RJ Scaringe: Rivian's High-Stakes Bet on the R2 SUV

Rivian's CEO on Tesla's Cybertruck, Ferrari's Luce, and What Happens If the R2 Fails

When I sat down with RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian Automotive, I expected a deep dive into the technical specifications of the company's latest electric SUV. Instead, what unfolded was a compelling conversation about the state of the EV industry, the strategic decisions that shaped Rivian's trajectory, and the high stakes involved in bringing the R2 to market.

The road to Rivian has been anything but smooth. The company spent nearly a decade in stealth mode before making its debut at the 2018 LA Auto Show with two electric vehicles nobody had seen coming. Since then, it's faced massive financial losses, a stock price that's plummeted from $130 to around $16, and intense competition from Tesla, which has sold 8 million vehicles since 2021—compared to Rivian's 175,000 units.

But Scaringe is not one to shy away from challenges. In fact, he embraces them, particularly when they come with a chance for transformation. The stakes couldn't be higher with the R2, the new SUV that must sell in large numbers to validate Rivian's vision.

The Ferrari Luce and the Virtue of Buttons

Our conversation began with Scaringe's thoughts on Ferrari's Luce—a vehicle that's garnered a lot of attention for its design. He praised the work of Jony Ive and Marc Newson, calling their approach intentional and thoughtful. “There's not a decision on that car that's unintentional,” he said.

While Scaringe admitted he wouldn't own a Ferrari, he was clear in his admiration for the Luce's interior design—especially its switches and buttons. He noted how beautifully executed the haptics were, pointing out how Jony Ive's fingerprints are all over it. For Scaringe, the Luce demonstrates that there's still value in physical controls, even in an age of digital interfaces.

“It's just great to see more EV choice, because particularly in the United States, there's such a void,” Scaringe explained. “About 50 or 60 percent of the market share is two vehicles: the Model 3 and the Model Y. These have been on the road for a while, yet they outsell everything else. If we want to electrify, we need to have a lot more choice than just those two.”

Competing with Tesla's Cybertruck

The conversation then turned to Tesla's Cybertruck, which Scaringe described as a product that took a big swing—albeit one that didn't quite pay off. “It was very, very niche in terms of some of the design decisions and product trade-offs [Tesla] made,” he said. “Cybertruck is the exact opposite of the Model 3 and Model Y.”

He emphasized that while Tesla deserves credit for the courage it took to launch such a radical vehicle, its lack of mass-market appeal meant that it wouldn't be a mainstream success. “You sometimes take big swings with something that's wild,” Scaringe said, “and they definitely took a very big swing.”

He also addressed Polestar's current struggles, noting that the brand hasn't yet managed to create a compelling package of price, features, and design that resonates with consumers. “The cars look great,” he said. “But I do think the whole package—price, content, features—just hasn't connected with consumers in the way that we hope R2 does.”

Rivian's Risk and Resilience

With the R2 on the horizon, Scaringe made it clear that the company's future is now riding on this vehicle. “We build software in-house, electronics in-house. We build our own in-house silicon,” he explained. “If Rivian stayed a 50,000-unit-a-year company, that would be an extraordinarily expensive way to do that.”

The company's investments in infrastructure are staggering. From its own sales locations and service network to parts distribution and vehicle prep centers, Rivian has laid the groundwork for R2's success. Scaringe made it clear: “The plan is to be a large company. The plan is for R2 to work.”

He also discussed how they're preparing for a potential R2 failure, acknowledging that such a scenario would require a major reconfiguration of the business. “To have a 6,000-person engineering team to sell 50,000 vehicles just wouldn't make sense,” he noted. “To be vertically integrating deep down to the silicon as we have would be impossible to rationalize.”

Autonomy: The Future of Driving

One area where Rivian has made significant strides is in autonomous driving technology. Scaringe emphasized that their Gen 3 autonomy system, which will be deployed on future R2 models, will use in-house silicon capable of 800 trillion operations per second per chip. That's a 4x increase over the Nvidia-based solution currently used.

He also addressed criticism regarding the Gen 1 autonomy that shipped with the R1s—a system that many early adopters were unhappy with. “We realized as we were launching that it was the wrong approach,” Scaringe said. “A very different approach was emerging, which has now become so well understood because of LLMs: this idea of using transformers to do encoding and to be able to build very complex models that represent human understanding.”

“What we're launching with R2 is actually an in-between step; better than what's on R1 today, but not what's going to be coming to the R2,” Scaringe explained. “This in-between step is still going to be very capable. It's the same model, running what we call LDM, our large driving model, that will grow to point-to-point supervised.”

While R2 won't have Level 3 or Level 4 autonomous capabilities at launch, Scaringe believes customers are buying into a vision of what's to come. “Why does someone buy an iPhone 17?” he asked. “People buy an iPhone 17 fully knowing there's gonna be an iPhone 18.”

Buttons and Haptics: A New Era of UI

One thing that stood out during our conversation was Scaringe's passion for tactile feedback in the car. Despite being a tech leader, he's not against physical controls. “There are going to be decisions we make that some people don't like,” he admitted. “But one of those is the decision to be very multi-touch heavy.”

He highlighted Rivian's innovative haptic wheels on the steering wheel as a way to bridge the gap between digital and physical interaction. “These have feedback, but as much as it feels like it's clicking, it's all software,” Scaringe said. “This allows us to adjust that over time.”

He sees this as part of a larger trend in car interiors. “I think the Luce did a really interesting job of trying to explore multi-touch and buttons together. I actually think the car will end up being quite influential on how people do interiors.”

Competing with China's EV Giants

Rivian is no stranger to global competition. As Xiaomi, another tech giant, enters the EV market, Scaringe acknowledged the speed at which these companies are moving—especially in China. “What has happened in China is they started as fully capitalized businesses,” he said.

But Scaringe's confidence in Rivian's technology shines through. He noted that the company's joint venture with Volkswagen Group is already beginning to impact how their tech performs against Chinese rivals. “The first deployment is in the Volkswagen ID.1 [which will use Rivian tech], so that's a $20,000 car, one of the lowest-cost EVs in Europe, but it has to compete against the BYD low-cost EVs.”

“We're working with the Volkswagen Group, including the sub-brands Porsche, Audi, and so on,” he said. “And we feel really confident in the tech.”

The Future of Autonomous Features

One of the most intriguing aspects of Rivian's strategy is its approach to autonomous driving features. Currently, customers pay $2,500 for these capabilities. Scaringe was clear about his view on pricing: “In a world where there's a very small number of people that develop autonomous capabilities, it will likely still carry some charge or premium.”

He likened this to how airbags used to be an option in the 1990s. “If you can, you should—if it supports building your business, building your technology,” he said. Scaringe doesn't expect the price tag to disappear anytime soon, but believes autonomous features will become embedded in the vehicle's purchase price, just like airbags.

The Road Ahead

As for what comes next, Scaringe was focused on R2 and its production timeline. “We're making rapid progress on the Georgia facility, and we're on target to begin producing R2s on the line by the end of 2028,” he said. The plant will produce 300,000 units annually in its initial phase.

While excitement for the R3 is evident, Scaringe emphasized that “R3 will come after R2.” His focus is on ramping up production and delivering R2 first. “We're focused on ramping up production and delivering R2,” he reiterated.

Rivian's future may rest on the success of one vehicle, but with a clear strategy, a strong foundation, and leadership that isn't afraid to take bold steps, it's an ambitious bet worth watching.