Rivian CEO on Cybertruck, Ferrari’s Luce, and R2’s Stakes
▼ Summary
– RJ Scaringe founded Rivian in 2009 after getting his PhD in internal combustion engines, and the company debuted its electric vehicles at the 2018 LA Auto Show.
– Rivian lost $3.6 billion in 2025 and has burned through nearly $25 billion in the past eight years, spending more than almost any other pure EV maker.
– Volkswagen Group committed up to $5.8 billion in 2024 to co-develop technology with Rivian, and Uber announced a $1.25 billion investment for up to 50,000 autonomous robotaxis.
– Rivian’s stock dropped from a high of $130 to around $16, and it has sold 175,000 cars since 2021 compared to Tesla’s 8 million.
– The company’s success depends on the new R2 SUV selling in large numbers, as discussed in an interview with Scaringe covering topics like the R1’s tech and competition with China.
RJ Scaringe earned his PhD at MIT studying internal combustion engines, then founded a company determined to render them obsolete. In 2009, fresh from graduate school, he launched what would become Rivian. The automaker spent nearly a decade in stealth mode before surprising the industry at the 2018 LA Auto Show with two all-electric vehicles no one saw coming.
The journey has been anything but smooth. Rivian lost $3.6 billion in 2025 and has burned through nearly $25 billion over the past eight years. That spending outpaces nearly every other pure EV maker over the same period. The company’s 2021 IPO was the largest worldwide that year and one of the biggest in U. S. history, briefly valuing it at over $100 billion. Since then, its stock has tumbled from a high of $130 to around $16. Since the R1 went on sale in 2021, Rivian has sold 175,000 vehicles. Over that same stretch, Tesla has moved 8 million.
But in 2024, Volkswagen Group committed up to $5.8 billion to co-develop software and electrical architecture with Rivian in a massive joint venture. This year, Uber announced it would invest up to $1.25 billion to build and deploy up to 50,000 fully autonomous robotaxis with Rivian.
Still, the company’s future hinges on the new R2 SUV. It doesn’t just need to sell. It needs to sell in huge volumes.
I sat down with Scaringe for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about what happens if the R2 fails, why the R1 launched with dead-end technology, how to compete with China, the Cybertruck’s struggles, and the value of buttons inside cars. But we started on safer ground: his take on the most polarizing EV of 2026. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
JEREMY WHITE: What do you think about Ferrari’s Luce?
RJ SCARINGE: The way Jony [Ive] and Marc [Newson] approach design is incredibly intentional. There’s not a single decision on that car that’s accidental. Through that lens, you have to look at it differently. It’s definitely not what people expected.
Do you like the Luce, though?
Would I buy it? I don’t own a Ferrari. There are things I really like about it. Parts of the interior are phenomenal. The haptics, the switches, the buttons are beautifully executed. You can see Jony’s fingerprints all over it.
(Source: Wired)
