Javier Varela, Rivian's COO, shares insights on scaling an EV startup into a global automaker. He discusses balancing speed and structure, the importance of cross-functional collaboration, and developing a strong company culture. Varela highlights challenges in scaling production, supply chain complexity, and integrating new talent while maintaining operational discipline. He also reflects on lessons from legacy automakers and how Rivian is building its manufacturing system and brand with a focus on sustainability and innovation. The conversation offers a deep dive into the realities of executing Rivian’s ambitious growth and transformation plans.
"As the EV landscape evolves from hype to hard execution, the conversation has shifted from vision to viability, production efficiency, cost discipline, supply chain resilience,"
EV landscape means the world of electric cars and how they are changing with new technology and ideas.
The EV landscape refers to the evolving market and technology environment surrounding electric vehicles, including advancements, challenges, and industry trends.
"the conversation has shifted from vision to viability, production efficiency, cost discipline, supply chain resilience,"
Production efficiency means making cars quickly and well without wasting money or materials.
Production efficiency in the automotive industry refers to the ability to manufacture vehicles in a cost-effective, timely, and quality-controlled manner.
"and the ability to deliver vehicles at scale while maintaining a brand promise. And make no mistake, there is a brand promise around Oryvian and there's a lot of car culture."
A brand promise is what a car company promises to deliver to people who buy their cars, like quality and style.
A brand promise is the commitment a company makes to its customers about the quality and experience they can expect from its products.
"you are the translation layer between Rivian's vision and Rivian's reality. And that's for a very ambitious transformation in modern automotive"
The car industry is changing a lot with new electric cars and new ways of making and selling them. This big change is called modern automotive transformation.
Modern automotive transformation refers to the significant changes in the car industry, including the shift to electric vehicles, new technologies, and changing business models.
"...ery, from concept and design to manufacturing and expedition. So that's a common denominator, securing that w..."
The Ford Expedition is a big car that can carry lots of people and stuff. It's good for families or trips where you need space and power to pull trailers or boats. People talk about it when discussing how big cars are made and used for long journeys.
The Ford Expedition is a full-size SUV known for its spacious interior, strong towing capabilities, and family-friendly features. It is often discussed in contexts involving large vehicle design, manufacturing processes, and utility for long-distance travel or expeditions. Its combination of power and comfort makes it a popular choice for both everyday use and adventurous trips.
""Where does your past with legacy OEMs, where does it complement what you're doing now? The past with legacy OEMs is the structure...""
Legacy OEMs are big, old car companies that have been making cars for a long time, like Ford or Toyota.
Legacy OEMs refer to established, traditional automotive manufacturers with long histories in vehicle production, often contrasted with newer companies or startups.
"As you all said, we are really focusing in vertical integration. We are much more vertical integrated than any legacy OEM."
Vertical integration means a company makes or controls many parts of the process to build a product, instead of relying on other companies. This helps them keep things running smoothly and save money.
Vertical integration refers to a company's ownership and control over multiple stages of production or supply chain, allowing tighter control over quality, costs, and timelines.
"Yeah. There's an interesting point here is that we own the direct relation with the customers compared to other OEMs. So it's not filtered. There's no, in this case, there's no dealership"
Direct customer relationship means the car company talks and sells directly to people who buy their cars, without using car dealers in between.
Direct customer relationship refers to a business model where the manufacturer sells vehicles directly to customers without intermediaries like dealerships. This allows for unfiltered feedback and closer interaction between the brand and its buyers.
""There's another thing that is very interesting with our cars is being software defined vehicles. You can update the software of the air as much as you want. So you can always introduce new features.""
Some cars can get better or fix problems just by updating their computer programs, like how your phone updates apps.
Software defined vehicles are cars whose features and functions can be updated or changed via software updates, allowing new capabilities or fixes without physical modifications.
"That company was back in the city, Citroën, Spain, part of the brand Citroën, part of the future Peugeot Citroën group."
Peugeot is a French company that makes cars. It joined with Citroën to make a bigger car company.
Peugeot is a French car manufacturer that merged with Citroën to form the PSA Group, a major European automotive group. This group later became part of Stellantis.
"That company was back in the city, Citroën, Spain, part of the brand Citroën, part of the future Peugeot Citroën group."
Citroën is a car company from France that makes different types of cars. It joined with Peugeot to become a bigger car company.
