Rivian beat Ford, GM and Tesla to sell the first electric pickup
Rivian began in 2009 as Mainstream Motors, planning a hybrid sports car that was shelved. Twelve years later it put the world's first fully electric pickup truck in consumers' hands, ahead of Detroit's giants and Tesla, and its stock-market debut valued the young company at nearly 100 billion dollars on day one.
RJ Scaringe founded the company in Rockledge, Florida, cycling through the names Mainstream Motors and Avera before settling on Rivian in 2011, a nod to the Indian River where he grew up. Its first design, a mid-engine hybrid coupé, was abandoned late in 2011 as the firm reset. After a large investment in 2015 it focused on electric, autonomous vehicles, and in January 2017 it bought a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois for 16 million dollars, a move likened to Tesla taking over the NUMMI factory.
Its first products, the R1T pickup and R1S seven-seat SUV, were shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2018. Chip shortages pushed deliveries back, but in September 2021 Rivian brought the first electric pickup to market, with customer handovers from October. Staff grew from 250 at the start of 2018 to more than 9,000 by November 2021. On 10 November 2021 its shares listed on Nasdaq at 78 dollars and closed the first day at 100.73.
The ride since has been bumpy. In March 2022 it raised prices by up to 20 percent, then apologised to customers with existing orders. Layoffs followed in 2022 and 2024, and a planned Georgia factory stalled before a 6 billion dollar federal loan revived it in November 2024. Volkswagen pledged up to 5 billion dollars in June 2024 for a software joint venture. Rivian also builds electric delivery vans, mainly for Amazon, whose fleet reached 10,000 by late 2023, and runs its own fast-charging network.
A cheaper model was meant to widen its reach. The R2 midsize SUV, unveiled on 7 March 2024 at 45,000 dollars, reached customers in June 2026, and that July Rivian lifted its full-year delivery outlook to between 65,000 and 70,000 vehicles.
Source: Rivian
