INNOVATORS

RIVIAN

ELECTRIC DREAMS

BY EBEN SHAPIRO

THERE IS A DECENT CHANCE RIVIAN DELIVERS ON THE enormous expectations it faces. Or it might not. The California automotive startup, which aspires to be the Patagonia of electric vehicles (EVs)—rugged, hip, simpatico to consumers willing to pay a premium to buy from a company that emits a halo of eco-friendliness—is at a critical juncture.

The person trying to make it all work is lifelong car geek Robert “RJ” Scaringe, who spent much of his childhood tinkering on cars in a neighbor’s garage. “I had hoods under my bed, windshields in my closet, and engine parts on my desk,” he says. His vision of stylish electric pickup trucks, SUVs, and commercial delivery vans has attracted over 180,000 orders and heavyweight backers including Amazon and Ford. Scaringe, a 39-year-old with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is now leading Rivian’s “ramp up,” the make-it-or-break-it phase where the company has to prove it can produce a steady stream of vehicles from its assembly lines in Normal, Ill., and eventually a newly announced factory near Atlanta.

Rivian spent the winter trying to tame a litany of challenges facing many manufacturers right now: supply-chain shortages, COVID-19 outbreaks shutting down its plant (nearly a quarter of its workers were out in January), and even the weather (it lost critical production days to epic snowstorms). Add to that the general market jitters, and Rivian’s valuation has dropped to roughly $40 billion as of late March from its gravity-defying $153 billion following its November IPO. (That offering, one of the biggest of 2021, made Scaringe’s stake worth well over $1 billion, although the value of his holdings has fallen in recent months.)

Despite the taxing past six months—and the fact that so far, only a thousand or so Rivian vehicles are rolling on public roads—there is little doubt that Rivian has been hugely influential in