Another major trend that is reshaping the auto industry is autonomous cars. On Tuesday, Cruise, a unit of GM that operates in this area, announced that it raised $ 2 billion from Microsoft, GM, Honda and other investors. Rivian and Tesla are also working on automated steering technology.
Rivian is different from Tesla in several ways. Tesla has so far grown by selling sports sedans, a type of vehicle that is falling out of favor with consumers. Tesla plans to start making a strangely angular and futuristic pickup, the Cybertruck, later this year. But it still hasn’t put much emphasis on trucks and SUVs that make up 75% of the passenger car market in the United States.
Rivian, on the other hand, is focused on producing “adventure” vehicles that owners can take off the road, an approach that means that Rivian will not compete face to face with Tesla. “There is a perception that this is the winner takes everything, and that is just wrong,” he said. “Consumers need to have different brands, different flavors. Our success is not mutually exclusive to the success of others. “
Rebecca Puck Stair is the type of car buyer that Rivian hopes to attract. A movie rental hunter in Albuquerque, NM, she has been interested in buying an electric vehicle for a few years, but needs great ground clearance and four-wheel drive for tasks that take her to the desert. “It didn’t exist in the market,” she said. “A Tesla does not meet my needs.”
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About a year ago, she first heard of Rivian and made a deposit in an SUV the next day – like Tesla, the company does not plan to sell through dealers. Mrs. Stair saw the Cybertruck, but the design is not for her. “He shouts ‘nasty-looking truck,'” she said laughing.
Rivian’s pickup truck and SUV, which start at $ 67,500, look more conventional, as if they could have been designed by Land Rover.
Unlike Tesla, who is trying to grow quickly, Rivian is taking measured steps. Last year, before the pandemic hit, he said he planned to make about 20,000 pickups and SUVs in 2021 and about 40,000 in 2022. He has not yet offered an updated forecast. The goal is to have a production capacity in Normal of 250,000 vehicles per year until the middle of the decade. The company did not disclose how many orders it received, but a spokeswoman said it has customers in line for all vehicles it expects to manufacture this year.