Rivian best placed to compete with Tesla in truck and SUV categories, says GlobalData

Following the news that American electric truck startup Rivian Automotive (Rivian) has raised US$1.3bn in new funding; Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the start-up’s journey: “In an extremely capital intensive industry such as automotive manufacturing, companies are required to raise billions of dollars and Rivian so far has been successful in gaining traction among investors. The new funding was led by asset management firm T. Rowe Price with Amazon, Ford Motor Co and BlackRock also participating. This marks the fourth funding for Rivian in 2019 and earlier it has already raised more than US$1.5bn from Ford, Amazon and Cox Automotive.

“Rivian plans to build fully electric vehicles, including the R1T pickup truck and the R1S sport utility vehicle, along with 100,000 all-electric delivery vans for online retailer Amazon. The new funding will allow Rivian to move into 2020 with the capital it needs for its plan to start rolling out these vehicles late next year.

“The latest investment round and partnerships position the Plymouth-based company as one of the better-financed players in the global EV market. Currently EVs account for only a small share of the global automotive industry. However, China and Europe are forcing automakers to roll out EVs. While Tesla is the most established maker, other auto giants such as Ford and General Motors also plan to spend billions of dollars to develop EVs. Against this back drop, Rivian is best placed to give tough competition to Tesla, particularly in the truck and SUV categories, where Tesla has little presence.”