Rivian

Robert "RJ" Scaringe launched the business in 2009 as Mainstream Motors. The firm started concentrating on autonomous and electric vehicles after changing its name to Avera Automotive, Avera Motors, and eventually Rivian Automotive in 2011 (a word play on the Indian River in Florida, where Scaringe grew up).

The first vehicle produced by Rivian was envisioned as a sports automobile. For the American market, Peter Stevens prototyped this car, known as the R1, as a mid-engine hybrid coupe. But as Rivian attempted to relaunch its business and make a bigger effect on the automotive sector in late 2011, it was put on hold.

Rivian increased dramatically in 2015 because to a major investment and the construction of research centers in Michigan and the San Francisco Bay Area. Soon after, Rivian shifted its focus entirely to developing electric autonomous cars in an effort to create a network of connected goods. Additionally, it started to focus its prototypes on "ride-sharing and driverless car markets."

By September 2016, Rivian was in contract talks to purchase a Mitsubishi Motors-era manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois. The plant was purchased by Rivian in January 2017 for $16 million, and it will serve as the company's main North American manufacturing location. Rivian's decision to buy a facility that is almost ready for production rather than construct a new facility has been compared to Tesla's purchase of the NUMMI plant in California.

The electric five-passenger pickup truck and the electric seven-passenger SUV, which Rivian has tentatively designated the A1T and A1C, respectively, were unveiled by the company in December 2017. The truck and SUV were dubbed the R1T and R1S, respectively, and made their public debuts at the LA Auto Show in November 2018. The business detailed a goal for its future generation of cars to be fully autonomous, describing both vehicles as capable of tough terrain and semi-autonomous. In 2020, production was supposed to start.

At the beginning of 2018, Rivian employed 250 people. Rivian, on the other hand, employed 750 people[30] by February 2019 at plants in Michigan, Illinois, California, and the UK. Rivian had more than 3,000 employees as of November 2020. Within a further year, employment more than tripled, and as of November 2021, Rivian was reported to have more than 9,000 workers.

Rivian intended to start shipping the R1T in June 2021 towards the end of 2020.[31] Later, the June 2021 deadline was moved to August. By August, car shipments had once more been delayed, in part because of the global chip shortage. Rivian fought off industry heavyweights like GM, Ford, and Tesla to be the first carmaker to introduce a completely electric truck to the consumer market in September 2021. Deliveries by Rivian started in October 2021.


Rivian went public on November 10, 2021 through an IPO. The corporation was valued at $66.5 billion after 153 million shares were sold at an initial offering price of $78.00. Under the symbol "RIVN," the shares had their Nasdaq debut. The corporation was worth little less than $100 billion when the stock's first trading day finished at a price of $100.73 per share.


Ford and Rivian said on November 19, 2021, that they would no longer be working together to create an electric car. Ford declared that it will keep a 12 percent share in Rivian, which had an IPO value of almost $10 billion. By the end of 2022, Ford sold almost 90% of its Rivian holding for $3 billion, an increase.

As Rivian ramped up manufacturing of its cars in December 2021, Rod Copes, the company's chief operating officer, resigned and left the organization at the same time that it started delivering its R1S SUVs.


Rivian announced price hikes for the R1T and R1S of 17% and 20%, respectively, effective March 1, 2022. The company gave as reasons a scarcity of semiconductors and rising pricing for other components. Customers who had previously made reservations were outraged right away since the price increase would also effect their preorders. Later, Rivian issued an apology for the retroactive price hikes and promised to respect the original set price for everyone who has placed a Rivian preorder as of the pricing announcement on March 1.
Rivian announced the appointment of Frank Klein as its new chief operating officer on March 14, 2022. On June 1st, 2022, Klein started.

Rivian was included on TIME's list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of the Year 2022 in March of that year.

Rivian declared on July 27, 2022, that due to increasing inflation, rising interest rates, and rising part costs, it would be 6% of its current workforce.

According to regulatory documents from August 2022, billionaire George Soros sold almost 8.5 million of the company's shares while concurrently purchasing Tesla and Ford.


Rivian and Mercedes-Benz Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2022 to form a joint venture to purchase and run a facility in Europe that would begin building big commercial electric vans in "a few years." The factory will use a shared assembly line to create a unique design for every business. The decision was described as "a rare example of cooperation between a traditional carmaker and a new challenger" by The young York Times, who also pointed out that Rivian could be able to get over its own production challenges thanks to Mercedes' enormous knowledge. In December 2022, Rivian said that this proposed relationship will not proceed as anticipated, but added that future partnerships would still be feasible.


Following the discovery of a production flaw in October 2022, Rivian issued a recall for 13,000 automobiles.

The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2023 that during what was described as a "challenging period for Rivian," the business had lost a number of top executives, some of whom were among its longest-serving personnel.

Rivian - Electric Adventure Vehicles

Rivian
https://rivian.com
Whether it's taking families on new adventures or helping fleets electrify at scale, our vehicles all share a common goal —