Citroën is a French automobile manufacturer known for its innovative designs and engineering. It is part of the PSA Group, which later merged with Peugeot to form Stellantis.
"Now I've been disconnected in the last years, I don't know the details, but still a relevant plant and benchmarking plant in Europe."
A benchmarking plant is a factory that works really well and makes good cars, so other factories look at it to learn how to do better.
A benchmarking plant is a manufacturing facility recognized for its high standards and efficiency, serving as a model for other plants in the automotive industry to measure their own performance against.
""PSA Group, which is now Stellantis? Yeah, I mean, it's learning all along my career.""
Stellantis is a big car company made when two big car companies joined together. It owns many car brands.
Stellantis is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed from the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, encompassing many brands.
"Tesla changed consumer expectations for EVs. I want to talk about culture now."
Tesla is a company that makes electric cars and helped people expect more from electric vehicles, like longer driving range and cool technology.
Tesla is a leading electric vehicle manufacturer credited with changing consumer expectations for electric cars by popularizing long-range battery technology and advanced software features.
"So that combination of weekend adventures, going out off-road with the daily commuting is I think is a great add-on as well."
Off-road means driving a car on rough ground like dirt or rocks instead of smooth roads. Cars made for this have special parts to handle the rough terrain.
Off-road refers to driving a vehicle on unpaved surfaces like dirt, mud, sand, or rocks, requiring specialized vehicle features such as higher ground clearance and rugged tires.
"with the launch of R2 that is a car that is going to be less priced than the R1. So we can access in that package to a bigger audience. We have customers that couldn't reach an R1 because of their position but they will be able to do it with R2."
The Rivian R2 is a newer, less expensive electric car that Rivian is making so more people can buy one. It will still have features for daily use and adventures.
The Rivian R2 is a forthcoming electric vehicle from Rivian positioned as a more affordable model compared to the R1, intended to broaden the brand's market reach.
"with the launch of R2 that is a car that is going to be less priced than the R1. So we can access in that package to a bigger audience. We have customers that couldn't reach an R1 because of their position but they will be able to do it with R2."
The Rivian R1 is a type of electric truck or SUV that you can drive every day or take on outdoor trips. It has a big battery so it can go far without needing to recharge.
The Rivian R1 is an electric pickup truck and SUV platform known for its off-road capabilities, long electric range, and advanced technology, aimed at adventure and utility.
"Yeah, a lot of talk, Javier, in the last year or so about American manufacturing."
American manufacturing means making products like cars inside the United States instead of in other countries.
American manufacturing refers to the production of goods within the United States, often emphasizing local sourcing, job creation, and economic impact.
"Yeah, the strategy that I always had in my previous operations experiences of building where you sell. I really adhere to it."
Building where you sell means making cars in the same place where most people will buy them, which helps save money and time.
The strategy of 'building where you sell' means manufacturing products close to the market where they will be sold, reducing shipping costs and improving supply chain efficiency.
"...a new general assembly, I mean the final assembly line, new battery assembly line and new drive unit assembly line..."
The final assembly line is the last step where a car is put together completely before it is ready to be sold.
The final assembly line is the last stage in vehicle manufacturing where all parts are assembled into the finished vehicle before quality checks and shipping.
"What is one assumption about the EV market that you think is wrong? It's difficult to answer that question."
The EV market is all about cars that run on electricity instead of gas. It's where companies sell and compete with electric cars.
The EV market refers to the industry and consumer market segment focused on electric vehicles, which use electric motors powered by batteries instead of internal combustion engines.
"In terms of technology, probably people that haven't never driven an EV, they don't understand that performance, the performance of the car. That's one of the big tasks is to get people driving our cars or other EVs, but particularly our cars. The performance that you get and the"
Performance means how fast and smooth a car can drive. Electric cars can be very quick because their motors give power right away.
Performance in automotive terms refers to how well a car accelerates, handles, brakes, and drives overall. Electric vehicles often have strong acceleration due to instant torque from electric motors.
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The automobile is one of the most important inventions that revolutionize the modern world.
In America, the rich history of car culture runs deep as technology continues to shape the future
of the industry. Jason Stein is here to share the stories of people passionate about cars from
industry leaders and innovators to car obsessed celebrities. Buckle up as Jason takes you inside
the boardroom onto the track and around the bend on Cars and Culture on SiriusXM Business Radio.
