The story
Founded by Robert "RJ" Scaringe on Jun 2009.1
Beginnings (2009)
The company was founded in Rockledge, Florida in 2009 as Mainstream Motors by RJ Scaringe. After being renamed as Avera Automotive or Avera Motors, and finally Rivian Automotive in 2011 (a word play on the Indian River in Florida, where Scaringe grew up), the company began focusing on autonomous and electric vehicles.
Rivian's first car model was intended to be a sports car. This vehicle, dubbed the R1, was prototyped as a mid-engine hybrid coupe for the U.S. market, designed by Peter Stevens. However, it was shelved in late 2011 as Rivian looked to restart its business in an effort to have a larger impact on the automotive industry.
Rivian received a large investment and grew significantly in 2015, opening research facilities in Michigan and the San Francisco Bay Area. Shortly thereafter, Rivian began working exclusively on electric autonomous vehicles, in an attempt to build a network of related products. It also began gearing its prototypes toward the "ride-sharing and driverless car markets."
Setting up production (2016)
By September 2016, Rivian was negotiating to buy a manufacturing plant formerly owned by Mitsubishi Motors in Normal, Illinois. In January 2017, Rivian acquired the plant and its manufacturing machinery for $16 million, with the plant to become Rivian's primary North American manufacturing facility. Rivian's acquisition of a near production-ready facility instead of building a new factory has been likened to Tesla's acquisition of the NUMMI plant in California.
In December 2017, Rivian revealed its first two products: an electric five-passenger pickup truck and an electric seven-passenger SUV, provisionally named the A1T and A1C, respectively. In November 2018, the truck and SUV were renamed the R1T and R1S, respectively, and unveiled at the LA Auto Show. Both vehicles were described as ready for rough terrain and semi-autonomous, and the company outlined a plan for its next generation of models to be fully autonomous. Production was scheduled to begin in 2020.
Rivian had 250 employees at the start of 2018. By February 2019, Rivian was employing 750 people across facilities in Michigan, Illinois, California, and the United Kingdom. In November 2020, Rivian employed 3,000-plus workers. Over the span of another year, employment roughly tripled, and in November 2021, Rivian had 9,000-plus employees.
Shipment of first models, IPO, and expansion (2021)
In late 2020, Rivian planned to begin shipments of the R1T in June 2021. The June 2021 date later slipped to August. By August, vehicle shipments were delayed again, partly due to the global shortage of microchips. In September 2021, Rivian became the first automaker to bring a fully electric pickup to the consumer market, beating industry mainstays such as GM, Ford, and Tesla. In October 2021, Rivian began delivering the R1T truck to customers.
On November 10, 2021, Rivian became a public company through an IPO. 153 million shares were sold at an initial offering price of $78.00, valuing the company at $66.5 billion. The shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker "RIVN". On its first trading day, the stock closed at $100.73 per share, valuing the company at just under $100 billion. On November 19, 2021, Ford and Rivian announced that the two automakers no longer plan to co-develop an electric vehicle. Ford announced the company would retain a 12 percent stake in Rivian, which reached a value of more than $10 billion after the IPO. Ford had sold around 90 percent of its stake in Rivian for $3 billion by the end of 2022, an increase from its $1.2 billion investment. In December 2021, at the same time that Rivian began to deliver its R1S SUVs, Rivian's chief operations officer, Rod Copes, stepped down and retired from the company as it began to ramp up production of its vehicles.
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On March 1, 2022, Rivian announced price increases of 17% for the R1T and 20% for the R1S, citing a shortage of semiconductors and higher costs for other components. There was immediate backlash from customers that had previously made reservations as the price hike would also affect their preorders. Rivian later apologized for the retroactive price increases and stated that the original configured price would be honored for anyone with a Rivian preorder as of the March 1 pricing announcement. On March 14, 2022, Rivian announced the company hired Frank Klein as its COO (chief operations officer). Klein began on June 1, 2022.
In March 2022, Rivian made it to TIME's List of 100 Most Influential Companies of the year 2022. On July 27, 2022, Rivian announced it would reduce its workforce by 6% in response to high inflation, rising interest rates, and an increase in parts prices. In September 2022, Rivian signed an MoU with Mercedes-Benz Group to establish a joint venture to invest in and operate a factory in Europe, producing large commercial electric vans starting in a few years. The facility will have a common assembly line to produce a different design for each company. The New York Times characterized the move as "a rare example of cooperation between a traditional carmaker and a new challenger" and noted that Mercedes' extensive experience in manufacturing may allow Rivian to overcome its own issues with it. Rivian cancelled this planned partnership in December 2022, but stated that future collaborations may still be possible. After the company received seven reports of loose torque bolts that did not result in injury, in October 2022, Rivian issued a voluntary recall of 13,000 vehicles.
