Before production starts, Tesla Cybertruck The CEO of Rivian thinks that R1T customers will not be interested in Tesla’s Cybertruck are already on the road and will be delivered soon. This poses a new challenge to the Rivian R1T in the market for electric pickup trucks. You might guess so. RJ Scaringe, the CEO of Rivian, told The Verge why he doesn’t worry too much about Tesla’s truck. “There probably isn’t a lot of overlap between [Rivian R1T and Tesla Cybertruck] customers if you think about Venn diagrams,” Scaringe said in an Instagram video chat. The CEO noted softly that many EV supporters (usually in the tech business) don’t know how diverse the auto industry is. Scaringe said that the Cybertruck is “different” and that it is “great that a product like that exists in the world” because it helps electrify transportation. He said he thinks there is more than one answer to the question of which electric truck is best. Scaringe’s point of view makes sense since the Cybertruck, the R1T, and the GMC Hummer EV are all recreational trucks, but they are all aimed at very different groups of buyers. Each also has a significant backlog of orders, meaning many clients have bookings on many trucks and cancel backups based on the first available vehicle. So, a Cybertruck might be a good choice for someone who can’t get a Rivian or a rare Hummer. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and a master of hype, has set high hopes for the Cybertruck, but it doesn’t look like it will live up to them. Even Tesla fans need to figure out how the style of the pre-production mule has changed from the already controversial idea. Even though it was made to be better than the Ford F-150, pictures of a “release candidate’s” bed show design choices that make it less valuable. The Cybertruck will replace no other truck on the road. But anyone who looks at electric trucks from the point of view of cars rather than IT already knows this. Cars only sometimes improve; new cars don’t just make the old ones useless. Scaringe knows this, and people who support electricity may learn from his point of view.
