Rivian is a radical EV start-up with a different approach – and it works. JAMES ATTWOOD drives its pick-up and hears about its VW Group deal

PHOTOGRAPHY JAMIE LIPMAN

As an American EV startup, Rivian is routinely – and predictably – compared to Tesla. But even a cursory glance at their respective pick-up trucks indicates the vastly differing approaches of the two firms. While the Tesla Cybertruck is unapologetically brash and wilfully confrontational, the Rivian R1T is infused with genuine warmth and charm. And while Elon Musk’s firm has delighted in disrupting the car industry, Rivian’s seemingly more conventional approach has attracted investment from the likes of Ford and Volkswagen.

But look closer, at either the R1T or Rivian itself, and both are more radical than they first appear. That’s why the Volkswagen Group signed a deal worth up to £4.6 billion to invest in Rivian, including creating anew joint-venture company.

You see, Rivian isn’t really a car firm at all: it’s a software company. Asoftware company that makes some seriously impressive cars.

“We see ourselves as a tech company that builds sustainable cars,” says Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s software chief and co-CEO of the Rivian-Volkswagen joint venture. “We have a lot of respect for Tesla, who disrupted the industry, but we also have respect for traditional auto makers.”

Bensaid is clear about what makes Rivian different: “Software is not an afterthought for us. The way we design the car is around software. Everything in the vehicle – from the way it drives to navigation, battery management, thermal management – it’s all run by software.”

ANEW TYPE OF PICK-UP

Rivian was founded in 2009 by RJ Scaringe and went through various names and funding rounds while it slowly built up expertise. It wasn’t always smooth, and the firm has burned through a lot of investment capital, but while most other EV start-ups failed, Rivian succeeded: the R1T was the first full-size US electric pick-up to reach the market. It was launched in 2021, ahead of the Ford F-150 Lightning and when the Cybertruck seemed more the stuff of Musk’s dystopian fever dreams than an actual production vehicle.

Still, the R1T that awaits me outside the Rivian Service Center, located in a nondescript industrial district of Las Vegas’s drab, sprawling suburbs, looks positively fresh in terms of design. It’s softer than most big US trucks, and distinctive oval-shaped headlights, a full-width light bar and a blanked-off front end give it a slightly futuristic feel, but it’s recognisably a pick-up.