Rivian CEO explains why he made ‘a very intentional effort’ not to copy Tesla’s strategy

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Rivian CEO explains why he made ‘a very intentional effort’ not to copy Tesla’s strategy

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe spoke about Elon Musk and Tesla on the “Grit” podcast.Phillip Faraone/Chesnot/Getty Images

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe spoke about Elon Musk and Tesla on the “Grit” podcast.

Scaringe said Tesla is “inspiring,” but Rivian did not follow Musk’s playbook.

He said it’s important that Rivian wasn’t “covering the same ground as Tesla.”

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didn’t want his EV company to become

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Scaringe discussed his and Elon Musk’s automotive companies on Monday during Kleiner Perkins’ “Grit” podcast. Tesla is still a dominant player and has a leg up on Rivian, which Scaringe founded in 2009 at age 26.

Musk’s tenure as CEO of Tesla began in 2008, the same year customers first received Tesla’s

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“Tesla has been absolutely inspiring,” Scaringe said during the podcast. “One of the things that was so important to me with Rivian was to make sure we weren’t covering the same ground as Tesla.”

When the host pointed out that Rivian initially followed Tesla’s playbook and had plans to create an

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, Scaringe said he made an “intentional” choice to forge their own path.

“If you think about starting a car company, you want to build a brand that draws in enthusiasts,” he said.

Scaringe said he’s a fan of sports cars, so the “logical place to start is to build a sports car, use it to build the brand, and follow it with more mass-market vehicles.”

“That was, of course, how Tesla’s strategy played out, and it worked wonderfully well for them,” he said.

Scaringe added that his decision to pivot to a different type of EV product, vehicle topology, and experience was “a very intentional effort to also create a new story.”

“Not only for us as a company or a brand but, importantly, to help shift more mindsets around what sustainable transportation could look like,” he said.

Representatives for Rivian and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Story continues

Rivian currently sells the

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and the

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. Scaringe announced two more vehicles on the way —

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— in March.

The EV industry experienced a slowdown in sales and growth this summer. In July,

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he thinks the issue is a “truly extreme lack of choice.”

“If you want to spend less than $50,000 for an EV, I’d say there’s a very, very small number of great products,” he said.

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