In January 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported the company experienced the departure of multiple top executives in recent months, including some who were among its longest-tenured employees, in what was referred to as a "challenging period for Rivian."
On June 20, 2023, Rivian announced that it would incorporate Tesla's electric vehicle charging standard, the North American Charging System (NACS) into its R1T trucks and R1S SUVs in 2025, as well as in its upcoming R2 platform. As early as the second quarter of 2024, Rivian owners may be able to use adapters to connect to Tesla's Supercharger network.
A day after the big NACS announcement, on June 21, Rivian announced the acquisition of Iternio, the Swedish mapping company known for its popular EV route-planning app, A Better Route Planner (ABRP), and integrated it into the in-car navigation system. In addition to Rivian mobile app integration, the company said it plans to maintain the standalone ABRP app.
In late 2023, it was reported that Amazon's total fleet size of the EDV had reached 10,000 units. In October 2023, the company also ended the exclusivity deal it had with Amazon, allowing Rivian to supply other commercial customers with its electric delivery vehicles. In December 2023 telecommunications company AT&T announced it would take delivery of the trucks from Rivian as part of a trial process for its fleet.
In October 2023 Rivian announced plans to open a new Georgia manufacturing facility with an annual production capacity of 400,000 units in early 2024. In March, 2026, plans for vertical construction to begin by the end of 2026 were announced for the Georgia facility at a meeting of the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton Counties.
Further expansion struggles, and partnership with Volkswagen (2024)
On February 21, 2024, Rivian announced it would be laying off 10% of its salaried workers beginning on February 23, 2024.
In March 2024, the project to open a factory in Georgia was put on hold for financial reasons. It was started up again in November 2024 when the federal government under the Biden Administration announced a $6 billion loan for the factory.
On March 7, 2024, Rivian unveiled the R2 SUV that starts from $45,000, much less than current models, and the R3, that will cost even less than the R2.
On June 25, 2024, Volkswagen Group announced its intention to invest up to $5 billion in Rivian. The investment will commence with an initial $1 billion, with an additional $4 billion anticipated by 2026. This commitment includes $1 billion slated for each of 2025 and 2026, followed by an additional $2 billion in 2026 earmarked for a prospective joint venture aimed at developing electrical architecture and software technology.
Rivian and Volkswagen Group officially launched a joint venture to develop next-generation software-defined vehicle platforms, combining Rivian’s software and Volkswagen’s global scale and manufacturing capabilities.
It was reported on July 29, 2024, that Germany's competition authority gave green light to the form of the joint venture by the two companies.
In February 2025, Rivian opened orders for their Electric Commercial Van (ECV) to businesses managing fleets.
In July 2025, Rivian announced plans to establish an East Coast headquarters at the Junction Krog District building adjacent to the Eastside Beltline in Atlanta, Georgia. The 45,000 ft2 (4,200 m2) office is set to open in late 2025 with plans to accommodate 500 employees by the end of 2026.
For the first quarter of 2026, Rivian produced 10,236 vehicles and delivered 10,365, figures that the company stated were in line with its internal projections. Following the release of these results on April 2, 2026, the company reaffirmed its annual delivery guidance of between 62,000 and 67,000 vehicles for the 2026 fiscal year.
In June 2026, Rivian began customer deliveries of the R2, its midsize electric SUV and first vehicle built on its midsize platform. The R2 was introduced as the company's first lower-priced mass-market model and was viewed as central to Rivian's long-term growth strategy.
In July 2026, Rivian reported second-quarter deliveries of 12,194 vehicles and increased its full-year 2026 delivery guidance to between 65,000 and 70,000 vehicles, citing stronger-than-expected demand for the R1 lineup, commercial vans, and the newly launched R2.
Entry into autonomous vehicles (2025)
In December 2025, Rivian announced that it will be hosting its first "Autonomy and AI Day" to showcase their autonomous capabilities with their end-to-end AI-centric approach, which they believe will help them improve profitability.
In an interview by Fortune on December 9, 2025, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe announced his goal of creating an autonomous vehicle (AV) that goes beyond driving, and that is able to run and coordinate tasks and errands for people.
From Wikipedia’s article on Rivian, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8