Rivian Leaders Talk Policies, Brand Awareness and Vehicle Architecture

When it comes to electric trucks and sport utility vehicles, Rivian Automotive is often touted among the top players. In Q1, the company posted its second consecutive quarter of positive gross profit—a landmark that will land the company a $1 billion investment from industry giant Volkswagen Group. According to Rivian executives who hit the automotive conference circuit in recent weeks, it’s just the beginning for Rivian as it turns its focus to policy, brand awareness and partnerships while it waits to debut the R2.

Here's an overview of three of the key points CEO RJ Scaringe and CFO Claire McDonough discussed while speaking to investors at events hosted by TD Cowen, UBS, and Deutsche Bank.

It’s no secret that tariffs are creating fear and uncertainty for manufacturers of all kinds. Some automotive OEMs like Ford are bracing for impact, while others like Honda are pre-emptively pausing or cutting where they can. For domestic EV companies, tariffs have often been a perhaps surprising non-issue.

Speaking at the UBS Auto and Auto Tech conference earlier this month, Scaringe made it clear that regardless of who’s in power, Rivian is laser-focused on building a domestic supply chain.

“Whether we're in a Republican-led environment or a Democratic-led environment, there's a focus on technology being in the United States and manufacturing being in the United States,” he said, before adding that it’s not just an American phenomenon, but a “global change” of larger economies shifting to a focus on their home environment.

That trend also aligns with Rivian’s overall strategy.

“We're a U.S. company. We have well in excess of 15,000 employees here in the United States, produce our vehicles [here], and so we're incredibly vertically integrated on our technology and what we build.”

Rivian has one factory in Normal, Illinois, that has undergone multiple upgrades as the company prepares to increase its output and launch new models. Recently, it invested more than $100 million to co-locate key suppliers to the factory. Construction on the 1.2-million-square-foot park is expected to finish next year. The factory will also undergo a month-long planned shutdown later this year to upgrade its paint shop.

Beyond the Illinois location, Rivian is building a second factory in Georgia, which Scaringe described as “one of the best states” his team could hope for due to its politically mixed nature and business-friendly practices.

Brand awareness has also been heavy on the CEO’s mind. Speaking at the TD Cowen Future of the Consumer conference on June 3, Scaringe dove into how his team tried to balance providing a range of compelling options with simplified logistics when it came to the R2.

“When we launched [R1], we had a lot of trim combinations—too many in terms of color combinations with powertrain and battery pack,” he said. “On R2, we've really narrowed that, but we've done it very thoughtfully by combining and putting essentially into baskets different sets of features and different combinations of color and interior trim.”

The streamline goes beyond production. Rivian uses a direct-to-consumer model, meaning it doesn’t send vehicles to dealerships, but instead allows the customer to buy directly. A simpler portfolio, especially when R2 first launches, makes it much more likely that a customer could come into the store, see a vehicle trim and be driving that vehicles within a few days. That does mean the more expensive trims will come out first when R2 officially launches.

“Everybody wants something slightly different, but we want to have a very narrow set of build combinations […], and that initial narrow combination of vehicles we're building will be higher priced because it's a fully loaded vehicle,” Scaringe said.

However, it won’t be long before different specs hit the market, particularly the $45,000 starting trim Scaringe and his team have touted for the past year. It’s Rivian’s lowest-priced vehicle yet but will come with a lot of “expectation management,” which Scaringe said Rivian failed to get right with R1 and its initially large backlog.

“If we say we’re starting production on [a certain] date, everyone, regardless of when you put your order in, believes that you’re getting your vehicle on that day. It’s not as if we can instantly deliver hundreds of thousands of vehicles on day one of production,” he said.

Alongside Scaringe’s comments about the upcoming R2, CFO Claire McDonough discussed Rivian’s $5 billion software-focused joint venture with Volkswagen at the June 12 Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry Conference. In Q1, Rivian generated $167 million in revenue associated with the JV, roughly half of which McDonough said centered around Rivian’s background intellectual property and equity premiums, while the remaining half involved its development work for VW.

As part of the JV deal, Volkswagen will pay 75% of the shared development costs and Rivian 25% until 2029, when it will flip to an even split. But Volkswagen will also pay Rivian $100 million per year to “offset” expenses. McDonough also explained how the remaining billion-dollar payouts would be received.

“In 2026, we expect to receive $2 billion from Volkswagen Group, $1 billion associated with successful winter testing for two of the Volkswagen Group vehicle programs. The second $1 billion doesn't have a milestone associated with it, but we would expect to receive that $1 billion of nonrecourse debt in October of next year,” she said.

There will also be a $500 million payment in January 2028, when one of the first VW vehicles with the JV-developed technology launches.

McDonough also acknowledged that there may be opportunities for similar agreements with other OEMs, but the company’s “top priority” is on Volkswagen and its wide range of vehicles for now.

“By virtue of being able to service the full range of entry-level vehicles to Porches and Lamborghinis, you have the opportunity to then translate that framework to other potential OEMs as well,” she said. “There certainly is a meaningful opportunity to leverage this core technology stack.”