Welcome into episode 240 of Cars and Culture with Jason Stein here on SiriusXM Business Channel 132.
Great to have you along for the ride again with us this week. Today we're diving into the operational
heartbeat, Oryvian, a company that has quickly moved from bold startup to serious global automaker.
As the EV landscape evolves from hype to hard execution, the conversation has shifted from
vision to viability, production efficiency, cost discipline, supply chain resilience,
and the ability to deliver vehicles at scale while maintaining a brand promise.
And make no mistake, there is a brand promise around Oryvian and there's a lot of car culture.
My guest is Javier Varela, Chief Operating Officer at Oryvian.
Javier brings decades of global automotive leadership across manufacturing, product
development, operational transformation, and now he plays a central role in guiding Oryvian
through its most consequential phase yet. It needs to scale production, optimize cost structure,
and prepare the company for long-term competitive durability in an increasingly crowded and somewhat
confusing EV market. We'll explore how Oryvian is balancing growth with operational rigor,
also what it takes to build a modern EV manufacturing system from the ground up,
and how the company is thinking about profitability, product cadence, and global expansion.
We'll discuss how lessons from legacy automakers translate or don't to a next generation electric
vehicle company trying to rewrite the rules while still mastering the fundamentals.
It's a conversation about execution, discipline, and the realities of building a durable automotive
company in the era of EV. That's all ahead here on Cars and Culture.
Hello, I'm Javier Varela and this is Cars and Culture with Jason Stein.
What a pleasure to have you on the program. I know we were with each other recently a couple
of months ago, but now I get the chance to be with you again and to update our serious XM audience
on your world and everything that is happening in your very exciting world.
Thank you for being a guest, Javier. Thank you for having me. Great pleasure.
Well, let's start off, I guess, probably at the beginning, if we could. Now you
have now been sitting in the chief operating officer role for long enough to know what it
feels like. So how is it being the COO at Rivian? How has your experience been?
Look, I have fun every day. Typically, I'm a person that enjoys work and it's all my career.
I have very good moments. Obviously, I have tough moments as well, but always you keep the fun
staying with people, making things happen, having success, making transformation in the company.
And this is where I'm living here. I mean, it's a company, constant transformation,
great performance and teams that are so helpful and so happy to work together. So it's kind of a
very, very interesting situation, having real fun.
I was thinking about your role and essentially you are the translation layer between Rivian's vision
and Rivian's reality. And that's for a very ambitious transformation in modern automotive
history. That's a very interesting spot to be sitting, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And it's
very interesting the path of Rivian, accompanying with a clear mission, you know, keep the world of
forever with a clear ethos of sustainability, about innovation, thoughtful innovation.
And being in this moment of transformation, helping to shape the culture of the company,
helping to shape the performance of the company, it's amazing. And everything is happening so
fast. We just launched R1 and now we are preparing for the new car that is coming this year, the R2
R2 model in record time. So a lot of things happening and proud to be the one that, as you
well said, executes. So it transformed that strategy into operational execution.
You have so many different hats that you are wearing on a regular basis. You oversee operations,
which includes manufacturing, logistics, procurement. You have a role in logistics and in
supply chain. How do you keep it all straight?
Yeah, you have, as you well said, different problems in different areas and different
interesting situations, different strategies. And I really love working with people, developing
talent, being capable to shift from a situation in supply chain to a situation in engineering that
is completely different. But there's, as I said, a common denominator is working with people,
securing cross-functional alignment. I'm passionate about end-to-end approach.
In a company, you need to balance well functions that are the verticals
with the processes that are horizontal, end-to-end. So the beauty or the possibility that I have
with my multiple hats is to be able to secure that flow horizontally, that flow end-to-end,
from order to delivery, from concept and design to manufacturing and expedition.
So that's a common denominator, securing that working in cross-functional collaboration,
avoiding silos. That's super important. The other thing I really have fun and this
as well, independently of what is the area, the vertical, is, as I said, developing people,
coaching them, challenging the people as well. So I can define some of the threats I want to
see in the leadership, and I try to lead by example in those threats. One of them is clear
ownership and accountability. That's fundamental for a good execution, ownership and accountability
that lines needs to be clear. Roles and responsibilities needs to be clear.
Challenging spirit. This can do attitude, nothing is impossible. Racing the bar.
