Topics
previous
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Rivian
Apps
Biotech & Health
mood
Image Credits:Rivian
Cloud Computing
Department of Commerce
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
fundraise
Gadgets
Gaming
Government & Policy
Hardware
Layoffs
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
privateness
Robotics
surety
Social
Space
inauguration
TikTok
Transportation
speculation
More from TechCrunch
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Rivianhas had a fortune on its plate as it transitioned from pitch mode to selling EVs . It create an electric pickup and an electric SUV while preppinga monster IPO . It made galvanising delivery vans for Amazon and want to do the same for other ship’s company . It now contrive to sell aneven cheaper SUVthat could make Rivian a dominant EV player for long time to come . And it wanted to progress an entirely new factory in Georgia where it would manufacture many of these vehicle .
With so many variables , the precise shape of the company ’s future was hard to augur .
That has changed .
Earlier on Thursday , the fellowship announced afully revamped version of its first two consumer vehicles , the R1 T pickup arm and the R1S SUV . Not only are they more technologically advanced , Rivian also made them more childlike in a bidding to dramatically slash the cost of building them .
Rivian also recentlyset aside its plan to establish that factory in Georgiafor now , opting alternatively to duplicate - down on its live quickness in Illinois . The decision is go to save the company $ 2.25 billion and means it can focus all its efforts on one manufacturing faculty in one factory .
These change mean that , for the first metre since thecompany break stealth in 2018 , Rivian ’s immediate time to come is in reality signally clear . The fellowship needs to betray these revamped vehicle at a gain to sustain itself long enough to get to the cheaper mass market R2 SUV on the route ( and the adorableR3 variantthat take the automotive world by storm earlier this year ) . It know just where that will happen , and it eff what it will take to get there .
“ With Rivian ’s latest move to refresh the R1 T and R1S electron volt , you’re able to begin to see how the company aims to graph its agency forward across the ‘ EV vale of death , ’ ” Corey Cantor , senior fellow for galvanizing vehicle at BloombergNEF , said in an e-mail to TechCrunch . “ If successful , they can use the fruit of this process as they scale - up the R2 and reach the mass market , en route to the R3 . ”
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Other EV startups arguably have a harder course through that “ valley of death . ”
Take Lucid Motors , for exemplar . The company has a well - regarded mathematical product in the Lucid Air sedan . But it has struggled to find buyers for the Air , with its own CEO Peter Rawlinson publicly admitting to failures on the marketing side . It ’s only embark around 12,000 cable car to date , at leastas of the end of the first quarter of this year .
Lucid Motors is now pinning a passel of its hopes on theforthcoming Gravity SUV . That vehicle should have wider appeal , given the popularity of the SUV figure factor . But its achiever is nowhere virtually guaranteed , especially because it ’s starting at a relatively high price pointedness of “ under $ 80,000 . ” And Lucid Motors want the Gravity to succeed if it ever hope to get to its ownplanned midsize , mass - market place EV .
Other EV startups face more doubt . Canoo has changed its occupation framework so many sentence that it ’s often tough to keep tabs on what it plans to do with its bulb-shaped EVs , first revealedin 2019 . presently , the plan is to sell to fleets and administration entity . Faraday Future has beenspending as much time fightingwith its landlord as it has trying to sell its own luxury EV . Fisker ison the verge of bankruptcyafter dealing with underwhelming sales of its electric SUV and uncounted calibre and service problems .
It wo n’t be easy for Rivian . It ’s forecasting essentiallyno growth this year compare to 2023 , and it go off on a flat foot . It may involve to raise more money as a result — a intriguing feat in the current economy .
But the company says the change to the R1 batting order set it on the path to reaching “ positivistic unadulterated profits ” by the end of this year . That ’s a big raft moot Rivian is still losing tens of thousand of dollar on each car it sells . If Rivian wants to survive long enough to send its more low-priced aggregated - market place R2 , it really necessitate these revamped fomite to sell well .
“ The route ahead is clearer than it was a year ago as Rivian has laid out its skinny - term plan , ” Cantor tell . “ But finally execution of both gainfulness and eminent - volume EV sale is what is required for Rivian to become one of this decade ’s EV success stories . ”
