Rivian CEO talks Tesla’s Cybertruck, Ferrari’s Luce, and what happens if the R2 fails

RJ Scaringe got He earned his PhD from MIT studying internal combustion engines. Then he started a company to make it old. In 2009, fresh out of grad school, he launched what became known as Rivian. The company spent nearly a decade in stealth mode before arriving at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show with two electric cars that no one saw coming.

But the road was not easy. Rivian lost $3.6 billion in 2025, and has burned through nearly $25 billion in the past eight years. It has spent more money over the same period than almost all pure electric vehicle manufacturers. Rivian’s IPO was the world’s largest of 2021, and one of the largest in US history, valuing the company within days at more than $100 billion. Its stock price has fallen from a high of $130 to around $16. Since the R1 went on sale in 2021, Rivian has sold 175,000 vehicles. Meanwhile, Tesla sold 8 million.

But in 2024, the Volkswagen Group has pledged up to $5.8 billion to co-develop software and electrical engineering technology with Rivian in a massive joint venture. Uber announced this year that it would invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian to build and deploy up to 50,000 fully autonomous robotaxis.

Regardless, the company needs a new R2 SUV to operate. We don’t just sell, we sell in large numbers.

I sat down with Scaringe for a frank and wide-ranging discussion about what happens if the R2 fails, why the R1 was launched with dead-end technology, how to compete with China, the failure of the Cybertruck, and the virtues of buttons inside cars. But we’re starting on easier ground: his thoughts on the most polarizing electric car of 2026. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian Automotive, seems to be hoping it will be better off-road than the R2.

Courtesy of Rivian

Jeremy White: What do you think of Los Ferrari?

Intellectual property scare: Way Johnny [Ive] And Mark [Newson] The approach design is incredibly intentional, so there’s no unintentional decision made about that car. Through that lens, you have to like looking at it in a different light. It’s definitely different from what people were expecting.

Do you like Los, though?

Will I buy it? I don’t own a Ferrari. There are things I really like. The interior is absolutely exceptional, as is how well the touches, switches and buttons are implemented. You can see Johnny’s fingerprints everywhere.