One of my my job is racing the bar. Okay, let's jump a bit higher. And when you challenge the
teams racing the bar, it's the best way to respect them, how to develop them. And it's like
coaching. You love soccer as I love. I mean, the coaching in the soccer team will challenge
during the training season, during the preparation, will challenge to go faster, to play strongly,
and demanding the teams. And the teams, they realize that they can deliver when they get
that extra challenge, right? So other interesting threats I really love is the challenge spirit,
curiosity. It's very important to be curious. I always say ask why. And that's something,
again, in any of these verticals and different areas I'm taking responsibility about is asking
why, why securing that there's enough curiosity in the teams. Going and see, I call it Genba,
Japanese word Japanese, but you're going to see always being close to the to the operations.
In many cases, just to understand how things are working, to support the teams, to understand
the weaknesses, the strengths, and to be able to support. And that's very important. Not sitting
in an ivory tower, not sitting in a nice office is just going in the field, going on the floor,
going on the floor in a manufacturing situation is going to the assembly lines or going to the
whatever transformation line, but can be as well going where the engineers are designing or going
where the engineers are testing prototypes in a lab, or going, you know, where the financial guys
are doing their daily operations. So that going to the Genba is valid for any position.
Another thing that is a common denominator on those on those areas I'm supporting. And I would say
another very important is driving transformation. So you were talking about delivering the
strategy transformed into execution, but I'm talking now about driving transformation
in a kind of continuous improvement. Sometimes our breakthroughs, sometimes our
small improvements, but we need to be always transforming, always improving.
And the way how we explain it to the teams and how I want them to work and how they are likely
delivering is really understanding the current status. Where are we? What are our KPIs? How
we are delivering? What are our strengths, our weaknesses in spending time and really understanding
that current status. Then they find a goal. Okay, what I want to be in X time,
there's a time axis and then what I want to be. I have created a gap and then I need to cover that
gap with problem solving with actions. That gap is the one that will move me to transform.
So that driving transformation is another common topic that I see among all those teams.
You've worked in all kinds of different worlds, legacy OEMs, now this high growth EV startups.
Is there anything that you had to unlearn when you came to Rivian relative to your past?
And I guess where does the startup culture clash most with traditional automotive culture?
Yeah, I think it's speed and in some cases a bit unstructured, but that speed and daring to
change course or change decisions or going super fast in trying and I mean,
try fast and fail fast. I think that's the big difference.
Where does your past with legacy OEMs, where does it complement what you're doing now?
The past with legacy OEMs is the structure, doing the process very well defined,
rigor in the operations, discipline, clear defined strategy, good decision making.
So those are elements that can complement. But as I said just before, the speed and sometimes
daring to take some unstructured decisions with not having the whole information, but making
thoughtful decisions with maybe 70% of the information is good.
You've been with Rivian for about a year and a half now, right?
Yes.
Rivian isn't just building a vehicle. You're building factories, you're building supply chains,
service infrastructure, a brand, you're building a brand.
What's the hardest part of scaling Rivian?
As you all said, we are really focusing in vertical integration. We are much more
vertical integrated than any legacy OEM. The biggest part, I mean, the scaling part of it
is part of my responsibility, right? It's how we can train people, teach people, define our standards
and in a way where newcomers can get it integrated and done and execute at speed.
It's just the growth, right? Getting more people and more structures in the organization
that needs to deliver based on what you're able to do in a smaller scale. But bringing people in,
make sure that they integrate in the culture, develop the talent of the existing ones,
but the ones that you integrate that you secure, that you harmonize, that knowledge,
culture and ways of working. I think that's the most important one when you grow.
And when you grow in a situation where we are very good integration,
integrating much more than other OEMs.
You've seen a lot of startups struggle when moving from prototype to volume.
What are the biggest operational risks between, say, 10,000 vehicles and 100,000 vehicles,
and how do you manage that transition?
Obviously, the first one is internal. As I said, it's securing the new people that you
need to 150,000 vehicles, 100,000, you need more people. For integrating that people,
what we are doing is defining our Rivian production system. There are a number of principles
that we secure when we integrate new people, that they are trained on those,
they practice on those, and they are coached on those. That's a part that is the difficult
internal one, securing that people can deliver in your system. But most importantly,
you need to define that system first. That's something that we have been doing in the last year.
