Elon Musk’s New Nemesis: Rivian Founder R.J. Scaringe Has A $3 Billion War Chest And Tesla In His Headlights

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Elon Musk’s New Nemesis: Rivian Founder R.J. Scaringe Has A $3 Billion War

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“When we’re done cleaning, painting and installing the equipment,” says Rivian’s 37-year-old founder and CEO, Robert Joseph Scaringe (better known as just “R.J.”), “we will eventually be able to produce 250,000 vehicles per year by mid-decade.”
The question is: Even with $3 billion, does Rivian have enough to realize Scaringe’s electric dreams?
So if the mighty Tesla has faced so many detours and potholes, what makes Scaringe think that Rivian, which hasn’t made a single car, can have a smooth ride?
After graduating with his doctorate in 2009, Scaringe returned home to Melbourne, Florida, where he founded the company that became Rivian.
He and his team spent four years developing a speedster-like EV before Scaringe found what he thought was an obvious gap in electric vehicles and one that spoke to his outdoorsy interests—a truck and a luxury SUV.
Beyond its first two releases, Scaringe says there will be three more vehicles in the Rivian portfolio by 2024.
Tesla, of course, now dominates the EV market—by one estimate it represents nearly 80% of sales in the United States—and Rivian will face stiff competition in the luxury battery-powered SUV segment from other automakers.
Prime Opportunity: As part of Amazon’s $700 million investment, Rivian will produce electric delivery vans, expected to go into service in 2021.
Having built a $3 billion war chest from Amazon, Ford and Cox in a short time is certainly an impressive start for Scaringe, but if Tesla’s history is an example, that won’t be enough funding to scale production to compete with Musk.
Rivian hopes the Ford alliance will allow the company to grow beyond its own consumer electric vehicle offerings.
Besides the Lincoln with Rivian, Ford is working on the electric Mustang-inspired Mach-E SUV and both a hybrid and all-electric version of the Ford F-150, America’s bestselling vehicle

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