Rivian Wants to Be the Apple of Electric Pickup Trucks
This is an excerpt from The Atlantic’s climate newsletter, The Weekly Planet. Subscribe today.
Many fights about climate policy have been raging, basically unbroken, for the past 40 years. But something that sets this moment apart is that a subset of people who care about climate change, and who have founded companies to fight it, is becoming extremely wealthy.
On Friday, the electric-car start-up Rivian filed for its initial public offering. If you’re not familiar, Rivian makes electric trucks that look sleek, friendly, and alert, almost Pixarian. Its initial customers, however, are drawn more from the Gucci set than the set. Its entry-level truck, the R1T, starts at $67,500; the highest trim is more than $73,000. Even though Americans like pickup trucks, Rivian’s cars are upmarket. (It says that more affordable models will come in a few years, after it hones its technique on luxury offerings. Tesla followed the same path.)
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