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 Chest And Tesla In His Headlights

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chucktanne ... 462c22182d


With the emergence of Rivian, the electric vehicle market is no longer a one-horseless-carriage race. Indeed, the 2020s are gearing up to be the decade of the EV. According to research at Oppenheimer, EVs and plug-in electric hybrids accounted for a mere 2.2 percent of all U.S. vehicles sold in the last quarter of 2019. And only a third of those were purely electric. But that is changing rapidly. While only 5.1 million electric cars were sold worldwide in 2018, that figure is expected to surge throughout the decade—21 million units are projected to be sold in 2020, 98 million in 2025 and 253 million in 2030.




The question is: Even with $3 billion, does Rivian have enough to realize Scaringe’s electric dreams?

Until now, it’s been a far smoother road than the one Elon Musk faced with his first vehicle. Tesla raised around $100 million between 2003 and 2008 to produce the Roadster, which was soon abandoned in favor of the Model S, and the Model S required more than $350 million in funding (including a 2010 IPO that valued the company at $1.7 billion). The journey of the Model 3 was particularly rocky. Supply-chain issues and Musk’s desire to completely disrupt the manufacturing process led to a two year-plus delay delivering cars to customers and a slew of quality-control issues. The fallout from these problems reportedly cost the EV maker hundreds of millions of dollars. (Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) The company then took on estimated billions in debt as it scaled its production for the mass market.


With the town onboard, Scaringe is now on a mission to lead Rivian through its first production cycle and expand its line. Though it’s too early to tell who will win the EV wars, Rivian is one of just a couple of companies that has a strong chance not only to survive, but also thrive, according to Navigant’s Sam Abuelsamid. He thinks Rivian might even be in a better position going forward than Tesla: “If you’re talking about who’s going to have potentially the most volume, getting more vehicles to market in the near- to mid-term, [I’d say] probably Tesla.” But from an actual business standpoint, Rivian is “in the better position to succeed because of the nature of the products they have.”

But first, the rubber has to hit the road.