Rivian CEO on demand driving higher prices, 'pipeline' of commercial van prospects

Rivian Automotive Inc.’s chief executive officer said that new orders are driving up the average sales price of its electric vehicles.

CEO RJ Scaringe told Bloomberg TV in an interview Wednesday his firm is speaking with a “pipeline” of potential customers for its battery-electric vans now that Rivian’s four-year agreement exclusivity with Amazon.com Inc. has ended, though he did not provide further details.

“There’s an evolution of our average selling price which continues to trend upwards as we move in to new orders,” Scaringe said during the interview.

Scaringe also addressed progress on narrowing losses for each EV it builds — currently $31,000.

“There’s a whole host of changes that are happening in our material costs, that’s our bill of materials, there’s improvements in our plant and there’s the fixed cost absorption from running higher volumes in the plant,” he said.

Rivian plans to honor its original deal with Amazon to deliver 100,000 vans to the e-commerce giant by 2030.

Scaringe said he expects the EV maker will unveil a prototype of its new R2 compact SUV in early 2024. He also said the firm expects to start booking revenue from autonomy technology and software in the coming year.