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Journalist John McElroy talks about Rivian and the future of the auto industry.

1240 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by JimmyEV, Jul 3, 2019

R99

Discussion Starter · Jun 28, 2019

Automotive journalist John McElroy spoke at a meeting of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) Communications Executive and Automotive Public Relations Councils and gave his thoughts about Detroit and the auto industry as a whole.

According to McElroy " This is the most exciting time in the automotive industry in the last 100 years. You literally have got to go back 100 years ago to find the kind of excitement and innovation and change and disruption that we’re just starting to get into right now."

He touched on a variety of topics, including Rivian. He seems to believe Rivian will need another couple billion dollars of funding to take their development/production to the next level.

Rivian is interesting. I love the fact that we have an EV startup right here in Michigan. I’ve seen the vehicle and it looks good … they’ve raised a half-billion dollars … they bought the old Mitsubishi Plant in Illinois for nothing. They’re doing a lot of things right. My own read of the situation is they’re going public (with product plans) right now … they’re probably getting to the end of that half-billion dollars and they’re going to have to raise a couple billion more to really take it to the next level.

Their electric design is interesting. Nobody’s got an electric pickup (truck) right now, nobody’s got an electric SUV. First to the market is going to account for a lot. Their vision though is not so much to retail trucks and SUVs, their vision is to retain adventure, vacation adventures. They want to be the North Face. They want to be the Patagonia of vehicles … that’s their new-to-the-party-ness kind of approach to the market. Because even RJ (Scaringe, CEO of Rivian) recognizes if all he is going to do is an electric pickup, well, Ford is going to do an electric pickup, Chevy’s going to do an electric pickup …

I’ve been to their (Rivian’s) operation … It’s cool. I’d go work there, man. It’s a cool place. But, like I said, they’ll only make it if they’re able to raise significant amounts of money.

https://www.bianchipr.com/auto-influencer-john-mcelroy/

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EyeOnRivian

· #2 · Jun 29, 2019

Whether Rivian needs a couple billion more to make it, I don't know, so I'll take McElroy's word for it. However, what doesn't add up for me is when he says "they (Rivian) have raised a half-billion dollars." I believe Rivian had already raised that money last year (with significant investments from Sumitomo Corporation and Abdul Latif Jameel) *before* Rivian's latest investment round back earlier this year which either included or coincided with the well known Amazon investment of $700m. And then add to that the $500m Ford ponied up a couple of months ago. That's a *minimum* of $1.7 billion by my count. So it's not clear to me if McElroy misspoke or was misquoted, or is not as familiar with Rivian's operation as he leads on, or I'm just misreading the article.

None the less, I do agree Rivian will certainly need to continue to raise additional capital if they want to be successful and be around for a while. Of course the real question is - how much more money will they need?

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eHauler

· #3 · Jul 2, 2019

Once more big companies ramp up their EV programs I expect see more investment in Rivian.

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JimmyEV

· #4 · Jul 3, 2019

eHauler said:
Once more big companies ramp up their EV programs I expect see more investment in Rivian.

I don't think it would happen but It would be very interesting if another car company joins Ford to invest in Rivian.

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