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Americans have always had exactly one choice when it comes to all-electric car makers: Tesla. From this month they will have another one.
Rivian Automotive Inc. rolled out its first pickup truck for repeat customers from its Normal, Ill. Assembly line last week, and the first deliveries are on the way. The vehicle is an important step towards the normality of electric vehicles. But that’s not the only reason Rivian matters.
One of the reasons is historical. If Rivian is successful, it will be only the third American automaker in a century not to die of bankruptcy. The others are Chrysler, founded in 1925, and Tesla, in 2003.
While a host of electric automakers are engaged in Sisyphus’ task of delivering a mainstream vehicle – Lucid Motors, Fisker Inc., Canoo, Bollinger Motors, and Lordstown Motors, to name a few – Rivian is , after a dozen years of effort, on the verge of actually doing it.
The other reason Rivian is important is the type of vehicle it is made.
“They will be the first to market an electric van,” said Chris Harto, policy analyst at Consumer reports. “It’s a big problem.”
Pickup trucks are by far the most popular vehicles in the country. Rivian’s $ 67,000 R1T pickup, which starts at $ 67,000, will soon be chased by two electric competitors: Ford’s F-150 Lightning and Tesla’s Cybertruck. But for a few months or more, Rivian will have the field on his own for a few months or more.
The pick-up occupies an important place, not only in the public imagination, but in the fight against climate change. Today’s pickup trucks are prodigious drinkers of diesel and gasoline.
“The gains in terms of emissions reductions… are so much greater than if the Prius driver upgraded to a Chevy Bolt,†Harto said, referring to General Motors’ electric compact.
Rivian is often compared to Tesla but has taken a very different approach. Its founder, RJ Scaringe, is not an iconoclast like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and has forged close ties with American companies, attracting big investors like Ford and a historic order of 100,000 delivery vans from Amazon.com.
An exciting vehicle, a head start and a lot of money are great assets for a new auto business, but are they enough?
Richard Reina, director of product training at the CARiD automotive website, points out that vehicles are the most expensive thing people buy outside of a home, and that pickup drivers are extremely loyal to the latest truck. that they bought.
“Rivian is completely unknown,†Reina said. “Imagine the average American customer and they’ll ask you, ‘Am I going to pick a brand I’ve never heard of? “”
Quiet road to glory
Rivian hit audiences in 2018 at the Los Angeles Auto Show when he debuted prototypes of the R1T, a pickup truck, and the R1S, an SUV.
What caught people’s attention was not only that they were electric – no one had revealed an electric truck at the time – but that they opened the door wide to outdoor enthusiasts as as “electric adventure vehicle”.
On stage, Scaringe, the founder, revealed that the van has a “gear tunnel” running across its width. An electric vehicle requires a lot less machinery underneath to move it, and Rivian used the extra space to create secure storage for gear like snowboards.
“They sort of recognize that” we don’t market to you the people who go to Home Depot and throw away a lot of cinder blocks. We are targeting people who will go to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and scramble it for a week, ‘”said Reina.
Scaringe also promised that the vehicle would cover 400 miles on a battery charge, go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds, tow 11,000 pounds, and sail in over 3 feet of water. The launch edition of the vehicle fulfills all of those promises, but the range: it covers 300 miles or more, with a 400-mile version expected next year.
Few onlookers knew that Scaringe, whose raven hair and tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses drew comparisons to Clark Kent, had worked hard on the idea for nearly a decade.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate in mechanical engineering who says he always wanted to create his own car brand, he held his head down until his products were ready.
“To a certain extent, he’s the non-Elon Musk. He’s a methodical and very approachable guy,†said Alan Baum, an independent automotive business analyst in Detroit. He noted that before fame, Scaringe had been a staple in auto show lobbies for years.
Silver magnet
Before most people had even heard of Rivian, Scaringe had arranged in 2017 to purchase a 2.6 million square foot factory in Normal, Ill., Just outside Bloomington, at a clearance price. The cavernous installation had been abandoned by Mitsubishi Motors.
Scaringe had a knack for gathering allies with deep pockets.
“He did a great job raising money, a bit on the sly, from a number of very patient investors,” Baum said, “until he crossed the line.”
That line was crossed in 2019, when Rivian won a series of huge investments that bolted it on the machinery of American companies. Ford has invested $ 500 million; Amazon.com, $ 700 million. An additional $ 350 million came from Cox Automotive, which provides Rivian with a presence in automotive service and maintenance.
Then, in early 2020, came the news that any automaker would envy: Amazon has placed an order for 100,000 delivery vans, to be shipped in stages until 2030. A handful of boxy and blue-gray vehicles are currently being tested. on routes in Los Angeles and Amazon plan to roll them out to 16 cities by the end of the year.
In July, Ford and Amazon jumped in again, leading a second round of investment of $ 2.5 billion.
On Wednesday, CNBC announced that Rivian is planning an initial public offering of shares later this year, setting the value of the company at $ 8 billion. That would make it one of the biggest U.S. IPOs of the past decade.
The anti-Tesla
Rivian’s weapon link with corporate giants stands in stark contrast to Tesla, which has historically positioned itself as an insurgent destined to upset mainstream automakers.
“Rivian has had a respect for the traditional industry from the start,†said Brinley. “It helped them a lot compared to a company like Tesla… that wanted to reinvent everything.”
Two weeks ago, Motor trend published the first self-magazine of the R1T. The post was not disappointed, calling it “the most remarkable pickup we’ve ever driven”.
Rivian’s two avenues – as a desirable customer brand and as a button-down corporate fleet vehicle – have analysts believe there are multiple paths to success.
“This is one of the best positioned new electric vehicle startups of all time,†said Karl Brauer, automotive analyst at iSeeCars.com. “I don’t think it will take 15 years for them to be profitable, like another EV startup.”
Which doesn’t mean the Rivian will have it easy. Experts said the biggest challenger on the horizon was not Tesla, but Rivian’s own partner, Ford, and its electric F-150 Lightning, due next spring. Citing strong customer interest, Ford announced last week that it would increase its Lightning production budget by $ 250 million and double its annual production target to 80,000 units.
The F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for decades, and the fact that it’s going electric means the era of branding itself as an electric car startup is about to end.
“The ‘Watch us overtake the traditional automaker in terms of speed and innovation’ part of your plan is more difficult to execute after the F-150 Lightning,†Brauer said. “Tesla and Rivian can look at this thing and say, ‘Oh, shit. “”
Rivian, for all its novelty, has developed a footprint that will be difficult to maintain if sales don’t take off.
The company is developing dealerships and service centers across the country and building a nationwide network of charging stations in remote natural areas where its drivers are likely to be. It is currently trying to fill 1,500 jobs. It also has a sophisticated lobbying operation (Energy wire, July 22, 2020). Even before its massive first factory rolled out its first car, reports revealed Rivian was looking for a second factory.
Unlike Tesla, which has seen many successes and stumbles since 2008, Rivian has little time for error.
“They don’t have the same lead as Tesla, to experiment, to figure things out, without the competition,†Harto said.
Ultimately, Rivian’s greatest legacy may not be whether he survives, but what his unveiling in 2018 did to galvanize the race to convert the nation’s fleet of exhaust trucks. electric.
“Rivian’s threat is helping push traditional automakers,†Harto said. “Would the Ford F-150 Lighting exist if Rivian was not on the horizon? ”
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