Rivian needs – Rivian’s CEO, RJ Scaringe, talks through the pressure building around the company’s R2 SUV—what it takes for it to work in the real world, and why the stakes feel different after years of losses and a stock that has fallen from IPO highs. In the same conversat
When Rivian needs something to go right, it can’t afford the kind of “almost” that electric vehicle companies often talk about. The company’s future is tied to whether its R2 SUV doesn’t just sell, but sells in large numbers—and the CEO is blunt about what happens if it doesn’t.
RJ Scaringe’s career has been built on trying to make one kind of technology disappear. He got his PhD from MIT studying internal combustion engines, then founded a company to make them obsolete. In 2009, fresh out of grad school, he launched what became Rivian. The company spent nearly a decade in stealth mode before arriving at the 2018 LA Auto Show with two electric rides nobody had seen coming.
But the road since then has been unforgiving. Rivian lost $3.6 billion in 2025 and has burned through nearly $25 billion in the past eight years. Over that same span, Rivian has spent more money than almost every other pure EV maker. Its IPO in 2021 was the largest worldwide in that year. and one of the largest in US history. valuing the company at over $100 billion within days. Since then, the stock has dropped from a high of $130 to around $16.
The delivery numbers show how hard the company’s execution has been to scale. Since the R1 went on sale in 2021, Rivian has sold 175,000 cars. In the same time, Tesla has sold 8 million.
Yet Rivian is not standing alone with those figures. In 2024. Volkswagen Group committed up to $5.8 billion to co-develop software and electrical architecture technology with Rivian in a huge joint venture. This year. Uber announced it will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian to build and deploy up to 50. 000 fully autonomous robotaxis.
That’s where the tension in Scaringe’s message lands: partnerships can fund ambition, but production has to deliver. The company needs its new R2 SUV to work—not just to move units, but to move them at scale.
The conversation also returned to design as a signal of intent, starting with a car that’s already dividing attention. Scaringe was asked what he thought about Ferrari’s Luce.
He framed it through how the car’s creators approached decision-making: “The way Jony [Ive] and Marc [Newson] approach design is incredibly intentional. so there’s not a decision on that car that’s unintentional. Through that lens, you have to like look at it in a different light. It’s definitely different than what people were expecting.”.
When pressed on whether he would buy it, he didn’t try to soften the answer. “Would I buy it?. I don’t own a Ferrari. There are things about it I really like.” He singled out the interior: “Parts of the interior are just phenomenal. like how beautifully well executed the haptics. the switches. the buttons are. You can see Jony’s fingerprints all over it.”.
In the background of all those big numbers—losses. spending. an IPO valuation that has collapsed. and the sheer scale of Tesla’s sales—there’s a clear subtext to the way Scaringe talks about what has to succeed next. Rivian can attract major commitments. but the R2 has to prove itself where it matters: in the real market. in real volumes. and without room for a repeat of dead-end technology or technical missteps.
Rivian RJ Scaringe R2 SUV electric vehicles EV startup Volkswagen Rivian partnership Uber robotaxis autonomous vehicles stock drop Ferrari Luce Jony Ive Marc Newson automotive technology