The whole piece is the supply chain. So it's developing the supply chain. It's a complex
world. It's hundreds of suppliers at tier one level, but then you go at tier two and tier three
and even tier four. And it's securing that supply chain grows at the pace that you need.
And coordinating that growth and synchronizing it is a difficult task.
Luckily, we have teams that we have developed to be able to understand that world, and AI,
and data, and many IT tools that we started to use, that we developed ourselves,
are helping us to enhance and to increase the capacity and the capabilities of our teams.
But I would say internally, again, bringing people, securing that they work
as we want in our Rivian production system, and then externally is the supply chain,
the big task for that scale. For a new brand, trust is everything. Trust with consumers,
trust internally. You have to think about quality while building the company itself,
right? So you don't lose the trust. Is that fair, Javier? Yeah, absolutely. Trust is
fundamental. I'm proud to say that Rivian customers are really supporting the brand
when you see the external reports. We are on the top in customer satisfaction,
customer loyalty. And then when it comes to internal purposes, I think the trust is gained by
honesty, transparency, great communication, leading by example, by those leaders,
and then delivering. So when you define something, and you set a target, you set an ambition,
you do it, and you deliver, then you generate that trust.
Well, Rivian owners are deeply emotionally invested in the brand, aren't they?
They're incredibly passionate about the vehicles. Oh, yeah. Until then, coincidentally,
I was with some of these club of followers, and they are really passionate. I've never seen
people so passionate about the brand and what they are doing for the brand, how they live it.
They are trying to use their own cars to show new customers how good the brand is. So that's
a real club of followers that is super engaged. And you've been part of other brands that have
the same level of emotional attachment. I would argue that Volvo owners are just as passionate
about their Volvos and about the qualities of safety and Swedish design and things of that
nature. Very similar. Yeah, absolutely. I was lucky to be prior to Rivian in a brand that had
similar values from that point of view. And that club of followers, very focused in this case in
Sweden, followers, but all of the world is safety. Branding was a clear stamp in the brand.
Yeah. I mean, if you're a Volvo owner, you're really proud of being a Volvo owner
much in the same way. How does Rivian's customer feedback, given the deep emotional investment,
how does it flow back into operations or manufacturing or design? What do you take
from customers that you really want to apply in the future, maybe even with R2?
Yeah. There's an interesting point here is that we own the direct relation with the customers
compared to other OEMs. So it's not filtered. There's no, in this case, there's no dealership
distribution or network. We have the direct connection with the customers, so it's coming
immediately. And I'm always very fan of, I call it early detection, early resolution. So try to
understand immediately if there's any complaint, any suggestion, any improvement that can be done,
how we can capture it. And for that, we have in our after sales and quality teams,
an organization just to capture those data, understanding from the customers what are
their suggestions or their complaints or their possible improvements, and then translate this
immediately into the new design of a new car, the new year or, in some cases, something that you
can implement immediately. There's another thing that is very interesting with our cars is being
software defined vehicles. You can update the software of the air as much as you want. So
you can always introduce new features. You can introduce solutions for some problem that have
been identified, and we can do it almost in real time. That's a very powerful capability.
Absolutely. Yeah, and more to come because the software piece of this is one part that's very
unique to Rivian, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. It's unique. We own the full stack. We have built
our vehicle from a clean sheet software. So we own the stack. We can make those refreshing and
making the car. I mean, you buy the car and over the months and in the years, it gets better.
So your car gets additional value through these software capabilities.
I want to talk maybe the personal side of it for a moment. You grew up in Spain.
You had an industrial engineering degree from the University of Vigo, correct?
Yes. In Spain. What was it about automotive that drew you to the business? I guess if you
weren't in the automotive business, what would you be doing, Javier?
Yeah. I've been always from a small child passionate about cars, also motorcycles. I love
this kind of mobility. When I was in university, I was offered an internship in a company that
back in the days was operating, had a big plant in my hometown in Vigo. That company was back in
the city, Citroën, Spain, part of the brand Citroën, part of the future Peugeot Citroën group.
