'A Better Product Will Always Win'—An Ex-Rivian Exec's Bold Take On Where EVs Go Next

🌟 Editor's Note

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This Week’s Big Charge

🛻 A conversation with former Rivian exec and current Eclipse Ventures partner Jiten Behl on what’s next in the EV and autonomy space.

It’s hard out there in the electric mobility space. U.S. tariffs are hammering the entire auto industry, electric-vehicle tax credits are evaporating, and after years of rosy optimism, the future of the EV transition looks murkier than ever.

But making cars has always been hard. And Jiten Behl knows just how hard.

Behl started at Rivian back when it was, in his words, “just 10 of us in a garage in Livonia, Michigan.”

Now it’s one of the most promising electric-vehicle startups in the world, on the cusp of launching the more affordable Rivian R2 next year, and teaming with the Volkswagen Group for a transformative $6 billion vehicle software joint venture.

After nearly nine years at Rivian and roles that included Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Growth Officer, Behl left Rivian in 2024 to join the Palo Alto-based venture-capital firm Eclipse. The firm focuses on manufacturing, supply chains, energy and more, and Behl works on projects related to electric mobility and autonomy: “on-road and off,” he told me.

Behl also led the spinoff of Rivian’s new e-bike and e-mobility venture Also, which he calls his “second baby” after Rivian.

Also aims to use Rivian-developed software and electric motors for things like e-bikes, scooters, mopeds and neighborhood electric vehicles—a space that’s huge in much of the world and growing fast but has no single, clear leader. But Also’s been cagey about what its first product even is. Behl gave us a hint:

“I’ll keep the mystery for a little longer,” he said. “It has two wheels. I can tell you that.”

So when Behl reached out to chat with Route Zero, I wanted to get his take on this current moment—and get a sense of where capital firms are putting their money right now. Turns out he’s more optimistic than many.

What followed was a great discussion about electrification, autonomy, automation and AI as they apply to cars. Here’s the highlight reel:

⚡️ On Electrification:

Behl said he’s confident the market share held by EVs will only increase over time.

• “It’s always been something in terms of reasons to sort of doubt the transition,” he said. “Ten years back, we were talking about charging infrastructure. Then there were doubts about quality and reliability, especially from the new players.”

• Many of those early challenges have improved exponentially.

• “My view, first as an entrepreneur in the space and now as an investor, is that… policies are going to change and they're going to change back. What's not going to change is that no one is switching back from buying an electric car to a gas car.”

• Put more bluntly: “Forget they're electric for a moment. They're just better cars. And a better product will always win.”

• However, he doesn’t foresee a new electric car company emerging anytime soon. “I think the space is right now fairly saturated… if you look at where the innovation lies, that is investable from a venture capital space, it's more on autonomy, automation and AI.”

🤖 On Autonomy

New developments in autonomous driving technology will drive more EV growth, Behl predicts.

• “Every autonomy stack is going to be based on electric architectures,” he said, referring to the hardware and software components that enable a car to drive autonomously. “They provide a good host to build an autonomy stack on top of it.”

• I’ve heard this before. Mechanical simplicity, software updates, computing power and even energy demands mean autonomous cars won’t be gas cars.

• Expect a lot of changes as those technologies dovetail, Behl said.

• “I think there's going to be a lot that's going to change just in the way vehicles are designed, vehicles are built… It's going to give rise to new types of companies trying to manage autonomous fleets around the world.”

🧠 On AI Driving ‘Autonomy 2.0’

I asked Behl why we’re seeing such a comeback for autonomous cars lately (see more below!) after the lofty promises and failed efforts of companies like Uber, Argo AI and even Apple.

The difference now, he said, really is AI with machine learning:

• “The 1.0 era was based around having a lot of sensors,” he said. “Rule-based. Telling the models that if this happens, then you should do this.”

• He likened it to learning to drive a car, then having to re-learn every time you visit a new city. Heavy, expensive and complex.

• “What shifted with [autonomy] 2.0 is that reinforcement learning, or end-to-end learning, where you basically train a model to behave like a human,” he said. “We are seeing many autonomy providers either shifting to 2.0, or starting with the 2.0 framework.”

• It’s why his fund invested in Wayve, a London-based AI self-driving tech developer, which he called “one of the pioneers in this end-to-end learning.”

• I asked about Tesla’s controversial approach to self-driving, which relies on cameras and AI, and Behl said this has its limits: “I think Tesla has taken it publicly too far in terms of reducing the modalities. If you ask me, [I think] they will add some other types of sensors to their architecture.” But the concept of training AI with real-world data is “exactly right,” he said.

🤖 On Automation

Perhaps most interestingly, Behl said investors are keen on automation on the manufacturing side—including robotics—in part to contend with China’s super-low labor costs.

• “[Carmakers] have proved that automation works,” he said. “Imagine taking that to the next and the next level and the final one.”

• This may be a kind of necessity if the U.S. wants to move off China’s supply chains, but still access affordable goods. "Will it level the playing field fully? I'm not sure, but I think it will play a big part,” he said.

• “We’re going to see a 1.0 version of robotics and automation in the next, you know, five years,” Behl said. “But somewhere in this 2030 to 2035, timeframe, we're going to see serious automation deployed in manufacturing plants, where human work will be substituted by robots.”

💡 My Take:

• As someone who’s covered a lot of broken “We’re going all-electric by 2030!” promises, I tend to be more skeptical about the timelines of these developments.

