Rivian CEO: R2 SUV Is Crucial for the Company's Future

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe admitted in a candid interview that the company's future hinges on the success of the new R2 electric SUV. Rivian lost $3.6 billion in 2025 and has burned through nearly $25 billion over the past eight years. Although its 2021 IPO was the largest worldwide, the stock price has dropped from $130 to around $16.

Scaringe noted that Rivian has spent billions building its own sales and service network and vertically integrating production—developing software, electronics, silicon, and motors in-house. These investments were made in anticipation of high-volume manufacturing. If the R2 fails, Rivian would have to reconfigure its entire business, as maintaining a 6,000-person engineering team to sell only 50,000 vehicles a year would not be viable.

The R2 will have a production capacity of 155,000 units at the Normal, Illinois plant, with a second plant in Georgia planned for 300,000 units in its first phase. Scaringe said construction has started and the first phase was expanded due to positive customer response.

Regarding autonomous driving, Scaringe revealed that the initial R2 will use a Gen 2.5 system, less powerful than the upcoming Gen 3 with in-house chips delivering 1.6 quadrillion operations per second. He compared this to iPhone upgrades—customers buy knowing newer versions will come. Autonomy is not yet a major purchase factor, cited by only 20–25% of customers.

Scaringe also commented on Tesla's Cybertruck, calling it a niche product, and praised Ferrari's Luce for its interior haptics. He acknowledged Rivian's high customer satisfaction but low reliability ratings, attributing them to data from 2021–2023 R1 models.