So I said, yes, okay. I go for that internship. It was a six-month activity while I was in
university. And then when I ended up at my internship, I finished my six months in the
military as an officer serving in Spain. And while I was in the military, I received a letter
from Citroën saying that they were interested in me. They wanted to hire me. And I really love
the experience. I had great fun doing what I did. The project was successful. And I
just finished my university six months in military. And then just the day after, I started working
in that company. And since then, I have stayed in the automotive industry. It's not really
because I really wanted to stay in the automotive industry. I would have worked in
another industry over the years, but my career and my path went in the right way. I was progressing
successfully. I was moving countries. I love traveling and I love new cultures. So I lived
in different areas, different countries. And that progress kept me in the automotive
industry. But the only thing I realized is that all the learnings I've got from the automotive
industry that is really complex and I'm a lean manufacturing or lean management fan,
all those learnings are super helpful for other industries. And I can live it now. I mean, being
more member in some other companies that are not related to the automotive industry,
the value you can add is amazing based on all those learnings. But yeah, automotive industry.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead. No, no, automotive industry from the beginning. And I have stayed there
and love it. It's an interesting pathway because Vigo is, for those who don't know,
is on the far western side of Spain near the Portugal border, right on the edge of the North
Atlantic Ocean. Not exactly where an automotive executive would come from, maybe, right?
Yeah, right. But look, that plant that when I started was operating there. This is still a
plant that is a reference in performance today in the automotive world. And it's a plant producing
probably around 600,000 per year in the same factory. So it's very, very efficient.
Yeah, very efficient and significant plant and has been obviously developing over the years.
Now I've been disconnected in the last years, I don't know the details, but still a relevant plant
and benchmarking plant in Europe. And I would say even for North America, I have some American
colleagues, they have visited, they say, hey, I know your city, I've been visiting that plant,
okay, good. Were your parents, were they automotive people?
No, no, no. They were not automotive people. No, so you didn't grow up in a car?
I was passionate about cars from the beginning. Back in the days in Spain, you could get your
driver's license at 18 years old. So I was just waiting. The day after I became 18, I was already
registered for taking the license. So this passion for driving and getting into the cars. And I
said cars and motorcycles. I also love motorcycles. I love riding motorcycles.
Yeah, yeah. What did you learn in your time at Volvo and also at PSA Group, which is now
Stellantis? Yeah, I mean, it's learning all along my career. It's not just in the brand itself,
in the case of PSA, I've had different positions in different countries. And that one of the big
learnings is working with different cultures. So in Volvo as well. So in those times, I had us
as well in between PSA and Volvo. Just for clarifying, I spent some time working for a
young venture between Toyota and PSA. I'm saying that because this got me closer to Japanese culture.
I was close to the Chinese culture, particularly when working for Volvo with PSA in different
places in Europe, as well in South America. And now we're really more in the North American culture.
But working with different cultures and understanding, improving your emotional
intelligence and that capability to understand how you need to adapt. Because, you know,
what for a culture is A, for the other culture is B. For one culture is great, the other culture
is mediocre. So having that capability to adapt is a great learning. And it's useful not just
working with different cultures. It's useful working with different people, even in the same
culture, different personalities, being able to adapt and to read those differences and being
able to have that good dose of emotional intelligence are paramount. So that was a great
learning. After the break, I'll continue my conversation with Javier Varela, Chief Operating
Officer at Rivian. To see more cars and culture interviews, visit the Cars and Culture YouTube
channel. Subscribe, comment, check out hundreds of conversations with the creators, collectors,
and culture makers who are driving the industry forward. Every day, you make decisions. Your
finance. The automobile is one of the most important inventions that revolutionize the modern
world in America. The rich history of car culture runs deep. Technology continues to shape the future
of the industry. Jason Stein is here to share the stories of people passionate about cars from
industry leaders and innovators to car obsessed celebrities. Buckle up as Jason takes you inside
the boardroom onto the track and around the bend on Cars and Culture on SiriusXM Business Radio.
Welcome back to Cars and Culture here on SiriusXM. I'm your host Jason Stein.
Great to have you back for episode 240. Now the continuation of my conversation with Javier
Varela, Chief Operating Officer at Rivian. To see more cars and culture interviews, visit the Cars
and Culture YouTube channel. Subscribe, comment, check out hundreds of conversations with the
creators, collectors, culture makers who are driving the industry forward. Tesla changed
consumer expectations for EVs. I want to talk about culture now. Rivian is changing
expectations for what EVs feel like. What do you think Rivian has changed culturally about how
people think about electric vehicles? That adventure approach that we have in our vehicles
that clean and understated but at the same time premium design, that vehicle that can be driven
every day to work but at the same time can be used for your weekend adventures.
