Rivian Was Initially Developing This Sports Car; Could It Still See The Light Of Day?

Long before Rivian started working on the innovative R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV, it thought about following in the footsteps of Tesla by first launching a sports car.

RJ Scaringe founded the car manufacturer in 2009 and while speaking with members of the media at the recent launch of the R1T, told TheDrive that the company spent two years developing a little two-door sports car. The project was eventually shelved but that doesn’t mean it has been killed off entirely.

“I started the company in 2009, the initial product was essentially like a sports coupe, a little sports car. We worked on that for a couple of years,” Scaringe said. “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, and then 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.”

“So we shelved it, like, end of ’11, beginning of ’12, reset the business,” he added.

Screenshot credits Rivian / YouTube

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There are only a handful of images of this Rivian sports car on the net. They depict a vehicle somewhat similar in shape and scale to a Hyundai Veloster, but no technical details are known about the car.

Scaringe remained tight-lipped about what its next models will be. Rivian plans to launch six new vehicles by 2025 and recent trademark applications have suggested these will be pickups and SUVs smaller than the current R1T and R1S.

“In much the same way as we’ve done with these [R1] vehicles, we’re gonna be really quiet about what’s coming next, really, largely because we wanna make sure what we show is exactly what customers get,” Scaringe told TheDrive. “There is a lot of products in the portfolio that are coming, but we haven’t yet announced them.”

Screenshot credits Rivian / YouTube