Is Rivian the Next Tesla? Buyers Wager Major on Electric powered Truck Maker

A different significant craze reshaping the automobile business is autonomous cars and trucks. On Tuesday, Cruise, a device of G.M. that is functioning in that area, announced it had lifted $2 billion from Microsoft, G.M., Honda and other buyers. Rivian and Tesla are also doing work on automatic-driving technology.

Rivian is distinctive from Tesla in many respects. Tesla so considerably has developed by advertising sporty sedans, a form of automobile that is slipping out of favor with buyers. Tesla intends to begin creating an oddly angular, futuristic pickup, the Cybertruck, this year. But it hasn’t still set large focus on the vans and S.U.V.s that make up 75 % of the passenger vehicle current market in the United States.

Rivian, on the other hand, is focused on generating “adventure” automobiles that owners can just take off highway, an solution that indicates Rivian won’t often contend head to head with Tesla.

“There’s a notion that this is winner choose all, and that is just incorrect,” Mr. Scaringe stated. “Consumers will need to have different makes, unique flavors. Our success is not at all mutually exceptional to others’ results.”

Rebecca Puck Stair is the form of car buyer Rivian hopes to attract. A movie locale scout in Albuquerque, she has been intrigued in getting an electric powered vehicle for a handful of years, but demands higher ground clearance and four-wheel travel for assignments that get her into the desert.

“That did not exist in the market place,” she explained. “A Tesla does not suit my requires.”

About a yr in the past, she listened to about Rivian for the to start with time and place a deposit down on an S.U.V. the future working day — like Tesla, the organization does not prepare to provide by means of sellers. Ms. Stair has noticed the Cybertruck, but the style and design is not for her. “It just screams ‘obnoxious man truck,’” she mentioned, laughing.

Rivian’s truck and S.U.V., which begin at $67,500, appear far more conventional, as if they could have been designed by Land Rover.