Page 16 - Forbes - Asia (April 2019)
P. 16
ENTREPRENEURS
Building a R.J. Scaringe (at the
Rivian tech center
in Irvine, California)
named the company
Better Tesla in honor of the Indian
River Lagoon near
where he grew up
in Florida. Above:
The R1S, a seven-seat
sport utility vehicle,
Rivian founder R.J. Scaringe is a mild- in its natural habitat.
mannered entrepreneur whose battery-
powered SUVs and pickup trucks are
electrifying the auto industry.
BY CHUCK TANNERT
he talk of November’s Los Angeles Auto Show wasn’t Scaringe’s love affair with “things that move,” as he puts
Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW or any of the usual it, began as a child. As soon as he was old enough to handle
luxury car suspects. Rather, the buzz was created by tools, he helped a neighbor rebuild Porsche 356s in his ga-
Ta little-known electric-vehicle builder, Rivian Auto- rage in Melbourne, Florida. In high school he had become
motive, based in Plymouth, Michigan. After nearly ten years obsessed with the idea of building his own automobiles, and
of developing electric vehicle technology, the company un- he gained the knowledge to do so by earning his doctorate in
veiled its first two battery-powered autos: the R1S, a seven- mechanical engineering from MIT’s prestigious Sloan Auto-
seat sport utility vehicle, and the R1T pickup truck. motive Lab.
Designed for people with active lifestyles, the so-called ad- While there, however, the budding automaker became
venture vehicles exhibit a Range Rover aesthetic—rugged, ca- conflicted. “It was frustrating knowing the things I loved
pable and luxurious—and are packed with the latest high-tech were simultaneously the things that were making the air dirt-
amenities such as internet connectivity and autonomous driv- ier and causing all sorts of issues, everything from geopoliti-
er-safety features. “Adventure is life,” gushes Rivian’s CEO and cal conflict to the smog to climate change,” Scaringe says. So
founder R.J. Scaringe, 36. “[Your destination] could be fishing, he changed course, and started to focus on environmentally
it could be golfing, it could be taking the family out for lunch.” friendly electric vehicles.
12 | FORBES ASIA APRIL 2019
