’s Earlier Toe Link Service Changes
Rivian identified the toe link joint’s sensitivity to service procedures in March 2025 and revised its service instructions. In January 2026, through recall 26V-003, the company extended the improved repair procedure to vehicles that had received toe link service before the March 2025 change. The preliminary evaluation will now assess whether the joint remains vulnerable under foreseeable road and service conditions and will review that repair procedure.
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