'Zero Debate': Why Rivian's CEO Is Sure The Future Will Be Electric

The automaker is America’s most successful EV startup after Tesla, with 51,579 car sales in 2024. Its R1S is one of the best-selling electric SUVs in America, and has been the best-selling premium SUV of any kind in California.

Yet headwinds remain. Sales have been down year-to-date, thanks in part to supply chain disruptions. It’s trying to ramp up a Georgia factory to make its $45,000 Rivian R2, crucial to the company’s broader appeal beyond its expensive current cars.

Now Rivian faces tariff costs, an end to EV tax credits and a loss of regulatory credit revenue. It may still achieve a full-year gross profit in 2025, however.

Still, with new electric models coming and a $6 billion deal to develop the Volkswagen Group’s future software and EV architectures, Scaringe said he’s confident about Rivian’s long game.

EVs and clean energy may be highly politicized in America, but they are inevitable in Scaringe’s mind.

“Imagine the history books 1,000 years from now … where we talk about how we industrialized the world” using fossil-fuel power. “We exhausted about half of it in a 100-year period, but then ultimately transitioned off.”

He added, “It's a finite supply. This is not a statement of opinion. This is a statement of fact. In a few hundred years, it just simply can't be unless our standard of living dramatically degrades.”

“That requires us to shift to energy systems that we can sustain beyond pumping oil out of Iran and digging coal out of the earth.”

America’s EV slowdown—cutting fuel economy regulations and tax credits—is bad news for the climate but “long-term, good for Rivian,” he said.

“You're going to have a sort of a vacuum of competition, and the pure play, EV-focused companies—Rivian, Tesla, there's not very many—will have the advantage of a pretty thin competitive playing field.”

Car companies slowing down on EVs today are “mortgaging the future of the business” for good quarterly results.

“The companies demonstrating the most leadership are willing to make the investments today, sacrifice short-term gains, to protect the long-term future.”

EVs are just better cars, he said. And better technology will win out in the end. But Americans need more affordable examples that can stand on their own merits. And climate guilt won’t win anyone over.

“It should not be, ‘I bought this because it's electric,’” he said. “It should be, ‘I bought this because it's awesome.’”

One thing that could naturally drive EV growth, he said, is the growing demand for increasingly autonomous vehicles. EVs are simply a better platform to power them than gas-driven cars. The technologies should naturally dovetail.

AI-powered models are transforming the autonomy industry, he said, and quickly replacing old, painstaking methods of “training” cars to drive themselves.

Autonomy itself is “our biggest effort within the business on technology,” Scaringe said. “By 2026, we’ll be hands-free, point-to-point. And then we’ll increasingly allow eyes-off.”

Rivian’s $5 billion partnership with the Volkswagen Group on software and future electric architectures is “going really well… I can't talk about programs that aren't announced yet, but there's a broad spectrum of products being done on this technology stack.”

That’s everything from $20,000 compact EVs to flagships from Porsche and Audi, he said.

The way gas cars are made today—piecemeal parts made by different supplier companies with separate software systems—won’t pass muster in the future. Clean-sheet EV designs with modern computing power will pave the way instead.

“We look at electrification as if it's independent from connected vehicles, software-defined vehicles,” Scaringe said. “They’re becoming one and the same.”

“It’s unimaginable to think about a leading vehicle manufacturer that's commanding significant market share in, let's say, 2035, and beyond, that doesn't have a software-defined architecture,” he added.

This inadvertently tracks with what Ford executives said when they unveiled their $30,000 EV truck program, coincidentally at the same time as our interview.

How is America responding to China’s rise as an engineering superpower? Well, we have… lawyers. [The Atlantic]

Wired calls it “The Global Car Reckoning”: Technology, new regulations and new trade rules are all moving faster than they can keep up with, when their businesses take years of capital-intensive planning. [Wired]

The U.S. automakers have an affordability problem, not just for EVs but for everything: “Detroit’s average vehicle now sells for around $55,000, roughly $10,000 to $20,000 more than the average for Japanese competitors… Sub-$30,000 vehicles have all but disappeared from U.S. dealerships.” [Bloomberg]

Western Europe saw a record number of EV registrations in the past quarter—nearly 600,000. [The Guardian]

Former Tesla charging boss Rebecca Tinucci, who joined Uber last year, has been named CEO of its struggling freight division. Can she turn things around? [Trucking Dive]

Fisker is dead, but its Ocean EV is seeing an entirely new life as a ride-share hero in New York City, reports my old friend and colleague Raphael Orlove. [Bloomberg CityLab]

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration does not want to hear about the approaching peak demand for oil and gas. [New York Times]

Nissan needs a win. With 303 miles of range and a $29,990 starting price, can the new 2026 Nissan Leaf deliver?

Is China’s hybrid and plug-in hybrid market slowing down, or just getting started? That seems to depend on who you ask. The outcome will say a lot about the world’s future gasoline use.

But in the rest of Asia, old-school, non-plug-in hybrids are winning the day. That could end up being the future of gas cars in America, too.

Speaking of China, I’m eager to see if this new, larger six-seat Tesla Model YL can reverse its sagging fortunes there. But don’t count on it coming to America anytime soon, or maybe ever.

Also in China: I am keeping a close eye on the success or failure of the new Audi E5 Sportback, made in China and aimed right at those buyers. I saw it in Shanghai earlier this year, and it seemed highly impressive—now it goes on sale for under $33,000.

Maybe big EV batteries aren’t so bad? When you get a car with one, you’re paying to charge much less often. I can attest to this after recently driving a 450-mile GMC Sierra EV, which I drove for a week and charged exactly once…

Gravity offers some of America’s fastest EV charging at 500 kilowatts, including one station right in the heart of New York City. Now, eight more hubs are coming to Connecticut, with 96 charging ports.

Meanwhile, China has five-minute EV fast-charging. Why can’t the U.S. do the same? Thanks for the shout-out, New York Times!

One unexpected thing holding up more at-home EV charging: “garage-use intent.” Or, put more simply, too many American garages double as storage units to be useful for home charging. [Telemetry]

The U.S. remains on target to add a record 16,500 DC fast-charging ports through the end of 2025. [Paren]

French company Electra proves that EV charging stations can be both fast and visually appealing. [InsideEVs]

Arnold Clark, one of the largest dealership groups in Europe, has opened its ultra-rapid EV charging network to the public, with more than 50 Arnold Clark Charge hubs now live across the UK. [Electrifying]

“The global automotive industry—and how we move through cities—could be at stake, depending on which CEO’s vision wins out.” Former Rolling Stone editor Noah Shachtman interviews Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana, whom he calls the “un-Elon.” [Vanity Fair]

Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox will partner with The Routing Company, founded by an ex-Uber Pool executive. [TechCrunch]

Southeast Asia’s superapp Grab will invest in tech firm WeRide to bring driverless taxis to the region. [Just Auto]

“A solid experimental effort that needs a lot of work to inspire confidence.” Tesla’s Robotaxi goes head-to-head with Waymo in this new test. [Motor Trend]

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology, and government innovation is asking tough questions about Hertz’s use of AI to appraise rental car damage. [The Hill]

Speaking of: Jaguar is using the same company’s technology for AI-powered inspection systems at U.S. ports. [Automotive Logistics]

One common failure point for automotive-related AI projects: “start[ing] with the technology rather than the business problem, attempting to force-fit AI where simpler solutions might suffice." [Automotive News]