So that combination of weekend adventures, going out off-road with the daily commuting
is I think is a great add-on as well. The sustainability piece, how we are connected
to our mission and keeping the world adventure forever. So those are some of the elements that
Rivian has introduced to our customers. It's almost building its own culture on a daily basis,
isn't it? As more people are exposed to it, as you're coming out with new vehicles,
as the word of mouth starts to spread, correct? Yeah, absolutely. And we are very excited now
with the launch of R2 that is a car that is going to be
less priced than the R1. So we can access in that package to a bigger audience. We have customers
that couldn't reach an R1 because of their position but they will be able to do it with R2.
So we'll dramatically increase our customer reach through this R2 and it's a great car.
Yeah, a lot of talk, Javier, in the last year or so about American manufacturing.
You're doing it. I mean, you're sourcing parts in America, you're building in America.
I was in the room with your founder, RJ Scarinj, when he walked in and told me and probably four
or five other people that you were going to take, Rivian was going to take over the normal
Illinois plant and that would become a centerpiece of Rivian's story. In many ways, RJ was ahead of
the manufacturing conversation in America before a lot of other people. What are you most proud
of operationally in what Rivian is doing in the United States and also how the facility in Illinois
has evolved? Yeah, the strategy that I always had in my previous operations experiences of building
where you sell. I really adhere to it. I'm a real supporter of that approach.
Building where you sell, sourcing where you build. In the case of Rivian, that's one of the
attractive things for me to join. There were many, many, many areas where both approaches,
my thinking and Rivian strategy were matching, were exactly connecting. This is to say that
the Rivian strategy has been from the start, this building in America, sourcing America
for our American customers. The first plant is the one in normal Illinois. This plant has been
growing over the last years and the big element that we are adding now is a new process for R2.
We have established, it's already built and in test, a new body shop, a new general assembly,
I mean the final assembly line, new battery assembly line and new drive unit assembly line.
We have as well increased the capacity in the paint shop to be able to host at the same time
R1, the R2 and the van we are building here. Additionally, in that building in America,
we are preparing a new plant in Georgia, in close to Atlanta. We will start construction
this year. We started already grading the site. It's a very nice site surrounded by trees,
really matching our environmental purposes, really, really nice plant. So,
growth in normal with a new flow for producing R2 and more than doubling the capacity we had
installed and a new plant in Georgia, we will start very soon. The company is going
through a massive change just given that. What does success look like for Rivian in the future?
In which ways do you have to improve or change or adjust in order to achieve your next goals?
Yeah, I mean the first one is customer satisfaction. I want that club of customer
and Rivian owners to grow and to keep that same engagement and to have more people
engage with the brand. That's obviously the very first one, customer first. The second,
obviously, is to grow. So, our R2 is going to be a vehicle of growth. We will take us to the
next step and there are more models to come. One that we have already presented in the past,
R3, that will be the next in line to continue that growth. So, in the next year our path is clear
what will be our vehicle lineup and how we can support our customers with great experiences,
with great adventures and with that family-oriented car that can be driven every day but as well,
taken off-road during the weekend if you want to go more for an adventure. That's the main
direction. So, we will expand. We will go outside the US in some moment in time
but now the full focus is North America. In North America, the EV climate has now changed
and even since you and I talked maybe last, there's a lot of talk of
other competitors who were going to become fully electric, now not going to become fully electric
and the pendulum is now swinging the other way. Rivian has always been on one end of the pendulum
but for others, the pendulum is constantly swinging. Does that help or hurt you? Does
changing regulations that occurred in 2025, does that make it easier for you because other
legacy automakers are now stepping back and saying, okay, we're now doing hybrids or we're
doing internal combustion or we have written off $7 billion in EV plans and infrastructure,
what does that help or hurt you? You're just staying over here doing your thing, aren't you?
Yeah, I think the most important thing is we have a clear long-term strategy and we are sticking
to our plan and we are not swinging. We have a clear path moving forward. I think that's a
great advantage for a company. You know, having that goal, a mission, clear mission,
federating all the teams in the company with that clear goal, that clear path,
the only way you will create a lot of confusion already internal. So that's a great
point. With this said, we love competition. I think more competitors, more development of EVs
will help. The society will have to have more offering, so we are not against
additional competition. So no special advantages in introducing it or increasing it. Again,
we have our clear path and we move forward based on that.
