Rivian

About Rivian

Rivian was once known as Mainstream Motors, then for a short while as Avera Automotive, before becoming the firm it is now in the middle of the 2010s. Rivian was founded by wealthy engineer and entrepreneur Robert “RJ” Scaringe in 2009.

After earning his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from MIT’s Sloan Automotive Laboratory, Florida native and avid auto enthusiast Scaringe established the business there. Its first offering was a hybrid sports coupe with agility akin to a Ferrari and economy similar to a Prius. The vehicle was developed to the prototype level when the business shifted its attention to autonomous driving and electric cars, eventually relocating its headquarters to Michigan. It would again turn its base to Irvine, California, in 2020.

When the firm bought the old Diamond-Star Motors facility in Normal, Illinois, at the beginning of 2017, it started to move forward with producing automobiles. The factory was comparable in size to the old GM-Toyota NUMMI facility Tesla bought in 2010, which was constructed in the 1980s as a joint venture between Chrysler and Mitsubishi and managed by the latter from 1995 to 2015. A real manufacturing foundation was established, and significant investment quickly followed.

The first production cars for the firm were already in the design phase at that point. With its autonomous, all-electric cars, Rivian decided to focus on the two most well-liked vehicle categories among American customers: trucks and SUVs. The A1T pickup and A1C SUV were presented as the R1T and R1S at the 2018 Los Angeles International Auto Show after being unveiled at the end of 2017.

The firm had 250 employees at the beginning of 2018, but as manufacturing ramped up, this number increased to 9,000 by the end of 2021. Although the firm secured significant tax breaks from the local governments around its manufacturing, most of its financing remained a secret until its initial public offering (IPO) in November 2021. Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, Amazon, and competitor manufacturer Ford were among its recognized backers. Ford had initially intended to produce EVs in a joint venture with the business.

That idea was scrapped after the IPO, which occurred to correspond closely with Rivian’s initial client deliveries. The R1T started delivering to consumers that same month, becoming the first mass-market, fully-electric truck to hit the retail market, well ahead of competing startups like Tesla, Lordstown Motors, and Canoo and established manufacturers like GM and Ford.

The business is now developing a commercial van that will resemble GM’s BrightDrop products while also preparing to launch its next model, the R1S SUV, in 2022.

Rivian sells its cars online and via a network of retail locations, similar to Tesla and Lucid Motors. A comparable network of repair centers is being established around the country. Rivian provides substantial warranties for the R1T and R1S, measuring five years and 60,000 miles for bumper-to-bumper coverage and eight years and 175,000 miles for the powertrain, respectively.