• But broadly and long-term? Behl is right about where things are headed.

• The convergence of different technologies driving EV growth naturally is a fascinating concept.

• America still doesn’t have an answer for what that degree of automation will mean for employment.

• I agree that no serious car company should be looking to go “back to gas” long-term amid America’s current shift.

• Behl asks a crucial question of automakers: “Who is committed to electrification? I would definitely say that any company that is built with electrification as the foundational element of that company is far more likely to succeed than one that’s not sure whether [the future] is going to be electric or gasoline.”

📰 More Stories That Matter

• The big story in the climate space: the EPA’s move to reverse the very idea that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health. It would erase limits on emissions from cars and trucks, freeing automakers to theoretically pollute as much as they want.

• American consumers are worried about gas prices, think car prices will be higher next year, and feel increasingly positive about EVs, according to a new study. These two items feel related somehow…

• The climate policy reversal has real and tangible effects on jobs, too. Battery factory projects, mostly in Republican districts, “are being paused, cancelled, and closed at a rate six times more than during the same period in 2024”—and taking jobs with them. [Politico]

• But other players are picking up the pieces. Lithium-sulfur battery manufacturer Lyten just raised $200 million to continue acquiring the assets of bankrupt EV battery company Northvolt.

• While it still shows promise in the commercial space, automakers are finally coming to their senses about hydrogen-powered cars. (I don’t rule it out in the long term, however!)

• Toyota’s employees worry the Japanese automaker isn’t equipped to move fast on software and other future tech. [Bloomberg]

🔍 On My Radar

• I am not convinced this EPA pollution reversal will lead to some big revival for V8 engines and gas-guzzlers. Car companies are global, and they face stricter emissions and fuel economy rules everywhere else in the world. And demand for hybrid cars is through the roof. We’ll see how they actually respond.

• Tesla is making headlines for things other than the antics of its CEO (mostly, anyway) including signing a $4.3 billion contract for LFP energy storage systems with Korean giant LG Energy Systems.

• Meanwhile, Tesla VP of engineering Lars Moravy is talking up a baby Cybertruck, the new Roadster, battery improvements… everything but what people want, which is a newer, cheaper Tesla model.

• The one to watch this year may be the revived Chevrolet Bolt, back with a Tesla plug, LFP batteries and a price tag we estimate to be $30,000 or less.

• Kia’s incentives are drying up as the tariff costs hit. Who’s next?

• In more fun news, Audi will reveal a new electric sports car in September, a quasi-Audi TT successor. Most likely, it’s a cousin to the new electric Porsche 718 Cayman/Boxster.

🔌 Charging News

• “A sharp rebound in deployments”: Data analysis firm Paren reports that America’s EV fast-charging network is quietly skyrocketing, with 16,700 new ports projected to open in 2025—about 2.4x what we saw three years ago.

• At InsideEVs, writer Suvrat Kothari examines the also-quiet success of charging hardware provider Alpitronic, which went from zero to Tesla-challenger in under a year.

• ChargePoint’s new Safeguard Care program sends field technicians to check on chargers before they break down, especially in places without dedicated maintenance.

• Love’s Travel Stops, a gas station staple in the South, is also stepping up its fast-charging game for road-trippers. Extremely smart to pair charging with gas stations.

• EVgo secures a $300 million loan to expand its fast-charging network across the U.S. as well. [L.A. Business First]

• As federal money slows down, states and cities are stepping up to fill the void. San Francisco has secured $5 million in grants for a charging expansion, especially for municipal-owned fleet vehicles.

• New York utility PSEG Long Island is taking steps to minimize blackouts caused by EV charging with the ChargeScape app, and drivers can get paid for taking part. [Newsweek]

🤖Autonomy News

• Self-driving trucking company Aurora has begun fully driverless night operations in Texas.

• After months of successful rides in Austin, Waymo is headed to Dallas. And rental-car giant Avis will manage its fleet.

• Tesla’s Robotaxi service seems imminent for a launch in San Francisco, although it’ll have a human in the driver’s seat due to local regulations—”more taxi than robot,” as CNBC’s Lora Kolodny writes.

• And Tesla seems poised to greatly expand its operating area in Austin, too.

• Lyft, which is well behind rival Uber in the autonomy space, aims to add driverless shuttles as early as next year, made by German supplier Benteler’s mobility arm Holon.

• What do consumers want in their own cars? More and more, it’s hands-off semi-autonomous driving for highway use, like GM’s SuperCruise and Ford’s BlueCruise. [AutoPacific]

🧠 AI News

• If autonomous cars are learning through AI, what behaviors should they learn from human drivers, who are kind of terrible? [ComputerWorld]

• French automaker Alpine is leaning more into AI to design new cars, reports Alex Goy for Motor1.

• Rental giant Hertz faces a continued backlash against AI scans for damage to cars, leading to customers getting charged for “nonexistent dings.” [Futurism]

• Tesla has hinged its entire future on autonomy, AI and robotics, but its Optimus robot problem is reportedly running into snags—especially with the robot’s hands. [The Information]

📤️ Spread the Charge

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❓️ How’s My Driving?

This is a work in progress, so all feedback is welcome. Send me your thoughts anytime.

💡 Did You Know? The first LIDAR prototype was created by the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1961.

Until next time,

—Patrick George