Rivian Automotive - Second Most Valuable Car Manufacturer In The U.S. Behind Tesla

Rivian Automotive is the latest player in the automotive circle that has gained reputation and fame after being taunted as the second most valuable car manufacturer in the U.S. behind Tesla.

Rivian Automotive, the first electric pickup maker, is an American electric vehicle automaker and automotive technology company founded in 2009 by Robert "R.J." Scaringe. They build electric sport utility vehicles (SUV) and pickup trucks on a "skateboard", a configuration for automotive chassis used for automotive platforms of battery electric vehicles that can support future vehicles or be adopted by other companies. Rivian is based in Irvine, California, with its manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois.

The automotive company started from a clean sheet, according to the chief executive officer. Scaringe also mentioned there was no money, team, technology, suppliers, brand, and production infrastructure when Rivian came up in the market in the year 2009.

Holding firmly to make a difference over everything else, Rivian prides itself on not looking or acting like a car company due to Scaringe’s deep focus on the environment and sustainability.

In 2011, Rivian unveiled a sporty coupe prototype before the entire project was scrapped.

However, by 2015, Rivian had received enough funding to operate research facilities in California’s Bay area and Michigan.

By early 2017, the company had completed its purchase of a former Mitsubishi facility in Normal, Illinois, to become its North American manufacturing hub. By the end of 2017, Rivian announced its two alpha prototypes were complete. Less than a year later, the R1T pickup and R1S SUV debuted at the LA Auto Show, with production scheduled to begin in 2020.

Prior to it, Rivian moved its headquarters to Irvine, California, along with a lot of its research and development.

Rivian had over 1,000 employees and facilities in the UK by 2019 and Michigan, Illinois, and California. They managed to get Amazon to invest $700 million(RM 2.9 billion) on top of an order of 100,000 electric vans specifically developed by Rivian.

Shortly after, Ford Motor Company invested $500 million (RM 2.1 billion) but terminated its contract during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking its production in-house.

Rivian has also seen additional investments from Cox Automotive for $350 million (RM 1.5 billion) and two rounds of funding from T. Rowe Price, totalling almost $3 billion (RM 12.6 billion).

The Rivian R1T pickup truck is the first Rivian consumer EV to deliver for the company. This five-seat, fully electric pickup offers some unique and exciting features centred around the outdoors, along with some impressive exterior colour choices.

The Launch Edition R1T is fully reserved but is priced starting at $75,000 (RM 315,337.50). It will be followed by the Adventure Package next January for the same price and a less expensive Explore Package for $67,500 (RM 283, 803.75).

Rivian’s R1S SUV, on the other hand, sits upon the same proprietary skateboard platform but with more room for seating and cargo than the R1T.

The Launch Edition is priced at $75,500 (RM 317, 439.75), slightly higher than its pickup counterpart, which coincides with the Adventure Package. The Explore Package will arrive slightly lower at $70,000 (RM 294, 315).

Rivian is currently valued at nearly $28 billion (RM 117.8 billion) and will produce 10,000 electric vans for Amazon by 2022. Furthermore, it has its sights set on rolling out its first two EVs sometime in 2021, although the delivery dates keep delayed.