Zac Quinn 
Legend has it that the original Rivian product was an electric sports car that the company spent a few years working on until eventually placing it on the shelf and turning their focus to trucks and SUVs. However, with Rivian planning to launch six new vehicles by 2025, there’s a chance a sports car could come sometime later. The Drive interviewed CEO RJ Scaringe recently, and divested further details regarding this initial product, which was the company’s focus from its start in 2009 until the end of 2011 and early 2012, when a change of direction took place. This eventually led to the the Rivian R1T and R1S.
Changing Up The Rivian Brand
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe emphasized that his company began “getting much more sophisticated in how we think about brand, and how we think about how the product, and the strategy, and the technology, and how they all fit together,” as well as having the desire to have impact, to change the way people think about vehicles and change the way people think about sustainability, we just came to the conclusion that that wasn’t the right platform to build from.”
While a Rivian sportscar would be fun, that market isn’t nearly as extensive as trucks and SUVs here in America. Rivian recently put in trademark applications for R3, R4, and R5 model names. Both suffixed with “T” for truck, and “S” for SUV. The filing took place over the summer, and we theorize this could just be the beginning as Rivian could eventually offer 10 or more vehicles in its portfolio.
We previously covered that Rivian got a tax break of $440 million, which could allow for us to see a new Rivian plant in Texas within the coming years. The plant would be able to produce 200,000 vehicles per year. With Rivian planning to launch six new vehicles within the next four years, we likely won’t see a Rivian Sportscar anytime soon, but it’s definitely a future possibility.
