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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. I have I spent more money During the same period from 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. At the same time, Tesla 8 million sold.
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 it The new R2 SUV To work. 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.)
Jeremy White: What do you think? Ferrari los?
Intellectual property scare: The way Jonny (Ive) and Mark (Newson) approach the 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.
