Rivian clearly understands the mission and how to appeal to enthusiasts. The startup automaker, which hasn’t even been producing cars for a decade, just green lit its own performance division called the Rivian Adventure Department, or RAD for short. But why? What’s coming?
The darling of the automotive industry, and objectively the most successful EV startup-turned-established brand outside of Tesla, is a young company. While founded in 2009, Rivian didn’t come out of stealth mode until the end of 2018 and didn’t start rolling vehicles off the line until the end of 2021. Success is all relative at this stage of the game.
Rivian’s sold over 150,000 vehicles at this point, but it’s still not profitable. In fact, it’s burning through cash like it’s the mission. Taking what was its in-house skunkworks performance division and making it a formal thing might get us all excited, but it’s worth taking a harder look at the situation and timing along with the moves its making in tandem.
From making its own chips to power its next-gen hands-free driving tech to overhauling service operations to cut down on backlogs and long wait times that frustrate buyers, Rivian’s moving as quickly as anyone can expect. Possibly even quicker.
But everything’s riding on the launch of the mainstream, and more affordable, R2 electric SUV. The upcoming two-row SUV is supposed to be a volume seller and turn a profit real quick, and it better.
I spent a long weekend at the FAT Ice Race getting wind blown and sunburned with Rivian and various executives to discuss RAD, the upcoming R2 launch, the impact of R2 on R1, where things are headed, and how its addressing customer feedback.
So, let’s go behind the curtain on Rivian and RAD to see if this darling’s prepped to stick the landing.
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