Rivian CEO Scaringe Talks Competition And Strong Demand In EV Market

A day after Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ: RIVN) reported production and delivery numbers for the third quarter, CEO RJ Scaringe shared his thoughts on the road ahead, including increasing competition from other EV makers. 

Rivian on Monday announced that it produced 16,304 vehicles in the third quarter and delivered 15,564 vehicles during the same period. The EV maker also said it remains on track to produce 52,000 vehicles for the year.

In an interview Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Scaringe said the company continues to see strong interest in its brand and encouraging trends among buyers.

“Today, if someone is buying a new car … in their heads, they’re thinking ‘is this my last ICE vehicle or is this my first electric vehicle?’ So it’s become a consideration in all purchases,” the Rivian CEO said.

Scaringe told CNBC that he expects the company’s future products, which it calls the R2 platform, to “fit in nicely” with the growing demand base for electric vehicles.

Demand for Rivian’s current vehicles also remains strong, as evidenced by the company’s better-than-expected delivery numbers, so Rivian has been able to maintain its pricing structure even as the competition cuts prices on a lot of its vehicles, he said. 

When asked about increasing competition from other companies making electric pickup trucks like Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F), Scaringe highlighted the differentiation in the market. 

“We think it’s really, really important to have choice, to have selection, to have variety, so the Cybertruck, I think it’s great for the world that something like that exists, but it’s very different. There’s not going to be a lot of overlap, we believe, in our customer set,” the Rivian CEO said. 

“I think competition is really valuable for mass scale electrification.”

Produced in association with Benzinga