Rivian. Stereotype Breaker
The company was founded by Dr. Robert ‘R.J.’ Scaringe, known to be a graduate of the glorious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mountain biker and sports tourist. Scaringe belongs to the same cohort of creators as Musk, Jobs and Iron Man. He founded Rivian as a sole member, and then, by applying great efforts and his super-powerful brain, he built the enterprise that reached the level of a small but extremely advanced factory and related companies, which received investments from huge industrial monsters. And in 2021 (according to Bloomberg), the valuation of the startup Rivian will grow to $25 billion. For comparison, Ford is worth about $33 billion. However, Tesla is estimated at almost $800 billion… But Rivian has whole life ahead of it. Many have already begun to call the new brand ‘Tesla’s nightmare’.
Rivian electric models
In his interview with the Times, Robert Scaringe complained about the prevailing stereotype that an electric car cannot be a powerful work pickup: ‘We have a number of untruths: a truck can’t be electric, an electric car can’t go off road, it can’t get dirty, it can’t tow, and truck buyers don’t want something that’s environmentally friendly… These things are fundamentally wrong. Electrification and technology can create a truck that’s incredibly capable and fun to drive’.
Said and done! And he presented the R1S SUV and the R1T pickup at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show. The electric pickup is especially significant, as it’s the first electric pickup ever. That is, a modest and so far little-known company from the American hinterland has outstripped Tesla, which still cannot finish building its Cybertruck. So, here we could say, “How do you like it, Elon Musk?” But we will not say that, because it sounds too trivial.
Many people call Rivian ‘Tesla’s nightmare’…
The Rivian electric pickup and SUV look like regular American work vehicles, albeit slightly inspired by Land Rover: they are angular, large and massive. The front face is not at all ‘American’ and, in our opinion, looks somewhat eccentric, combining the typical standard elegant futurism of electric vehicles and the expression of the ‘face’ of a naive robot, which is extremely puzzled by something and seems indecisive. Their interior looks more similar to the high-profile Range Rover models: comfortable and packed with technological innovations such as Internet connections and various autonomous devices designed for safe driving.
The Rivian R1S SUV is considered a serious threat to Tesla, as it is comfortable, large, roomy and can, according to official figures, travel up to 660 km without recharging, which is much more than the Tesla Model X’s range of up to 475 km. Scaringe claims that his electric vehicles can easily go off road, can easily overcome water obstacles about 1 meter deep, have a reinforced chassis, and durable battery protection. The Rivian models are adventure vehicles designed for people who have an active lifestyle. “Adventure is life. Your destination could be fishing, it could be golfing, it could be taking the family out for lunch”, says R.J. Scaringe.
Brief investment forecast
SUVs and pickups are some of the most lucrative segments of the automotive market. If Rivian vehicles are really as good as they are positioned by the developer, then electric vehicle market can go through a great redistribution. Market experts claim that such a high rating for Rivian is possible due to two factors: the fast-growing popularity of electric vehicles and high chances of competing with the market leader, Tesla.
Stages of a long journey
In fact, Scaringe’s journey to success has been long. The company was founded back in 2009. Having graduated from the MIT in 2009, he knew for sure that he wanted to make not just cars, but environmentally friendly vehicles. SUVs also appeared for a reason: Scaringe loves nature and wanted to make an off-road vehicle. The company developed very slowly. First, the R1 sports model was designed, the fate of which is lost in history. Apparently, until 2021, the company’s main task was to attract investments. And it did it very well. In 2017, Sumitomo Corporation invested a large amount of money in Rivian. In 2018, the company conceived the production of a pickup and an SUV and received more investment from Standard Chartered Bank.
In 2019, Rivian received money from Amazon and Ford Motor Company. However, later Ford left the project. But the funds raised from other companies amounted to hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. Amazon also ordered 100,000 electric vehicles from Rivian as part of a plan to convert its fleet to electric vehicles. Today, Rivian’s facilities are headquartered in Irvine, California, Normalee, Illinois (a former Mitsubishi plant), Plymouth, Michigan, Palo Alto, California, Carson, California, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Walking, England, which makes it a start-up transcontinental company.
The supplies of the production Rivian R1T to buyers were supposed to begin in June 2021. But, as you know, the chip crisis is raging in the automotive industry, so the date was postponed to August. In August, Rivian went public and unveiled an all-electric pickup truck in September 2021, overtaking such industry leaders as GM, Ford and Tesla.
