Rivian’s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe hinted on Wednesday that the company is eyeing European expansion via the same direct-to-consumer sales model it already uses in the US.
During a fireside chat with Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney, Rivian‘s chief stated that direct-to-consumer “is still the plan for Europe.”
However, Scaringe warned it is “just worth noting that the ease of accessing things like service infrastructure is a little bit easier.”
The EV maker’s chief executive said that local infrastructure in Europe “has to be built,” as Rivian plans the expansion to the Old Continent in 2027 with its upcoming R2 model.
“A big area of investment for us, as we’ve grown, has been building out service infrastructure, distribution infrastructure, of course, sales infrastructure,” the chief executive said.
Scaringe noted that “the environment there is quite a bit different than what we have in the United States,” as Europe supports “more of an omnichannel based approach.”
“Where in the US, you can either be entirely direct or you can leverage third parties to sell your product and pay them a pretty significant amount,” he said, justifying that Rivian‘s “been very specific on staying direct-to-consumer” in its domestic market.
“The other thing to note is we do have some footprint in Europe today,” he added, referring to its partnership with Amazon, its main backer and for which Rivian is committed to deliver 100,000 co-developed electric delivery vans until 2030.
“So we’ve got some experience in both setting up infrastructure and then operating that infrastructure in Europe, we have our European entities to do that already,” Scaringe said, however admitting that they “need to be scaled dramatically to support R2.”
The company established its European entity, named Rivian Europe B.V., in the Netherlands in 2020.
The comments follow Lucid Motors’ confirmation this week that it will use local dealerships in some of the eight European markets it plans to enter in 2026.
The brand entered Europe in 2022 with direct to consumer approach, although sales remain below expectations.
Rivian will pause production at its Normal plant between September 15 and the end of October’s first week, as it upgrades the facility for the upcoming $45,000 SUV R2.
Rivian also plans to expand R2 production to its upcoming Georgia facility, which is expected to be ready to operate in late 2027, and set to support an annual capacity of 400,000 units.
Earlier this week, both CEO RJ Scaringe and Software Chief Wassym Bensaid attended the IAA Mobility Auto Show in Munich, despite Rivian not being present at the event.
There, Bensaid visited its partner Volkswagen Group’s brands Audi and Scout Motors, for which Rivian is developing software.