Rivian CEO calls 2027 an 'inflection year' as R2 and point-to-point driving ramp up
On Rivian's fifth IPO anniversary, RJ Scaringe told CNBC that the midsize R2 and a coming point-to-point driver-assistance rollout are central to the company's next year.
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Rivian founder and chief executive RJ Scaringe told CNBC in an interview published on 10 November, the fifth anniversary of the company's IPO, that "2027 is really an inflection year for us." He said he was "excited to start to really show what we believe so fully, the potential of the business."
The comments came as Rivian ramps up its midsize R2 SUV, which Scaringe said remains the core of the business and the vehicle that will showcase new technology. CNBC reported an entry-level R2 price of about $45,000. Rivian delivered a record 19,248 vehicles in the third quarter of 2026, up 46% from a year earlier, and said R2 was already its best-selling model by volume, ahead of the R1 range and the commercial van.
"That's going to define the business. The path to profitability, the path to very significant growth in revenue is all built around R2, and then some of the variants that come following R2," Scaringe said, according to CNBC.
Rivian's factory in Normal, Illinois, can produce 215,000 vehicles a year, including up to 155,000 R2s alongside R1 models and vans, CNBC reported. A new Georgia plant is expected to be able to produce up to 300,000 vehicles a year once the first phase of construction is finished in late 2028. For the most recent quarter, Rivian said automotive cost of goods sold per vehicle improved by more than $12,000 from the prior quarter, helped by a higher R2 mix and better fixed-cost leverage.
Scaringe said the company had "made the decision to simultaneously work towards profitability … and deeply invest in our technology, and in particular in autonomy." He described the next software step as "point-to-point" driving, in which the vehicle can drive from destination to destination while the driver monitors and can intervene. CNBC said Tesla is currently the only U.S. automaker offering comparable features. Scaringe said Rivian aims not only to catch up but to exceed that capability by using multiple sensor types, especially in poor weather.
"That's not like the finish line. ... Think of it as like the starting point where you suddenly have a more apples to apples comparison between Rivian and Tesla," he said. The point-to-point release is expected over the coming weeks and months, first to employees and then to customers, and to be followed by autonomous vehicles with Uber by 2028, CNBC reported. Rivian plans to say more about its AI and autonomy plans at an investor technology event on 9 December.
CNBC also noted that Rivian's share price is down more than 80% since the company debuted at $78 a share on 10 November 2021, including a decline of nearly 30% this year. Rivian reported $5.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at the end of the third quarter, and said total available future liquidity is expected to be about $13 billion including credit and partnership funding and a $4.5 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan for the Georgia plant. Those figures are the company's, as reported by CNBC, and are not a recommendation about the stock.