What is one assumption about the EV market that you think is wrong?
It's difficult to answer that question. In terms of technology,
probably people that haven't never driven an EV, they don't understand that performance,
the performance of the car. That's one of the big tasks is to get people driving
our cars or other EVs, but particularly our cars. The performance that you get and the
satisfaction and the smoothness, the silence, I mean, there's tons of advantages that customers
they don't understand. And they stay maybe in some thinking of anxiety or will the car work
properly without having tested it? I think that's the wrong thinking about the EVs.
Sure, sure. And in infrastructure that's improving at all times and continuously,
right? Yeah. Just a couple of more questions. What does success look like for you, Javier?
If we have this conversation at the beginning of 2027, what would you want to have achieved
in the previous 12 months? For me, the way how I'm happier, I'm the most successful man in the
world is having developed the teams. And that's my big task here in my current position is securing
that we create a robust team that can take the company to the next levels of performance.
So even 27, I can say, wow, this is my top team that has been developed in the last
couple of years, capable to continue moving the company forward. That would be a success
point for me as a person. And I'm guessing that success for you too would be the ability to scale
and continue to work towards higher volume levels, plants, the next iteration of your
plant in Georgia, and that manufacturing footprint that will only increase, and probably getting
more of your community into your vehicles, correct? Yeah, correct. That's the piece of growth
I was referring before. During more customers engaged in our community, testing our vehicles,
buying our vehicles, having fun with our vehicles, and that growth should be supported, but execution
in terms of industrial capacity by designing more and more amazing vehicles with affordable
costs and a great value for the money. Some people wouldn't know you also sit on the
board of Zero 100, which is an industry-led platform that aims to generate resources,
research with the goal of achieving a carbon negative supply chain. You're working on things
at all times that are more towards Rivian's philosophy than anybody else, right?
Yeah, absolutely. I'm very proud to be in the advisory board of Zero 100, and I'm working
with Oli Eslabola and his team in this goal of zero emissions and 100% digital. I'm passionate
about digital, AI, the capabilities of technology can offer to the business. And actually,
in our transformation in Rivian, in my team, we have put in place a plan 12 months ago,
we call it Catapult 26. We call it Catapult because of the acceleration of the Catapult
in 26 because it was a three-year plan preparing for the launch of R2. And in that Catapult 26 plan,
we have defined four pillars to work on. One of them is organization, and we have done
big activities in clarifying organization roles and responsibilities, accountability. Those
horizontal processes I was referring just before, end-to-end and securing cross-functional work,
that's one piece. Leadership. I mean, the leadership threats we want to see and coaching,
leading by example, is another pillar. The third one is our Rivian production system,
that is all the lean principles we want to see, right, create flow, quality, standardized work,
kaizen, people development. It's a house of principles that we are using to coach really
hands-on. This is not training in a meeting room, it's coaching hands-on. And the last one,
the fourth pillar is technology. And we are working in, let's say, in two fields. One is
ET, I mean, enterprise technology for our software systems, industrial systems, supply chain,
quality. We are developing our own systems. And the other piece of technology is automation and AI.
We have our own team working with vision. So we are developing our own vision systems.
We are digitizing the supply chain. We are digitizing important pieces of the operation,
in that goal of digital, kind of digital, in a way that you can support the individual.
Right? I'm always saying, yeah, you can enhance the capabilities of our employees,
but they need to have always the capability to act, to interact, to take the final decision,
but how we can enhance with digital support. So, zero hundred, one of the pieces of the mission
is obviously the digitalization of the supply chain in this case.
He is one of Motor Trend Magazine's 50 auto industry's biggest movers and shakers.
And all the way from Vigo, Spain, it is wonderful to spend time with you, Javier.
Thank you for telling the Rivian story. Thank you for telling your own story.
And we wish you nothing but the best of luck as you continue to change car culture
here in America. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks again to my guest, Javier Varela,
Chief Operating Officer at Rivian. To see more Cars and Culture interviews,
visit the Cars and Culture YouTube channel. Subscribe, comment, check out hundreds of
conversations with the creators, collectors, and culture makers who are driving the industry forward.
That's episode 240. I'm your host, Jason Stein. We'll see you down the room.
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